VOLUNTARY CODE OF CONDUCT FOR PROMOTING ADHERENCE TO THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET
AS A MODEL OF SUSTAINABLE DIET
- 1. INTRODUCTION
Globally, and over many decades, hundreds of agreed texts in the form of guidelines, goals, targets, treaties, codes of conduct, declarations, action plans and recommendations covering a variety of topics, have been produced.
There is a long history of failures and unintended consequences in all sectors’ approaches, including interventions of one sector undermining those of the other.
International initiatives and guidelines in nutrition, as well as those addressing environmental sustainability have largely been sector specific.
For many decades, the nutrition and agriculture sectors were focussed on dietary energy supply and food security. Food was the basic unit of nutrition (FAO, 2003).
Individual nutrients were the basic units of nutrition for the health sector. The health sector model focussed on diet-related chronic diseases and micronutrient deficiency diseases. The disease model for malnutrition required pharmaceutical-types of interventions – hence, ‘good’ nutrients were delivered to diverse populations as supplements, fortificants and therapeutic formulations; and intakes of ‘bad’ food components were treated with drugs. Food-based approaches for dealing with micronutrient deficiencies were consequently undermined. Thus, a multi-sectoral, transdisciplinary approach seemed long overdue.
Here, in this Voluntary Code of Conduct for Promoting the Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet, the basic unit of nutrition, would not be individual nutrients, nor would it be food per se. It would have to be ‘diet’ and it would have to be addressed through an ecosystem approach to ensure nutrition and sustainability