But despite a more meaty, fatty, and sugary diet (and also rapidly abandoning drinking its supposedly heart-protecting wines), Spain’s cardiovascular mortality has kept on declining and life expectancy has been rising. Since 1960, Spain’s CVD mortality has been falling at a faster pace than the average of affluent economies, and by 2011 it was about a third lower than their mean; and since 1960, Spain has added more than 13 years to its combined (male and female) longevity prospect, raising it from 70 to more than 83 years by 2020.[19]
