Mediterranean Diet on Its Way Out at Home?

ROME, July 29, 2008 — -- Since the early 1990s, doctors have been urging us to switch to the Mediterranean diet, claiming it will bring us a longer and healthier life.

Respected researchers have proved how this diet can stave off arthritis, obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Zillions of articles and books have underlined the benefits of eating a diet low in fat, high in fiber, and made up mostly of fruit and vegetables, doused with hearty spoonfuls of extra-virgin olive oil.

Amazingly, however, while some people in the world have been convinced by the evidence, people living in the Mediterranean area, the 16 countries that surround the Mediterranean Sea, are increasingly shunning their traditional diet according to a report released today by the United Nations.

What is eaten now by the people who live around the Mediterranean is "too fat, too salty and too sweet," says Josef Schmidhuber, senior economist of FAO, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization headquartered in Rome. In the very area where it was born, the diet has "decayed into a moribund state," according to Schmidhuber.

He presented his findings in a paper at a recent workshop on Mediterranean products in the global market, organized by the California Mediterranean Consortium of seven U.S. and EU academic institutions.

Growing affluence in the southern European, North African and Near East regions has greatly deteriorated people's eating habits. More money has meant people have increased meat and fats in their diet, which was traditionally light on animal proteins.

Daily intake of calories in the 15 European nations increased about 20 percent over 40 years to 2002 -- from 2960 kcal to 3340 kcal -- but the southern countries such as Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus and Malta which started out poorer upped their calorie count by 30 percent in this same period.

"Higher calorie intake and lower calorie expenditure have made Greece today the EU member country with the highest average Body Mass Index and the highest prevalence of overweight and obesity," says Schmidhuber. "Today, three quarters of the Greek population are overweight or obese."