The health and environmental benefits of adoption of a Mediterranean Style dietary pattern

Guest Editors:

Anne Marie Minihane: Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, UK

Karen Murphy, Clinical and Health Sciences, ARENA, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

The British Journal of Nutrition is issuing a Call For Papers on the topic of: The health and environmental benefits of adoption of a Mediterranean Style dietary pattern.

Submissions deadline: 30th April 2021 for approximate publication September 2021. Please specify that your submission is for the Mediterranean Diet themed issue. 

A Mediterranean dietary pattern (MDP) is characterised by high intakes of fruits, vegetables, olive oil, wholegrains, legumes, nuts, unsaturated fatty acids and fish, with restrictions in red meat and dairy products, moderate but regular consumption of alcohol, and low consumption of red meat and discretionary foods including sugar-sweetened food and drink. It is considered one of the healthiest dietary patterns for healthy longevity. Prospective epidemiological evidence supports a protective effect for a whole host of chronic cardio-metabolic, inflammatory-related and mental conditions, with 20-40% reductions in disease risk (1-6). Consideration of the data in systematic reviews and meta-analysis has been hampered by the wide range of scoring systems used to gauge MDP adherence (7), making coalescing of the data difficult.

Evidence from a range of model systems, predominately using isolated MDP bioactives or single foods, provide credibility to the large number of association studies, by identifying multiple mechanisms underlying health benefits. However robust RCTs (8) are distinctly lacking which give insight into the ‘size-effect’ of intervention and subgroups which are most likely to be responsive. Furthermore it is unclear if the overall MDP is important or whether particular food groups in the MDP predominantly mediate the health and should be the target of intervention.

Much of the MDP related research has adopted a discovery science approach. Little research focus has be given to date on how to effectively change and sustain population eating behaviours so that is it more MDP adherent, particular in non-Mediterranean regions, taking into account the social, cultural, environmental, geographical and economic differences. Finally given a MDP is associated with an almost halving in greenhouse gas omission relative to a typical omnivorous Western-style diet (9), research programmes going forward should be much more integrated in their consideration of a the health and environmental benefits associated with sustained MDP adoption.

Objectives and Recommended Topics

This special issue aims to provide the latest evidence of the impact of a MDP on human wellbeing, health and the environment. Manuscripts in the area of food manufacture and processing with health outcomes, dietary assessment, epidemiology, behavioural science, interventions, model systems and molecular biology, public health and policy, and environmental sustainability are welcome.

Original research, review articles and commentaries are welcomed which move the field forward

• Systematic reviews and meta-analyses on the MDP and health outcomes, with consideration of the size-effect and its likely impact on population health and disease incidence.
• Narrative reviews are also welcome which describe the strength of the current evidence and research gaps.
• Original cohort studies and RCTs which present the health impact of a MDP.
• Acute studies looking at the impact of a MDP on outcomes, such as mood, attention and anxiety, glucose regulation, inflammation, vascular function and appetite regulation.
• Studies in cell and animal model system providing insight into the physiology and molecular benefits of a MDP and its bioactives.
• MDP as part of a multi-domain intervention.
• How to effectively adopt a MDP through sustained behaviour change.
• Capturing MDP adherence, dietary assessment.
• Integrating a MDP into national nutrition guidelines and food policy.
• Food sustainability and the environmental benefits of a MDP.

REFERENCES

1.            Aridi YS, Walker JL, Wright ORL. The Association between the Mediterranean Dietary Pattern and Cognitive Health: A Systematic Review. Nutrients. 2017;9(7).

2.            Galbete C, Schwingshackl L, Schwedhelm C, Boeing H, Schulze MB. Evaluating Mediterranean diet and risk of chronic disease in cohort studies: an umbrella review of meta-analyses. European journal of epidemiology. 2018;33(10):909-31.

3.            Rees K, Takeda A, Martin N, Ellis L, Wijesekara D, Vepa A, et al. Mediterranean-style diet for the primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews. 2019;3:Cd009825.

4.            Shannon OM, Stephan BCM, Granic A, Lentjes M, Hayat S, Mulligan A, et al. Mediterranean diet adherence and cognitive function in older UK adults: the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition-Norfolk (EPIC-Norfolk) Study. The American journal of clinical nutrition. 2019;110(4):938-48.

5.            Soltani S, Jayedi A, Shab-Bidar S, Becerra-Tomas N, Salas-Salvado J. Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet in Relation to All-Cause Mortality: A Systematic Review and Dose-Response Meta-Analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies. Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md). 2019;10(6):1029-39.

6.            Wu L, Sun D. Adherence to Mediterranean diet and risk of developing cognitive disorders: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. Scientific reports. 2017;7:41317.

7.            Davis C, Bryan J, Hodgson J, Murphy K. Definition of the Mediterranean Diet; a Literature Review. Nutrients. 2015;7(11):9139-53.

8.            Estruch R, Ros E, Salas-Salvado J, Covas MI, Corella D, Aros F, et al. Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease with a Mediterranean Diet Supplemented with Extra-Virgin Olive Oil or Nuts. The New England journal of medicine. 2018;378(25):e34.

9.            Tilman D, Clark M. Global diets link environmental sustainability and human health. Nature. 2014;515(7528):518-22.