Raise awareness and spread the Mediterranean Diet and its link with the Traditional Foodstuff

When you think about Mediterranean countries, your mind imagines sun, sea, an Hospitality tradition, a joyful lifestyle and a way of eat.
All Mediterranean countries have in common a dietary pattern which is plant-based but admits moderately low amounts of animal-based foods.
It seems to emerge as a healthy prudent pattern which its high adherence has been associated with a better health state due to the protective effect it shows against various diseases.

Nevertheless, profound changes have been observed in the Mediterranean Dietary pattern over the last decades, mainly due to the displacement of traditional Mediterranean foods by highly-processed junk food, translated into higher energy and lower nutritional intakes, and eventually into greater prevalence of chronic diseases.
By spreading knowledge about the benefits of the Mediterranean Diet, MedDiet aims at giving to consumers the opportunity to understand in an easy way how important is a healthy alimentary regime and how important is to preserve healthy traditions, also in terms of food.

“MedDiet. Wellness begins at the table”

MedDiet for children. Young people seem to be particularly exposed to global trends in terms of diet and habits and for this reason the project has a special focus on them, in particular to pupils from primary and secondary schools. Schools play an important role as main actors in education. By the development and the spread of a Mediterranean Knowledge System of Mediterranean Diet schools will be equipped with tools and human resources capable to implement nutrition education initiatives on Mediterranean Diet addressed to pupils.

MedDiet for consumers. MedDiet aims at giving to consumers the opportunity to understand in an easy way how important is Mediterranean Diet in term of health and tradition. Local authorities have as well a key role being the nearest institutions to citizens. By the development and the spread of a Mediterranean Knowledge System of Mediterranean Diet local authorities will be equipped with tools and human resources capable to implement nutrition education initiatives on Mediterranean Diet addressed to consumers.

“MedDiet. The smile comes with eating”

MedDiet for enterprises. The private sector, in particular restaurants, needs to be encouraged in promoting and safeguarding the authentic Mediterranean Diet. The project supports those restaurants interested to offer and promote the authentic Mediterranean Diet by creating and promoting a MedDiet Quality Label on a Mediterranean area level.

By this way, restaurants will see their efforts recognized and their visibility in the market increased. To reach in the most effective way these beneficiaries, chambers of commerce and business associations play an important role to support SMEs in achieving these results. They will be equipped with human resources capable to promote and implement the MedDiet Quality Label as an instrument for promoting and safeguarding the authentic Mediterranean Diet among SMEs.

MedDiet for institutions. Policy making institutions (Ministries and related bodies) from Egypt, Lebanon and Tunisia are the other target group that need to acquire new capacity for dealing with the challenge of safeguarding the Mediterranean Diet. These policy making institutions will be equipped with human resources capable to propose and implement policies for safeguarding and promoting MD.

“MedDiet. You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy healthy food”