The Mediterranean Adequacy Index (MAI) trends from 1961to 2007, for 48 countries pooled in 4 clusters according to their geographical location (Mediterranean European (ME) countries, Other Mediterranean (OM) countries, Northern European (NE) countries, Eastern European (EE) countries), has been analysed. In almost all the countries the adherence to Mediterranean diet is decreasing from 1961up to 2007, even if with different trend linked to the geographical and cultural characteristic of the clusters (respectively -56% for European Mediterranean and -21 for non-European Mediterranean). The cluster more adherent to healthy Mediterranean diet principles is the OM one, where the incidence of colorectal cancer is shown to be around 50% lower respect to the incidence in ME countries, and around 60% lower respect to the incidence in EE and NE countries. A significant relationship was observed between colorectal cancer incidence and animal protein consumption. On the other hand, vegetable protein intake is suggested to be slightly protective against colorectal cancer incidence. The ecological footprint of food production is higher in ME and NE than in OM and EE countries, even if it is generally higher than the biocapacity. In the 70% of the analysed countries water consumption for food production exceeds the total water exploitable, with an increasing trend from 1961 to 2007. An increase of 1 unit of MAI can decrease the ecological, carbon and water footprint (around 20-25%), in dependence on the initial level of MAI. Due to the environmental and health beneficial effects, the Mediterranean diet can be promoted as a win-win diet system.
| Published in | International Journal of Environmental Protection and Policy (Volume 2, Issue 2) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ijepp.20140202.14 |
| Page(s) | 64-75 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2014. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Mediterranean Adequacy Index, Protein Intake, Food Ecological Footprint, Food Carbon Footprint, Food Water Footprint
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APA Style
De Marco Alessandra, Velardi Maria, Camporeale Cecilia, Screpanti Augusto, Vitale Marcello. (2014). The Adherence of the Diet to Mediterranean Principle and Its Impacts on Human and Environmental Health. International Journal of Environmental Protection and Policy, 2(2), 64-75. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijepp.20140202.14
ACS Style
De Marco Alessandra; Velardi Maria; Camporeale Cecilia; Screpanti Augusto; Vitale Marcello. The Adherence of the Diet to Mediterranean Principle and Its Impacts on Human and Environmental Health. Int. J. Environ. Prot. Policy 2014, 2(2), 64-75. doi: 10.11648/j.ijepp.20140202.14
AMA Style
De Marco Alessandra, Velardi Maria, Camporeale Cecilia, Screpanti Augusto, Vitale Marcello. The Adherence of the Diet to Mediterranean Principle and Its Impacts on Human and Environmental Health. Int J Environ Prot Policy. 2014;2(2):64-75. doi: 10.11648/j.ijepp.20140202.14
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Download@article{10.11648/j.ijepp.20140202.14,
author = {De Marco Alessandra and Velardi Maria and Camporeale Cecilia and Screpanti Augusto and Vitale Marcello},
title = {The Adherence of the Diet to Mediterranean Principle and Its Impacts on Human and Environmental Health},
journal = {International Journal of Environmental Protection and Policy},
volume = {2},
number = {2},
pages = {64-75},
doi = {10.11648/j.ijepp.20140202.14},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijepp.20140202.14},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijepp.20140202.14},
abstract = {The Mediterranean Adequacy Index (MAI) trends from 1961to 2007, for 48 countries pooled in 4 clusters according to their geographical location (Mediterranean European (ME) countries, Other Mediterranean (OM) countries, Northern European (NE) countries, Eastern European (EE) countries), has been analysed. In almost all the countries the adherence to Mediterranean diet is decreasing from 1961up to 2007, even if with different trend linked to the geographical and cultural characteristic of the clusters (respectively -56% for European Mediterranean and -21 for non-European Mediterranean). The cluster more adherent to healthy Mediterranean diet principles is the OM one, where the incidence of colorectal cancer is shown to be around 50% lower respect to the incidence in ME countries, and around 60% lower respect to the incidence in EE and NE countries. A significant relationship was observed between colorectal cancer incidence and animal protein consumption. On the other hand, vegetable protein intake is suggested to be slightly protective against colorectal cancer incidence. The ecological footprint of food production is higher in ME and NE than in OM and EE countries, even if it is generally higher than the biocapacity. In the 70% of the analysed countries water consumption for food production exceeds the total water exploitable, with an increasing trend from 1961 to 2007. An increase of 1 unit of MAI can decrease the ecological, carbon and water footprint (around 20-25%), in dependence on the initial level of MAI. Due to the environmental and health beneficial effects, the Mediterranean diet can be promoted as a win-win diet system.},
year = {2014}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - The Adherence of the Diet to Mediterranean Principle and Its Impacts on Human and Environmental Health AU - De Marco Alessandra AU - Velardi Maria AU - Camporeale Cecilia AU - Screpanti Augusto AU - Vitale Marcello Y1 - 2014/03/20 PY - 2014 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijepp.20140202.14 DO - 10.11648/j.ijepp.20140202.14 T2 - International Journal of Environmental Protection and Policy JF - International Journal of Environmental Protection and Policy JO - International Journal of Environmental Protection and Policy SP - 64 EP - 75 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2330-7536 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijepp.20140202.14 AB - The Mediterranean Adequacy Index (MAI) trends from 1961to 2007, for 48 countries pooled in 4 clusters according to their geographical location (Mediterranean European (ME) countries, Other Mediterranean (OM) countries, Northern European (NE) countries, Eastern European (EE) countries), has been analysed. In almost all the countries the adherence to Mediterranean diet is decreasing from 1961up to 2007, even if with different trend linked to the geographical and cultural characteristic of the clusters (respectively -56% for European Mediterranean and -21 for non-European Mediterranean). The cluster more adherent to healthy Mediterranean diet principles is the OM one, where the incidence of colorectal cancer is shown to be around 50% lower respect to the incidence in ME countries, and around 60% lower respect to the incidence in EE and NE countries. A significant relationship was observed between colorectal cancer incidence and animal protein consumption. On the other hand, vegetable protein intake is suggested to be slightly protective against colorectal cancer incidence. The ecological footprint of food production is higher in ME and NE than in OM and EE countries, even if it is generally higher than the biocapacity. In the 70% of the analysed countries water consumption for food production exceeds the total water exploitable, with an increasing trend from 1961 to 2007. An increase of 1 unit of MAI can decrease the ecological, carbon and water footprint (around 20-25%), in dependence on the initial level of MAI. Due to the environmental and health beneficial effects, the Mediterranean diet can be promoted as a win-win diet system. VL - 2 IS - 2 ER -
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