Mediterranean diet, overweight, cancer risk and sustainable benefits

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Changing Route: Common Action on Food Systems Transformation in the Mediterranean

The Coronavirus pandemic has revealed the fragility of our food systems, affecting all dimensions of food security and nutrition across the world. It has highlighted how deeply our world is interconnected and the importance of better recognising and understanding the interconnections that are intrinsic to these systems and their key role in pursuit of the SDGs of the 2030 Agenda. There is now, more than ever, a stronger need for a "route change" towards a common action on food systems transformation. Dialogues among all stakeholders to redesign the future of tomorrow's food systems are needed to trigger collective, multi-stakeholder actions on the ground, at local, regional and global level, towards more sustainable food systems, linking sustainable food production to more healthy and sustainable food consumption. In this context CIHEAM, FAO, and the Union for the Mediterranean Secretariat (UfMS) initiated in 2019, a joint collaborative effort for the establishment of a multi-stakeholder platform on Sustainable Food Systems in the Mediterranean to accelerate the shift towards the Agenda 2030 in the Mediterranean region, with the Mediterranean diet acting as a driver

Coping With Food Insecurity Using the Sociotype Ecological Framework

Ensuring Food Security (FS) for all citizens is a fundamental human right and policy for all countries. Dealing with Food Insecurity (FINS) is a challenge causing stress at many levels—national, household, and individual. The conceptual framework of the Sociotype has been developed as a summary ecological construct to organize the multiple, dynamic, reciprocal inputs from the environment that interact with the genotype to determine the expression of phenotypic behaviors such as coping with stress. The Sociotype ecological framework has three domains—Individual (intra-personal), Relationships (inter-personal, family and community), and Context (environment, national)—and their interactions determine an individual's resilience across the life trajectory from birth to old age. We have applied the principles of the Sociotype to classify both the stresses of, and the coping strategies to, FINS. The stresses of FINS may occur at any place along the FS pathway—Availability, Accessibility, Utilization, and Stability. The elicited coping responses may take place in one or more of the three Sociotype domains. The two processes are inter-related linearly with re-iterative feedback loops such that stress leads to coping responses that may or may not be adequate, thereby requiring modifications in the coping strategies until FS is regained. Resilience is considered to represent long-term coping strategies. The Sociotype framework is both a determinant of, and constant input to, building and strengthening resilience. However, the people with the most problems with FINS are rarely included in these discussions. They are the marginalized members of society: unemployed, homeless, displaced persons, special needs, elderly, single parents, mentally frail, and more. Applying the Sociotype ecological framework for coping with FINS stresses can allow better strategic planning for FS at national, household and individual levels and understanding the interactions between them to reach out to and help these sectors of the population

Mediterranean diet pyramid today. Science and cultural updates

Objective: To present the Mediterranean diet (MD) pyramid: a lifestyle for today. Design: A new graphic representation has been conceived as a simplified main frame to be adapted to the different nutritional and socio-economic contexts of the Mediterranean region. This review gathers updated recommendations considering the lifestyle, dietary, sociocultural, environmental and health challenges that the current Mediterranean populations are facing. Setting and Subjects: Mediterranean region and its populations. Results: Many innovations have arisen since previous graphical representations of the MD. First, the concept of composition of the ‘main meals’ is introduced to reinforce the plant-based core of the dietary pattern. Second, frugality and moderation is emphasised because of the major public health challenge of obesity. Third, qualitative cultural and lifestyle elements are taken into account, such as conviviality, culinary activities, physical activity and adequate rest, along with proportion and frequency recommendations of food consumption. These innovations are made without omitting other items associated with the production, selection, processing and consumption of foods, such as seasonality, biodiversity, and traditional, local and eco-friendly products. Conclusions: Adopting a healthy lifestyle and preserving cultural elements should be considered in order to acquire all the benefits from the MD and preserve this cultural heritage. Considering the acknowledgment of the MD as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO (2010), and taking into account its contribution to health and general well-being, we hope to contribute to a much better adherence to this healthy dietary pattern and its way of life with this new graphic representation.peer-reviewe

