Health Benefits of the Mediterranean Diet and Perspectives for Its Utilization as an Educational Tool for Promoting Diet Sustainability – Challenges

There is a high prevalence of non-communicable diseases that are affecting the global population, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, digestive disease, and cognitive malfunction. They used to be prevalent mainly in the Western world, but are also seen in developing countries as a major cause of death and disability, more than infectious diseases. The WHO emphasizes the need to change our lifestyles, because these diseases are preventable through healthy diet, regular physical activity, and not using tobacco. The epidemic of obesity has now spread from the industrialized to developing countries, and now the paradox exists that in some countries the same people have malnutrition because they do not have enough vitamins and minerals, but are obese. This is not only about personal responsibility, but is based upon changes in the food system in the world. Technological change has driven consumption and regulatory approaches are resisted at the political level. Drugs can not treat these non-communicable diseases alone because these diseases have multifactorial etiology; they are not caused by a single body derangement. Drugs are unsustainable for these issues because of too-high costs, and because they would have untoward effects that would not be bearable by the population for a long time. Lifestyle change are the only way to promote health at the population level. But we have to speak about foods instead of about nutrients; it’s better to move from monofactorial change in the diet to a dietary pattern. The Mediterranean diet is a useful model to implement a change to lifestyle. This chapter is part of Module 9: How to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in the Mediterranean – The Way Forward V. Nutrition and Education.

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