People in Mediterranean countries are abandoning the region's widely praised healthy diet in favour of food that has too much fat, salt and sugar, the Food and Agricultural Organization
People in Mediterranean countries are abandoning the region's widely praised healthy diet in favour of food that has too much fat, salt and sugar, the Food and Agricultural Organization warned Tuesday.
"Hailed by experts as keeping people slim, healthy and long-living, the Mediterranean diet has followers all over the world -- but is increasingly disregarded around the Mediterranean," said a statement from the UN body.
Mediterranean Diet - Benefits - Components - Olive Oil - FAQs
Mediterranean diet has long been considered one of the healthiest diets on the planet. This diet plan discourages the use of saturated fats and hydrogenated oils while cooking meals.
Mediterranean diet has long been considered one of the healthiest diets on the planet. This diet plan discourages the use of saturated fats and hydrogenated oils while cooking meals.
Growing affluence had changed the eating habits in southern Europe, north Africa and the Near East to the extent that a region once held up as a dietary model was now showing worrying health trends, he noted in a research paper.
They had switched from a diet traditionally light on animal products to more meat and fatty foods. What they now ate was "too fat, too salty and too sweet," Schmidhuber reported.
Low Cholesterol Diet- The Pivotal Chemical
Cholesterol - The Pivotal Chemical in Low Cholesterol Diet
Cholesterol - The Pivotal Chemical in Low Cholesterol Diet
"Today, three quarters of the Greek population are overweight or obese," he added.
Advertisements
Low Calorie Diet | Low Calorie Foods
Low calorie meals or diet include foods that are high on nutritional content and yet have fewer calories. Updated information about low calorie diet or low calorie foods and its health benefits.
Low calorie meals or diet include foods that are high on nutritional content and yet have fewer calories. Updated information about low calorie diet or low calorie foods and its health benefits.
And there had been a "vast increase" in the overall calories and glycaemic load of the diets in the Near East-North Africa region.
Advertisements
Nutrition Facts
The importance of eating food and the physiological, psychological and social functions of food.
The importance of eating food and the physiological, psychological and social functions of food.
Of 15 European Union nations surveyed, citizens across the EU were ignoring the recommendations of both the FAO and the World Health Organization regarding calory intake.
"But Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus and Malta, who started out poorer than the northerners, upped their calorie count by 30 percent," said the FAO statement.
For Schmidhuber, the change in eating habits was not just due to higher incomes.
Other factors included the development of supermarkets, working women having less time to cook and families eating out more, often in fast-food restaurants.
And while people were consuming more calories, their lifestyles had become more sedentary, as people exercised less.
Source-AFP
SRM
