Switching Mediterranean consumers to Mediterranean sustainable healthy dietary patterns
Güldaş M. (Yürütücü), Özyazıcıoğlu N., Akbudak N., Gürbüz O., Üstün G. E., Istek N., et al.
UFUK 2020 Projesi, H2020 Araştırma Altyapı Projeleri, 2022 - 2025
- Proje Türü: UFUK 2020 Projesi
- Destek Programı: H2020 Araştırma Altyapı Projeleri
- Başlama Tarihi: Nisan 2022
- Bitiş Tarihi: Kasım 2025
Proje Özeti
The Mediterranean Diet (MD) constitutes a set of skills, knowledge, practices, and traditions ranging from cultivation to processing, preparation and, particularly, consumption of food, and defines a unique lifestyle recognized as a common cultural heritage of Mediterranean communities. MD is essentially a plant-based dietary pattern, based on high consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, cereals and legumes as main source of fibre and antioxidant compounds. The MD is a sustainable food model that is recognised as a) environmentally sustainable protecting the biodiversity; b) culturally acceptable and fair; c) economically accessible and affordable; d) nutritionally adequate, safe, and healthy. Profound dietary changes are occurring across Mediterranean countries, largely due to cultural and socio-economic-driven lifestyle changes, that are leading to the erosion of Mediterranean food cultures. The modernisation of the diet is particularly evident implying not only modification of food preferences towards unhealthy foods, but also adherence to sedentary activities, leading to an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure. This has negative health consequences, like continuously growing prevalence of excess weight and other dietary-related chronic diseases, coexisting with undernutrition (nutrient deficiencies and stunting). Latest data show that 2 billion adults are overweight while 678 million are obese. These trends exacerbate among children and teens. The WHO COSI6, indicated that Greece, Italy, and Spain had the highest rates of childhood obesity (approx. 20%). Overweight and obesity prevalence rates in Turkey, Morocco and Lebanon are 23%, 14% and 30%, respectively. Estimated weighted regional averages for stunting, wasting and underweight in the Eastern Mediterranean Region were about 28%, 9% and 18%, respectively.
In the above-mentioned context, SWITCHtoHEALTHY project to generate a dietary behaviour change by demonstrating and reinforcing the role of the family in promoting a sustainable change towards enhancing the adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern of the family members (adults, adolescents, and children). This will be done by making available to families a combination of hands-on educational material and digital tools and complementing the dietary and lifestyle recommendations with easy-to-eat healthier snacking products.
SWITCHtoHEALTHY is a 36-month project shaped in the frame of The Global Syndemic framework to tackle obesity, undernutrition, and climate change, a set of actions towards the main health challenge for humans, the environment, and the planet. SWITCHtoHEALTHY is aligned to this context in the following way:
At micro level: SWITCHtoHEALTHY focuses on citizens and more concretely on the role that families have historically played transferring the essence of MD style. Therefore, in SWITCHtoHEALTHY families are active players in project innovations co-developments as well as main receptors and promoters of the change, not only regarding their (and their siblings) wellbeing and health but also with respect to market dynamics and sustainability. Families are engaged all along the project. At this level, digital technologies and educational materials are implemented as a vehicle for family empowerment and engagement.
At meso level: SWICHtoHEALTHY acknowledges the vital role of parents (or caregivers) in the process of acquiring and maintaining sustainable and healthy habits along the lifetime of their offspring while they are transmitting tradition and culture. However, school environment is very relevant as reinforces the education delivered at home. Attaining key contents and facts is important for school and life, but adolescents also need a deep, conceptual understanding that allows them to connect concepts and skills, apply their knowledge to different situations, and spark new ideas.10 In SWITCHtoHEALTHY, specific actions are devoted to educating and empowering adolescents towards adherence to MD dietary pattern, involving teachers. Furthermore, SWITCHtoHEALTHY will carry out training for cooks at schools taught by nutritionists and adapted to country and schools’ specificities.
At macro level: by directly working with food companies in developing innovative healthy, sustainable, and nutritious plant-based snacks consistent with the MD and aligned with consumers’ preferences and acceptability together with tailored consumer-oriented sustainable business models and marketing strategies to boost local economy, for sustainable profitability and enhanced competitiveness of the sector.
At governance level: by involving governmental authorities as policy makers to create an enabling environment and acting as early adopters of project outcomes in view of boosting innovation across the Med Area and adapt policies/deliver guidelines to increase MD adherence while valorising local biodiversity and improving public health and the quality of life.
As result, SWITCHtoHEALTHY will extrapolate usable sustained models for inducing dietary behaviour changes that are reproducible and replicable also in other environments (workplaces, campus canteens, restaurants, etc) and countries, beyond the project boundaries. This will allow to generate, boost, and maintain a credible switch over healthier dietary patterns consistent with MD across the entire Med area and other parts of the world.