Persistent moderate-to-weak mediterranean Diet adherence and Low scoring for plant-based foods across several southern european countries: are we overlooking the mediterranean diet recommendations?

The Mediterranean diet (MD) has been sponsored worldwide as a healthy and sustainable diet. Our aim was to update and compare MD adherence and food choices across several Southern European countries: Spain (SP), Portugal (PT), Italy (IT), Greece (GR), and Cyprus (CY) (MED, Mediterranean), and Bulgaria (BG) and the Republic of North Macedonia (NMK) (non-MED, non-Mediterranean). Participants (N = 3145, ≥18 y) completed a survey (MeDiWeB) with sociodemographic, anthropometric, and food questions (14-item Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener, 14-MEDAS). The MED and non-MED populations showed moderate (7.08 ± 1.96) and weak (5.58 ± 1.82) MD adherence, respectively, with significant yet small differences across countries (SP > PT > GR > IT > CY > BG > NMK, p-value < 0.001). The MED participants scored higher than the non-MED ones for most of the Mediterranean-typical foods, with the greatest differences found for olive oil (OO) and white meat preference. In most countries, ≥70% of the participants reported quantities of red meat, butter, sweet drinks, and desserts below the recommended cutoff points, whereas <50% achieved the targets for plant-based foods, OO, fish, and wine. Being a woman and increasing age were associated with superior adherence (p-value < 0.001), but differences were rather small. Our results suggest that the campaigns carried out to support and reinforce the MD and to promote plant-based foods have limited success across Southern Europe, and that more hard-hitting strategies are needed.

Keywords

Adult Diet Surveys Europe Food Preferences Humans Male Middle Aged Young Adult Diet, Mediterranean Plants, Edible Recommended Dietary Allowances

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.15/3520

Citation

Quarta, Stefano, Marika Massaro, Mihail Chervenkov, Teodora Ivanova, Dessislava Dimitrova, Rui Jorge, Vanda Andrade, Elena Philippou, Constantinos Zisimou, Viktorija Maksimova, Katarina Smilkov, Darinka G. Ackova, Lence Miloseva, Tatjana Ruskovska, Georgia E. Deligiannidou, Christos A. Kontogiorgis, Julio Sánchez-Meca, Paula Pinto, and María-Teresa García-Conesa. 2021. "Persistent Moderate-to-Weak Mediterranean Diet Adherence and Low Scoring for Plant-Based Foods across Several Southern European Countries: Are We Overlooking the Mediterranean Diet Recommendations?" Nutrients 13, no. 5: 1432. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13051432