In the early 1960s, doctors found a Pennsylvania town where people ate lard, smoked, drank wine, and still had far fewer heart attacks than their neighbors. Nearly everyone had come from one place: Roseto Valfortore, in Puglia. Researchers said the secret was their tight-knit community. Sixty years later, Francesca Forcella went there to see what remains of the Roseto Effect.

By Francesca Forcella