Highlights

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

The role of the Mediterranean diet in human health

The sustainability of the Mediterranean diet for the environment

Environmental pollution negatively impacts on human health and aging but can be reduced by wider use of the Mediterranean DP

Conclusions

Funding

Author contributions

Declaration of Competing Interest

References

Abstract

Successful aging results from a lifetime of interaction between a range of factors, including those that are inherited (age, genetics), and those related to lifestyle (diet, exercise). In this brief communication, we examine the role of the Mediterranean-style diet in human health. Diet is one of the major pillars of healthy aging, and accumulating evidence supports the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet. We also discuss the lifelong effect of exposure to environmental pollution. Thus, there is an intricate relationship between health, diet and environment, which together represent a trilemma that must be addressed with a holistic, life-course, population-level approach.

Introduction

Individual health and lifestyle choices may create fertile ground for disease to develop. However, social, environmental and biological factors also jointly influence health. A life-course approach to health involves preventing and controlling diseases at key stages of life, from preconception to adulthood. Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and disability share common risk factors whose combined presence over the life-course may initiate disease and/or disability in later life, namely poor diet, physical inactivity, environmental pollution, etc. These exposures over the cumulative life-course contribute to an increasing burden of ill health, justifying the need for effective prevention strategies.

The role of the Mediterranean diet in human health

Among the many lifestyle determinants of later health, one of the major pillars of healthy aging is diet. Among the oldest dietary patterns ever described is the Mediterranean diet, an umbrella term that actually encompasses a wide range of diets common to several countries around the Mediterranean basin, which share certain common features but also present wide variety in the actual composition. The whole could more correctly be described as a dietary pattern (DP). The Mediterranean DP is recognized as the healthiest lifestyle by UNESCO and the Council of the European Union, and recommended by the US Department of Health in its Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015–۲۰۲۰ [۱]. It is of vital importance to implement these recommendations at national level in every country as an investment in the future health of the population, since societal and economical changes have revolutionized our lives in the last few decades, and moved away from traditional family structures and working patterns. This has led to a “westernization” of DPs, with a greater tendency to eat quick meals while working, or looking at a telephone, and less adherence to the traditional model of family dining, with its associated communication and conviviality, resulting in an overall decline in adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern [2].