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Sandro Dernini

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Papers by Sandro Dernini

Chapter V : A Closa Reading of Plexux Black Box

A multicultural aesthetic inquiry into "Plexus Black Box" : an international community-based art project

UMI eBooks, 1997

ABSTRACT

Exploring the Socio-cultural Sustainability of Traditional and Typical Agro-food Products: Case study of Apulia Region, South-eastern Italy

Journal of Food and Nutrition Research, 2017

Traditional and typical foods represent the opposite of mass production and are important element... more Traditional and typical foods represent the opposite of mass production and are important elements of the Mediterranean cultural heritage. The paper aims to present a preliminary methodological approach and a first set of indicators for assessing the socio-cultural sustainability of Apulian typical agro-food products. An expert focus group approach was used, within Agriculture & Quality programme (2013-2015) of Apulia region, to identify sustainability principles and criteria and to select for each criterion appropriate indicators referring either to business activities or products. A 0-10 rating system was developed for each indicator: 0 (unsustainable), 10 (very sustainable) and 5 (sustainability benchmark value). Social sustainability is defined as the capacity to ensure equity in life quality and human well-being conditions, independently of class and gender. From a cultural viewpoint, it is important to take into account the community’s own distinctive and traditional elements ...

Sustainable Diets and Biodiversity

It is time to face the evidence of a worldwide unsustainable food system. Its complexity makes it... more It is time to face the evidence of a worldwide unsustainable food system. Its complexity makes it extremely fragile to any climatic, socio-economic, political or financial crisis. Thus, we urgently need appropriate understanding and new strategies to really accommodate present and future population needs and well-being. In that context, we need sustainable diets, with low-input, local and seasonal agro-ecological food productions as well as shortdistance production-consumption nets for fair trade. Cultural heritage, food quality and culinary skills are other key aspects determining sustainable dietary patterns and food security. Nutrition education about appropriate food choices remains essential everywhere. It thus appears very urgent to profoundly change our food strategy and to promote fair, culturally-appropriated, biodiversity-based, ecofriendly, sustainable diets. Authorities should urgently assume their responsibilities by orienting and supporting the appropriate and sustaina...

Historical and Behavioral Perspectives of the Mediterranean Diet

Mediterranean Diet, 2016

Mediterranean diet (MD) patterns have developed over the past 5000 or more years spreading from t... more Mediterranean diet (MD) patterns have developed over the past 5000 or more years spreading from the Fertile Crescent and influenced by the conquests of many different civilizations. As a result the MD is in continuous evolution. There is not one single MD, but rather a number of variations on a basic theme adapted to individual country’s cultures. The MD is more than just a diet; it represents a lifestyle, a social cultural expression of the different Mediterranean food cultures.

Mediterranean diet pyramids: towards the Italian model

Annali di igiene : medicina preventiva e di comunità

There is a long history to the representation of the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid which may be seen... more There is a long history to the representation of the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid which may be seen as a form of cultural--culinary evolution as each country applies the foods best suited to its national diet. Different Mediterranean Diet pyramids have been designed for the population of Greece, Spain and Italy, tailored for their different food habits. These refer variously to portion sizes and frequency of consumption--daily, weekly and monthly and are not standardized. The 3rd CIISCAM Conference held in Parma, Italy was devoted to highlight the overall biodiversity and nutritional well being values and the sustainable benefits of the Mediterranean diet, recognised as one of the healthiest dietary pattern, and to reduce the rapid erosion of "lifestyle and food habits. It is necessary, therefore, to refer more to a Mediterranean Lifestyle of which diet is only a part. It should include physical and social activity, recreation and rest. It may be possible to construct a Mediterra...

Nutritional indicators to assess the sustainability of the Mediterranean diet

Sustainable diets: linking nutrition and food systems

Abstract There is increasing evidence of the multiple effects of diets on public health nutrition... more Abstract There is increasing evidence of the multiple effects of diets on public health nutrition, society and environment. Sustainability and food security are closely inter-related. The traditional Mediterranean diet (MD) is recognized as a healthier dietary pattern with a lower environmental impact. As a case study, the MD may guide innovative inter-sectorial efforts to counteract the degradation of ecosystems and loss of biodiversity and homogeneity of diets due to globalization, through the improvement of sustainable healthy dietary patterns. This chapter defines a suite of the most appropriate nutrition and health indicators for assessing the sustainability of diets based on the MD. Thirteen nutrition indicators of sustainability were identified in five areas: biochemical characteristics of food (A1. Vegetable/animal protein consumption ratios; A2. Average dietary energy adequacy; A3. Dietary energy density score; A4. Nutrient density of diet and foods); food quality (A5. Fruit and vegetable consumption/intakes; A6. Dietary diversity score); environment (A7. Food biodiversity composition and consumption; A8. Local/regional foods and seasonality; A9. Organic/eco-friendly production and consumption); lifestyle (A10. Physical activity/physical inactivity prevalence; A11. Adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern); and clinical aspects (A12. Diet-related morbidity/mortality statistics; A13. Nutritional anthropometry). These proposed nutrition indicators will be a useful methodological framework for designing health, education and agricultural policies in order to conserve the traditional diets of the Mediterranean area as a common cultural heritage and lifestyle and also to enhance the sustainability of diets in general.

