Mediterranean Diet and Health Promotion: evidence and current concerns
Main Article Content
Abstract
The Mediterranean diet (MD) is a dietary pattern described by Ancel B. Keys in the 1950s as a typical dietary habit of some populations bordering the Mediterranean sea in the south of Europe characterized by frugal living style. Findings of the Seven Country Study showed that people faced in the Mediterranean area had a reduced incidence of cardiovascular and metabolic disease, cancer and age-related diseases. The mechanisms through which the MD exerts its health benefit and prevents the onset of several diseases are not completely clarified because of various and complex aspects. Several studies suggest that the claimed benefits of the MD dietary pattern is mainly linked to decreased inflammation and oxidative stress, strongly related to each other and involved in many chronic diseases. The high content of compounds with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity present in most foods of the MD pattern has been considered effective for the improvement of many functions and parameters, therefore useful for the maintenance of the health status and the prevention of many chronic diseases. However, the extensive metabolism to which antioxidant compounds are subjected, once ingested with foods, reduces their antioxidant activity within the systemic circulation and tissues and their concentrations are very low in comparison with endogenous antioxidants. Foods produced for human nutrition have significant consequences for both the environment and the health of a specific population, and, in turn, the environment may address food choices and affect eating habit. The MD is a sustainable diet model that presents a very low environmental footprint, promotes the bio-diversity and protects human health and well-being. However, we must not ignore the planet changes and global environmental aspects that might convert the MD into a theoretical eating model far away from that described by Keys.
Article Details
How to Cite
TOZZI CIANCARELLI, Maria Giuliana et al.
Mediterranean Diet and Health Promotion: evidence and current concerns.
Medical Research Archives, [S.l.], v. 5, n. 7, july 2017.
ISSN 2375-1924.
Available at: <https://esmed.org/MRA/mra/article/view/1385>. Date accessed: 24 dec. 2024.
Keywords
Mediterranean diet, health promotion, inflammation, oxidative stress, environmental pollutants
Section
Review Articles
The Medical Research Archives grants authors the right to publish and reproduce the unrevised contribution in whole or in part at any time and in any form for any scholarly non-commercial purpose with the condition that all publications of the contribution include a full citation to the journal as published by the Medical Research Archives.
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