DNANUTRICOACH at the XIII International Mediterranean diet Congress

The XIII International Mediterranean diet Conference was held in Barcelona, Spain, during the Alimentaria & Hostelco on April 6th and 7th, 2022. The Conference gathered together researchers, companies, interested parties, startups and the general public interested in the Mediterranean diet with the aim at informing, raising the awareness and educating around all the health benefits of this unique dietary pattern.

The XIII International Mediterranean diet Conference was based in the sustainability of the Mediterranean diet and the focus was on the need of adapting and adhering more to the Mediterranean diet, especially for the Mediterranean countries. These are, unfortunately, the ones that have begun to forget about this pattern.

I was honored to be invited in this XIII Congress and present:

1. Updated data on the sustainability of the Mediterranean diet.
2. Recent and alarming statistics about adult and child obesity in Greece together with the underlying causes and
3. The growing existing gap between scientific knowledge and practical, clinical application among people and health professionals.

Nutritionists- Dietitians are recognized health professionals in Spain and play a crucial role in education, research and intervention issues related to nutrition and dietary therapy. General public that attended the talks was dynamic and interested, addressed numerous questions and there was also the option of Livestreaming for those who could not attend in Barcelona.

Briefly, the subjects we discussed during this XIII International Mediterranean diet conference were:

1. The Mediterranean diet is the only dietary pattern that fulfills all criteria of a sustainable diet such as locality, seasonality, sociality and plant-based consumption.
2. The Mediterranean diet has been abandoned by the Mediterranean countries vs Northerner European countries that have recently presented greater adherence to the Mediterranean diet following the latest scientific guidelines. As a consequence, in countries such as Spain and Greece we observe increased numbers of obesity in adults and adolescents.
3. The Mediterranean diet could be a touristic product for the Mediterranean countries with numerous tangible actions such as Sustainable Restaurants, local products evaluation with appropriate labeling etc that have already been taking place in Spain.
4. Authorities such as the Spanish Ministry of Culture (an active participant in the inscription of the Mediterranean diet as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity in UNESCO) supported the promotion of the Mediterranean diet in Spain and were actively involved in the Congress.

Videos will be available soon.