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Persistent Moderate-to-Weak Mediterranean Diet Adherence and Low Scoring for Plant-Based Foods across Several Southern European Countries: Are We Overlooking the Mediterranean Diet Recommendations?
- Source :
-
Nutrients [Nutrients] 2021 Apr 23; Vol. 13 (5). Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Apr 23. - Publication Year :
- 2021
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Abstract
- The Mediterranean diet (MD) has been sponsored worldwide as a healthy and sustainable diet. Our aim was to update and compare MD adherence and food choices across several Southern European countries: Spain (SP), Portugal (PT), Italy (IT), Greece (GR), and Cyprus (CY) (MED, Mediterranean), and Bulgaria (BG) and the Republic of North Macedonia (NMK) (non-MED, non-Mediterranean). Participants ( N = 3145, ≥18 y) completed a survey (MeDiWeB) with sociodemographic, anthropometric, and food questions (14-item Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener, 14-MEDAS). The MED and non-MED populations showed moderate (7.08 ± 1.96) and weak (5.58 ± 1.82) MD adherence, respectively, with significant yet small differences across countries (SP > PT > GR > IT > CY > BG > NMK, p -value < 0.001). The MED participants scored higher than the non-MED ones for most of the Mediterranean-typical foods, with the greatest differences found for olive oil (OO) and white meat preference. In most countries, ≥70% of the participants reported quantities of red meat, butter, sweet drinks, and desserts below the recommended cutoff points, whereas <50% achieved the targets for plant-based foods, OO, fish, and wine. Being a woman and increasing age were associated with superior adherence ( p -value < 0.001), but differences were rather small. Our results suggest that the campaigns carried out to support and reinforce the MD and to promote plant-based foods have limited success across Southern Europe, and that more hard-hitting strategies are needed.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 2072-6643
- Volume :
- 13
- Issue :
- 5
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Nutrients
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 33922771
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13051432