The Mediterranean Diet is Dead

Local life - In Greece

by Silvia Sanz Linares

The Mediterranean diet. You have probably heard of this way of eating dozens of times. For decades, it has been preached as one of the healthiest lifestyles in the world, but what makes it so unique and why are its countries abandoning it?

Mediterranean diet is a broad term referring to the way of eating in the 22 countries washed by the Mediterranean sea. It includes diverse cultures and various approaches to diet and food; however, when experts address this diet, they specifically refer to the lifestyle of south European countries such as Greece, Italy, Southern France, or Spain.

This diet is not a representative conceptualization of the cuisines of the Mediterranean but an assortment of traditions shared by the region’s inhabitants, including preparations and elements from every corner of the Mediterranean basin with a common core: fresh plant-based foods.

Vegetables, whole grains, pulses, nuts, seeds, spices, and extra virgin olive oil constitute the key elements of traditional Mediterranean cuisine, while fish, seafood, dairy, and poultry make occasional dishes. In short, the Mediterranean diet is based on what the crops have to offer.

The Mediterranean diet, declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO, revolves around agriculture and seasons.

Source: 2020, Maria del Rio, Popsugar

Why is it so popular?

For decades, nutritionists and doctors have been mesmerized by the Mediterranean diet’s richness, affordability, healthiness and nutritional value. So it doesn’t come as a surprise that experts encourage the population to pursue this lifestyle.

Ever since The Seven Countries Study (the first major study linking diet and health), the Mediterranean diet has proven to be an ideal strategy to curb the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and risk factors such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure. Moreover, today’s researches also connect this diet with a lower risk of stroke, the prevention of cognitive decline diseases such as Alzheimer, an improvement in rheumatoid arthritis and inflammation-related health issues, and even a reduction in the chance of developing mental health diseases such as depression.

In The Seven Countries Study, Ancel Keys explored the diets of Italy, Greece, Yugoslavia, the Netherlands, Finland, Japan, and the United States.

Source: 1961, Time

Yet, what makes the Mediterranean diet so popular is its feasibility. It is not a strict and restrictive regime but a permissive diet emphasizing the relevance of flavour and the importance of human connections built around meals; here, food is a way to enjoy life.

The Mediterranean diet is dead

However, despite all its benefits, we’re experiencing an abandonment of the famous diet. Greeks, Italians and Spanish are slowly stopping to eat traditional foods to give room for a more ‘westernized’ diet.

The data gathered in this respect is absolutely concerning, and everything seems to point to the eventual disappearance of one of the healthiest lifestyles in the world. The situation is crystal clear, to the point that even the World Health Organisation stated in 2018: ‘There is no Mediterranean diet anymore’.

According to João Breda, Special Adviser of the World Health Organisation, ‘those who are close to the Mediterranean diet are the Swedish kids’. Meanwhile, in the south of Europe, obesity and obesity-related disease rates are skyrocketing.

Those countries once admired for their longevous and healthy populations are now home to the most overweight kids on the continent. They are now the place where type 2 diabetes is more prevalent and where more stroke treatments are delivered.

Childhood overweight and obesity are among the most concerning outcomes of the change in diet.

Source:2018, European Commission

The Greek case

Greece is one of the Mediterranean countries where this lifestyle shift has been more notorious and its aftermath more aggressive. The changes are dramatic; nowadays, Greeks have some of the highest rates of obesity in Europe and make up one of the populations with the fastest-growing rates in these terms.

According to Eurostat, Greece ranked as the 11th fattest country in the continent in 2016, with 66% of adult men and 55% of adult women being overweight, and 18.3% of adult men and 16.4% of adult women being obese; numbers that are way above the European Union average.

Chronic overweight and obesity are among the leading causes of death and disability in Europe, according to the WHO.

Source: 2021, Eurostat

To top it off, this country is gaining weight by leaps and bounds. As informed by the Global Health Observatory, Greece went from having about a 10% share of obese adults in 1975 to almost reaching the 30% in 2016.

Unfortunately, the data is not more encouraging when we look at the youngest members of the Hellenic population. Greece holds the shame of having one of the most considerable weight problems among children in the European Union, with 42% being overweight and 21% obese, as the World Health Organisation informed in 2018.

How did we get here?

Overweight and obesity are becoming one of the biggest threats to public health and the weakened southern European healthcare systems. According to Cancer Research UK experts, the gravity of the situation is such that it has turned out to be a severe problem that could even displace cigarettes as the leading cause of cancer. But how did we get here?

Socio-economic factors are to blame; in the ‘50s and ‘60s, a large part of the population inhabited villages and lived a more humble life, meaning they were ‘forced’ to consume those cheaper products that were, actually, healthy such as pulses and leafy greens.

While some could quickly blame the escalating obesity on the quantity of olive oil Mediterraneans pour into their plates, the reality is that the excruciating situation is the consequence of a profound societal transformation.

But they soon moved away from villages to occupy bigger cities with an utterly different lifestyle pace. With a more hectic routine and the unavoidable incorporation of women into the workforce, the time to prepare homemade dishes decreased, pushing the families to consume the premade meals that had just started occupying the supermarket’s shelves.

During this period, those once proud of their ‘plumpness’ started to develop an interest in health and self-care. And, paradoxically, the popular classes adopted the consumption of less healthy products as a sign of wealth and social improvement.

Supermarkets are flooded with convenient and affordable foods that save us time but don’t help our health.

Likewise, the economic advance gave the general population access to foods once restricted for the better-off. As a result, meats, eggs, and seafood gained relevance in the diet leading to a nutritional transition that lasts to this day with the incorporation of highly processed foods and a booming fast food culture.

A tendency reinforced and confirmed by the economic crisis, which pushed those with fewer resources to lower quality, yet affordable foods. Turning the people with lower education and financial possibilities into victims of a system sustained by convenience and the power of the immediate.

It’s not too late

The Mediterranean diet is undoubtedly fading away, but it is still not gone. Therefore, we still have the chance to step back and question the modern lifestyle that replaced our tradition and find a balance that allows us to regain our health.

The costs of an unhealthy society are not only personal but social. For this reason, recovering the Mediterranean diet means protecting the feeble southern European healthcare systems from the catastrophic costs that a largely overweight society would mean with indirect and direct resource consumption. It also means giving people, specifically the less privileged, the opportunity to live a healthy life worth living. In conclusion, protecting the Mediterranean diet is the way to maintain our heritage and the ancient practices that preserve one of the biggest gifts in life: health.

Sources:

Michail, N., (2018), The Mediterranean Diet is Gone Says WHO Chef, Food Navigator. Extracted from: https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2018/05/24/The-Mediterranean-diet-is-gonesays-WHO-chief

Sanidas et al., (2019), The impact of financial crisis on coronary artery disease burden in Greece, Hellenic Journal of Cardiology, pages 185-188. Extracted from: https://www.sciencedirect. com/science/article/pii/S1109966617305481

Jones et al., (2018), ‘People Just have less time now’: is the Mediterranean diet dying out?, The Guardian. Extracted from:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/25/peoplejust-have-less-time-now-is-the-mediterranean-diet-dying-out

World Health Organisation, European Commission, (2013), Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity Greece. Extracted from: https://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_ file/0013/243301/Greece-WHO-Country-Profile.pd