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Unique features of the Mediterranean food environment: Implications for the prevention of chronic diseases Rh: Mediterranean food environments

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 72, pages 71–75 (2019)Cite this article

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The rising obesity pandemic is a public health priority worldwide [1]. Obesity is associated with an increased risk for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer [1]. In Spain, the prevalence of obesity in adults nearly doubled between 1987 (8.0%) and 2012 (16.5%) [2]. Historically, strategies to prevent obesity have targeted high-risk individuals, showing poor results or lack of improved outcomes [3]. Therefore, it is essential to shift paradigms around the causes of obesity towards a socio-ecological perspective, in which individual dietary behaviors are embedded within broader contextual determinants [3, 4].

At the population level, diet is driven by upstream determinants including food availability, food accessibility and food affordability, which in turn are influenced by agriculture and production policies, marketing and media, urbanization, or culture and social norms [4, 5]. These population diet determinants differ between countries and cultures [6] and have changed over time [7]. These changes have transformed dietary patterns of Mediterranean countries (e.g. Greece), traditionally adhered to Mediterranean diets (high in legumes, fruits and vegetables, and whole grains), which are gradually moving towards a ‘Westernised/Americanised’ diet [8]. In conclusion, during the last decades demographic, economic and social changes have changed traditional food patterns into Western food patterns [1].

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Acknowledgements

This article is published as part of a supplement sponsored by the Mediterranean Diet Foundation and the Diputació de Barcelona.

Funding

: Julia Díez and Manuel Franco were funded by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007- 2013/ERC Starting Grant HeartHealthyHoods Agreement n.336893). Usama Bilal was funded by a Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future-Lerner Fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Social and Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Group, School of Medicine, Universidad de Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain

    Julia Díez, Usama Bilal & Manuel Franco

  2. Urban Health Collaborative, Drexel Dornsife School of Public Health, Philadelphia, PA, United States

    Usama Bilal

  3. Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, United States

    Manuel Franco

Authors
  1. Julia Díez
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  2. Usama Bilal
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  3. Manuel Franco
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Correspondence to Manuel Franco.

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Díez, J., Bilal, U. & Franco, M. Unique features of the Mediterranean food environment: Implications for the prevention of chronic diseases Rh: Mediterranean food environments. Eur J Clin Nutr 72 (Suppl 1), 71–75 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-018-0311-y

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