1. We are What We Eat: Impact of Food from Short Supply Chain on Metabolic Syndrome
- Author
-
Rocco Giannotti, Gaetano Santulli, Michele Ciccarelli, Enrico Coscioni, Rosa Finelli, Carmine Morisco, Valeria Visco, Guido Iaccarino, Angelo Massari, Maddalena Illario, Valeria Pascale, Santulli, Gaetano, Pascale, Valeria, Finelli, Rosa, Visco, Valeria, Giannotti, Rocco, Massari, Angelo, Morisco, Carmine, Ciccarelli, Michele, Illario, Maddalena, Iaccarino, Guido, and Coscioni, Enrico
- Subjects
cardiovascular risk ,Mediterranean diet ,Supply chain ,Population ,Retail distribution ,Distribution (economics) ,mediterranean diet ,supply chain of food ,metabolic syndrome ,food retail ,030204 cardiovascular system & hematology ,Article ,03 medical and health sciences ,Food chain ,0302 clinical medicine ,Food supply ,Environmental health ,Medicine ,030212 general & internal medicine ,education ,2. Zero hunger ,education.field_of_study ,business.industry ,General Medicine ,medicine.disease ,Metabolic syndrome ,business - Abstract
Food supply in the Mediterranean area has been recently modified by big retail distribution; for instance, industrial retail has favored shipments of groceries from regions that are intensive producers of mass food, generating a long supply chain (LSC) of food that opposes short supply chains (SSCs) that promote local food markets. However, the actual functional role of food retail and distribution in the determination of the risk of developing metabolic syndrome (MetS) has not been studied hitherto. The main aim of this study was to test the effects of food chain length on the prevalence of MetS in a population accustomed to the Mediterranean diet. We conducted an observational study in Southern Italy on individuals adhering to the Mediterranean diet. We examined a total of 407 subjects (41% females) with an average age of 56 ± 14.5 years (as standard deviation) and found that being on the Mediterranean diet with a SSC significantly reduces the prevalence of MetS compared with the LSC (SSC: 19.65%, LSC: 31.46%; p: 0.007). Our data indicate for the first time that the length of food supply chain plays a key role in determining the risk of MetS in a population adhering to the Mediterranean diet.
- Published
- 2019