MORE THAN 2000 YEARS OF MEDITERRANEAN DIET: A JOURNEY FROM ANCIENT ROMANS TO THE UNESCO RECOGNITION IN 2010

THE CULTURAL DIMENSION OF FOOD

From a healthy dietary pattern

to a healthy Mediterranean sustainable life style

Antonia Trichopoulou, MD

Rome, FAO HQ18 September 2019

Mediterranean Diet - The history

2

For millenia

cross- roads of people & civilization

Mediterranean diet is the dietary pattern found in the olive growing areas of the Mediterranean region in the late 50’ and early 60’

The diet of ordinary peopleof classical period in Greece and Rome was derived from

cerealspulsesvegetablesfruitolive oilmilkand a little fish and meat

The traditional Mediterranean diet is associatedwith longer survival

This could be partly attributed to Mediterranean traditional foods on which this diet largely relies

Traditional food is a food of a specific feature or features, which distinguish it clearly from other similar products of the same category, in terms of the use of :

traditional ingredients

traditional composition

traditional type of production and/or processing method

2007, Trends in Food Science &Technology

Investigation of the potential of 194 traditional Greek foods to bear nutrition claims

Comparison of energy content and nutritional composition to the European specifications

on a wide range of nutritional components

2013, Mediterranean Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism

Overall, about 1024 nutrition claims were relevant for the 194 traditional foods studied

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

ICN2 recognises that food systems

should be assessed for their environmental impact

The Mediterranean diet offers a clear example of a

Sustainable ecosystem

FAO

For the production of traditional foods

local products are generally used

Cultivation of local products contribute to biodiversity

Mediterranean diet has a lower environmental impact

plant-based diet with low consumption of animal products

smaller water footprint

lower greenhouse gas emissions

- Olive trees are a barrier to desertification and erosion

- Olive orchards are a CO2 sink, remove CO2 from the

atmosphere and fix it in the soil

- In the production of 1 liter of olive oil,

olive trees remove 10 kg of CO2 from the atmosphere

Sustainable Olive Oil Production Helps Mitigate Climate Change2016 Convention on Climate Change (COP22)

Towards a Food & Nutrition PolicyThe current food system must be transformed to a

sustainable food system

The reform of has to involve

local communities

and

consider local needs along with national level ones

Thank you

for your attention