Teachers' Blog

Save the Mediterranean Diet

Although the Mediterranean diet is now acknowledged as a healthy diet, paradoxically, it has been abandoned, mainly among the young generation, in most Mediterranean countries.

Even in Italy, the Mediterranean diet has become a myth with only 43% of Italians now eating a diet rich in vegetables, olive oil, pasta and fish. Instead, one italian in three follows a diet classed as “lacking in fruit and vegetables”.

So, the discussion here in the cradle of the Mediterranean life-style is how to reconstruct a sustainable eating culture and lifestyle. The erosion of the Mediterranean diet heritage has undesirable impacts, not only on health, but also is linked to a more unsustainable food production, distribution and consumption.

During the 1st world conference on the Mediterranean Diet that took place in Milan in July 2016, the International Foundation of Mediterranean Diet lauched a new pictorial proposal of the Food Pyramid (MED DIET 4.0) that extends the focus not only to the health benefits, but also to cultural, environmental and economic dimensions. Where biodiversity goes together with conviviality, where heart and earth share the same solutions for their health.

Daniela Passeri,

Sustainability teacher