The new Med Diet 4.0 is as a new comprehensive multidimensional framework for the Mediterranean diet as a sustainable diet with multiplex sustainable benefits and country specific territorial variations. In the Med Diet 4.0 framework the well-documented health and nutrition mayor benefits of the Mediterranean diet are incorporated with three additional sustainable environmental, socio-cultural and economic benefits: low environmental impacts and rich in biodiversity, high socio-cultural food values, and positive economic local returns.
Med Diet 4.0 Framework:
The Mediterranean diet with four sustainable benefits
During the past years, within the international debate on sustainability, food security and nutrition, sustainable diets have emerged as a public health nutrition challenge as well as a critical issue for sustainable food systems.
The notion of the Mediterranean Diet has undergone a progressive evolution over the past 50 years, from a healthy dietary pattern to a model of sustainable diet.
The new Med Diet 4.0 is as a new comprehensive multidimensional sustainable Mediterranean diet framework, in which the multiplex dimensions of sustainability of the Mediterranean dit are highlighted together. In the Med Diet 4.0 framework the well-documented health and nutrition mayor benefits of the Mediterranean diet are incorporated with three additional sustainable environmental, socio-cultural and economic benefits: low environmental impacts and rich in biodiversity, high socio-cultural food values, positive economic return locally, with specific country variations.
The Med diet 4.0 methodological approach, by taking into account the specific country variations within the Mediterranean area, can contribute to understand what constitutes a sustainable diet in different agro-ecological zones.
Improved adherence to the Mediterranean diet pattern can produce at the same time public health savings as well as lower environmental impacts, significant economic gains locally, and more social and cultural understanding of traditional the food value - all of which will improve the well-being of the people.
With its interdisciplinary multidimensional approach and easier understanding of its multiplex sustainable benefits, the Med Diet 4.0 provides a possible solution for the revitalization of the Mediterranean diet, by showing also at the same time how it is beneficial values for the individual, as well as for the planet.