Food: The Mediterranean diet reduces mortality (-9%)

The Mediterranean diet reduces mortality. This is confirmed by a study published in the British Medical Journal where it is stated that those who consume the classical food of this part of the world reduces the risk to die about 9%. According to these data, the Mediterranean diet lowers the cases of Parkinson and Alzheimer (-13%) the cardiovascular problems (-9%) and cancer (-6%).However the Italians eat fewer and fewer vegetables, whose consumption has decreased 20% in the last five years, according to Coldiretti. It is the alarm against the abandon of the Mediterranean diet- Coldiretti underlines- even in 2008 there has been a further decrease in the consumption of fruit (-2,6%), olive oil (-2,8%), bread (-2,5%), wine (-0,9%) and vegetable (-0,8%) according to the data of Ismea Ac Nielsen regarding the first half of the year. Bread, pasta, vegetables, extra virgin olive oil and the traditional glass of wine drunk at regular meals have allowed the Italians- the Coldiretti continues- to reach the record of longevity with the average life expectations raging 78,6 years for men and 84,1 years for women, surely superior to the European medium. But next future is troublesome because of this abandoning of the principles of the Mediterranean diet and the progressive use of fat food rich in sugar as gas-drinks’. According to a late study promoted by FAO in the last 45 years the famous Mediterranean diet based on the consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables has been abandoned and from 1962 to 2002, in the 15 European countries examined, the daily caloric assumption increased 20%, passing from the daily 2960 kilocalorie to 3340. the worst situation to be found in the countries strictly connected to the Mediterranean diet: in Greece, Spain , Portugal, Cyprus, Malta and Italy the daily caloric assumption has increased 30%. Coldiretti is making the project “Education to country” that involves over 100.000 pupils of the elementary and post-elementary schools all over Italy: they attend class in didactic farms and in the classrooms. The aim of this project is to make consumers aware of the right food and seasonality of products to give the Mediterranean diet more value. “A task to be supported even from the government” Coldiretti concludes “where it is important to make sure that the procedure of recognition of the Mediterranean diet as Unesco heritage is taken into the right consideration.
This target- Coldiretti concludes – has an extraordinary importance for Italy, the symbol- country of this kind of food where the tradition of the Mediterranean cooking has its roots with a high production in fruit, vegetable and pasta; it has also the top-position in Europe for the production of oil and wine, after respectively, France and Spain.