Race on to rescue Mediterranean diet from encroaching fast-food culture
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IT may be on the UNESCO heritage list, but global experts warn the Mediterranean diet, prized for its health benefits, is losing so much ground to the fast food culture that the decline may be irreversible.
Rich in vegetables, fruits, cereals and extra virgin olive oil, the Mediterranean diet is based on a moderate consumption of fish, dairy products, eggs, red wine and a small amount of meat.
Found to varying degrees in all countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, it was named in 2010 onto UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list for seven countries, from Croatia to Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Spain and Portugal.
But the diet, which the United Nations also praises for promoting hospitality, neighborliness, intercultural dialogue and creativity, is going rapidly out of fashion. “In Greece, it has decreased by 70 percent over the last 30 years, in Spain 50 percent,” Lluis Serra-Majem, head of the International Foundation of Mediterranean Diet, said at a recent conference in Milan.
The experts, from Israel to New Zealand to Sweden, explored ways to revive the diet, from making it appealing to teenagers, to persuading people to buy fresh and sometimes costlier food in a period of economic crisis.
Less than 15 percent of the Spanish population still eats a Mediterranean diet, while 50 to 60 percent do so sometimes. Between 20 to 30 percent have ditched it altogether, Serra-Majem said. And it’s the same in Greece, says Antonia Trichopoulou from the Hellenic Health Foundation.
The change in eating habits is having a significant impact on public health with the rise of obesity, cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes among populations previously known for their longevity.
What’s needed is to encourage initiatives in local communities and find a way of selling sustainable tourism — including a return to local food production — even in mass tourism areas, says independent expert Florence Egal.
In Spain’s Balearic Islands, including the hugely popular Majorca and Ibiza, “thousands of tourists eat at buffets in large hotels,” while “in the countryside orange trees are weighed down with unpicked fruit,” which rots because imported oranges cost less. And she warns, as groves are abandoned and migration to cities increases, the Mediterranean diet takes one more step towards becoming a thing of the past.
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