How to use the Diet Risk Score Calculator
The Diet Risk Score on this page is the 14-item Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS), the short questionnaire developed and validated for the PREDIMED cardiovascular prevention trial (Schroder et al., 2011, Journal of Nutrition; Martinez-Gonzalez et al., 2012, Nutricion Hospitalaria). It does not estimate calories — it scores how closely your current eating habits match a traditional Mediterranean dietary pattern, which is one of the most extensively studied diets for cardiovascular risk reduction.
How the score is calculated
Each of the 14 questions covers a specific food, drink, or cooking habit (olive oil use, vegetable and fruit intake, red meat and processed meat intake, fish and legume frequency, nuts, sofrito, wine, sweets, and butter/cream/margarine). You earn 1 point for each answer that matches the Mediterranean-diet-consistent habit and 0 points otherwise — there is no partial credit and no weighting between items. The 14 points are simply summed:
Diet Risk Score = Σ (points for items 1–14), range 0–14
The calculator then reports your score as a percentage of the 14-point maximum and places it into one of three published adherence bands: 0–5 (low adherence), 6–8 (moderate adherence), and 9–14 (high adherence). The score of 9 is the cutoff used in the PREDIMED trial and its validation studies to separate "good adherers" from "poor adherers," and higher adherence in that trial was associated with a lower rate of major cardiovascular events.
Interpreting your category and its limits
A low score does not diagnose disease, and a high score does not guarantee protection — MEDAS is a screening and research instrument, not a clinical risk equation like the Framingham or ASCVD risk score, and it does not account for total calorie intake, portion sizes, physical activity, smoking, blood pressure, or cholesterol. Use a low or moderate score as a prompt to add more vegetables, legumes, fish, nuts, and olive oil, and to cut back on red meat, sugary drinks, and commercial pastries — then recheck the score in a few weeks. This tool is educational and is not a substitute for personalized advice from a registered dietitian or your physician, particularly if you have heart disease, diabetes, or are on a medically prescribed diet.