A Consensus Proposal for Nutritional Indicators to Assess the Sustainability of a Healthy Diet: The Mediterranean Diet as a Case Study

BACKGROUND: There is increasing evidence of the multiple effects of diets on public health nutrition, society, and environment. Sustainability and food security are closely interrelated. The traditional Mediterranean Diet (MD) is recognized as a healthier dietary pattern with a lower environmental impact. As a case study, the MD may guide innovative inter-sectorial efforts to counteract the degradation of ecosystems, loss of biodiversity, and homogeneity of diets due to globalization through the improvement of sustainable healthy dietary patterns. This consensus position paper defines a suite of the most appropriate nutrition and health indicators for assessing the sustainability of diets based on the MD. METHODS: In 2011, an informal International Working Group from different national and international institutions was convened. Through online and face-to-face brainstorming meetings over 4 years, a set of nutrition and health indicators for sustainability was identified and refined. RESULTS: Thirteen nutrition indicators of sustainability relating were identified in five areas. Biochemical characteristics of food (A1. Vegetable/animal protein consumption ratios; A2. Average dietary energy adequacy; A3. Dietary Energy Density Score; A4. Nutrient density of diet), Food Quality (A5. Fruit and vegetable consumption/intakes; A6. Dietary Diversity Score), Environment (A7. Food biodiversity composition and consumption; A8. Rate of Local/regional foods and seasonality; A9. Rate of eco-friendly food production and/or consumption), Lifestyle (A10. Physical activity/physical inactivity prevalence; A11. Adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern), Clinical Aspects (A12. Diet-related morbidity/mortality statistics; A13. Nutritional Anthropometry). A standardized set of information was provided for each indicator: definition, methodology, background, data sources, limitations of the indicator, and references. CONCLUSION: The selection and analysis of these indicators has been performed (where possible) with specific reference to the MD. Sustainability of food systems is an urgent priority for governments and international organizations to address the serious socioeconomic and environmental implications of short-sighted and short-term practices for agricultural land and rural communities. These proposed nutrition indicators will be a useful methodological framework for designing health, education, and agricultural policies in order, not only to conserve the traditional diets of the Mediterranean area as a common cultural heritage and lifestyle but also to enhance the sustainability of diets in general

Nutritional indicators to assess the sustainability of the Mediterranean diet

There is increasing evidence of the multiple effects of diets on public health nutrition, society and environment. Sustainability and food security are closely inter-related. The traditional Mediterranean diet (MD) is recognized as a healthier dietary pattern with a lower environmental impact. As a case study, the MD may guide innovative inter-sectorial efforts to counteract the degradation of ecosystems and loss of biodiversity and homogeneity of diets due to globalization, through the improvement of sustainable healthy dietary patterns. This chapter defines a suite of the most appropriate nutrition and health indicators for assessing the sustainability of diets based on the MD. Thirteen nutrition indicators of sustainability relating were identified in five areas: biochemical characteristics of food (A1. Vegetable/animal protein consumption ratios; A2. Average dietary energy adequacy; A3. Dietary energy density score; A4. Nutrient density of diet and foods); food quality (A5. Fruit and vegetable consumption/intakes; A6. Dietary diversity score); environment (A7. Food biodiversity composition and consumption; A8. Local/regional foods and seasonality; A9. Organic/eco-friendly production and consumption); lifestyle (A10. Physical activity/physical inactivity prevalence; A11. Adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern); and clinical aspects (A12. Diet-related morbidity/mortality statistics; A13. Nutritional anthropometry). These proposed nutrition indicators will be a useful methodological framework for designing health, education and agricultural policies in order to conserve the traditional diets of the Mediterranean area as a common cultural heritage and lifestyle and also to enhance the sustainability of diets in general