Diseases associated with food, including obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, and some types of cancer and also hunger, which affect more than 820 million people in the world.
Published in Chapter:
Mediterranean Diet as a Healthy, Sustainable, and Secure Food Pattern
Elsa Lamy (Universidade de Évora, Portugal), Cristina Conceição (Universidade de Évora, Portugal), Fernando Capela e Silva (Universidade de Évora, Portugal), and Maria Raquel Lucas (Universidade de Évora, Portugal)
Copyright: © 2022
|Pages: 21
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-9557-2.ch010
Abstract
Despite the recognized advantages of Mediterranean Diet (MD), the adherence to it decreased with modern lifestyle, where the time dedicated to acquisition, preparation/confection of food and meals diminished. At the same time, Mediterranean regions face a growth in the levels of non-communicable diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, and hypertension, sometimes together with undernutrition that affects other parts of the population. This chapter make a presentation about MD as a sustainable food system, essential to promote food security, at the same time that the methods of food production and consumption must respect the environment, maintain biodiversity, and economic society valorisation. Also, it shows MD associated with several factors such as gender, marital status, education level, lifestyle, and body weight. Maintaining the traditional MD pattern is crucial for public health, particularly in pandemic contexts such as COVID-19 where it shows the opportunity and relevance of adopt and promote MD as a healthy and sustainable diet.