It might be on the UNESCO heritage list, but global experts warn the Mediterranean diet — prized for its health benefits — is losing so much ground to the fast-food culture that the decline might be irreversible.
Rich in vegetables, fruits, cereals and extra virgin olive oil, the Mediterranean diet is based on a moderate consumption of fish, dairy products, eggs, red wine and a small amount of meat.
Found to varying degrees in all nations bordering the Mediterranean Sea, it was named in 2010 to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list for seven countries, from Croatia to Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Spain and Portugal.
However, the diet — which the UN also praises for promoting hospitality, neighborliness, intercultural dialogue and creativity — is rapidly going out of fashion.
“In Greece, it has decreased by 70 percent over the last 30 years, in Spain 50 percent,” International Foundation of Mediterranean Diet chief Lluis Serra-Majem told reporters.
The experts, from Israel to New Zealand to Sweden, explored ways to revive the diet, from making it appealing to teenagers, to persuading people to buy fresh and sometimes costlier food in a period of economic crisis.
In Spain, celebrities such as actress Penelope Cruz might add some glamor with their love of Mediterranean cuisine, but ever fewer people are enticed.
Less than 15 percent of the Spanish population still eats a Mediterranean diet, while 50 to 60 percent do so sometimes. Between 20 and 30 percent have ditched it altogether, Serra-Majem said.
It is the same in Greece, Hellenic Health Foundation representative Antonia Trichopoulou said.
Unsurprisingly, people aged 65 and older eat the most traditional dishes, while the younger generations have succumbed to the lure of fast food.
“The decline has various causes. We are witnessing a globalization of eating habits, with [the spread of] the ‘Western diet,’” said Serra-Majem, pointing a finger of blame at the growth of the tourism sector in particular.
It has been more marked in coastal areas, particularly in Spain or on Italy’s Adriatic coast.
“Uncontrolled tourism leads to high urbanization and... increased consumption of meat, refined flours and a reduction of the traditional diet,” he said.
While some regions are doing better at resisting fast food — such as southern Italy and northern Africa — the race is on to find a way to slow or reverse the diet’s decline, with the meeting in Milan just one such bid to save it.
In Spain’s Balearic Islands, including the hugely popular Majorca and Ibiza, “thousands of tourists eat at buffets in large hotels,” while “in the countryside orange trees are weighed down with unpicked fruit,” which rots because imported oranges cost less, an expert said.
What is needed is to encourage initiatives in local communities and find a way of selling sustainable tourism — including a return to local food production — even in mass tourism areas, independent expert Florence Egal said.
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