Changing Route: Common Action on Food Systems Transformation in the Mediterranean

New Medit, 2020

The Coronavirus pandemic has revealed the fragility of our food systems, affecting all dimensions... more The Coronavirus pandemic has revealed the fragility of our food systems, affecting all dimensions of food security and nutrition across the world. It has highlighted how deeply our world is interconnected and the importance of better recognising and understanding the interconnections that are intrinsic to these systems and their key role in pursuit of the SDGs of the 2030 Agenda. There is now, more than ever, a stronger need for a “route change” towards a common action on food systems transformation. Dialogues among all stakeholders to redesign the future of tomorrow’s food systems are needed to trigger collective, multi-stakeholder actions on the ground, at local, regional and global level, towards more sustainable food systems, linking sustainable food production to more healthy and sustainable food consumption. In this context CIHEAM, FAO, and the Union for the Mediterranean Secretariat (UfMS) initiated in 2019, a joint collaborative effort for the establishment of a multi-stakeh...

Food security and sustainability: can one exist without the other?

Public health nutrition, Jan 16, 2015

To position the concept of sustainability within the context of food security. An overview of the... more To position the concept of sustainability within the context of food security. An overview of the interrelationships between food security and sustainability based on a non-systematic literature review and informed discussions based principally on a quasi-historical approach from meetings and reports. International and global food security and nutrition. The Rome Declaration on World Food Security in 1996 defined its three basic dimensions as: availability, accessibility and utilization, with a focus on nutritional well-being. It also stressed the importance of sustainable management of natural resources and the elimination of unsustainable patterns of food consumption and production. In 2009, at the World Summit on Food Security, the concept of stability/vulnerability was added as the short-term time indicator of the ability of food systems to withstand shocks, whether natural or man-made, as part of the Five Rome Principles for Sustainable Global Food Security. More recently, inte...

A Dietary Model Constructed by Scientists: The Mediterranean Diet

The purpose of this article is to review the historical development of the healthy food model of ... more The purpose of this article is to review the historical development of the healthy food model of the Mediterranean Diet and related scientific knowledge from the early 1960s to the present time. The review presents the origins of the first pyramid of the traditional Mediterranean Diet in 1993 and how it has been revised to produce, in 2010, a new updated Mediterranean Diet pyramid. What emerges over the years is the evolution of the Mediter -ranean Diet from a range of specific foods to a comprehensive Mediterranean lifestyle in which food, health, culture, people, and sustainability all interact, even if its practice in the Mediterranean is diminishing. The food transition in Mediterranean countries and the emerging issues of overweight and obesity are also highlighted in the article. The present-day lifestyle is characterised by a wide availability of food and an ever-increasing rate of physical inactivity leading to a situation of apparent psycho-physical well-being, which, howev...

Chapitre 3. Un modèle alimentaire construit par les scientifiques

MediTERRA 2012, 2012

The Med Diet 4.0 framework: a multidimensional driver for revitalizing the Mediterranean diet as a sustainable diet model

Sustainable diets: linking nutrition and food systems, 2019

The Mediterranean diet (MD), despite the fact that it is acknowledged as one of the healthiest di... more The Mediterranean diet (MD), despite the fact that it is acknowledged as one of the healthiest diets in the world, is paradoxically becoming less the diet of choice in most Mediterranean countries. This process of erosion of the MD is alarming as it has undesirable impacts not only on health, but also on social, cultural, economic and environmental domains in the Mediterranean area. The Med Diet 4.0 has been developed as a multidimensional framework to revitalize the MD. It characterizes the MD as a sustainable diet model, through four interdependent sustainable benefits, with country-specific variations: (i) well-documented nutrition and health advantages, preventing chronic and degenerative diseases and reducing public health costs; (ii) low environmental impacts and richness in biodiversity, reducing pressure on natural resources and climate change; (iii) positive local economic returns, reducing rural poverty; and (iv) high social and cultural food values, increasing appreciatio...

Sustainable Diets: A Historical Perspective

Chapter V : A Closa Reading of Plexux Black Box

Appendix B : Plexus Documents

The Mediterranean Diet: A Sustainable Consumption Pattern

The term “Mediterranean Diet” was coined over 40 years ago, as the way of living and eating obser... more The term “Mediterranean Diet” was coined over 40 years ago, as the way of living and eating observed in the lands around the Mediterranean Basin and it was linked with the health benefits observed among the people adhering to it. The Mediterranean diet is closely related to social habits revolving around agriculture and food production, as well as the traditions linked to food preparation and consumption. This way of living has been known in the Mediterranean from the years BC, albeit with local adaptations to the various existing economic, social and religious contexts around the different regions.

Chapter VI : Related Literature

Mediterranean diet, overweight, cancer risk and sustainable benefits

Epidemiology, biostatistics, and public health, 2017

The dietary patterns embraced by the Mediterranean people over the centuries are the result of a ... more The dietary patterns embraced by the Mediterranean people over the centuries are the result of a number of factors: food production availability, seasonality, the use of small-scale technologies, the wide variety of local cultivars used, the freshness of the food consumed, their homemade preparation, the frugality and the conviviality of meals, and a physically active lifestyle. The so called Mediterranean diet has been favourably related not only to the risk of cardiovascular diseases, but also of several cancer sites and overweight. Overweight and obesity, in fact, are related to a number of cancer sites, including – among otherspost-menopausal breast, endometrium, colorectum, esophagus (adenocarcinoma), gallbladder, pancreas, liver and kidney. Overweight and obesity, however, have not been rising over recent years in several Mediterranean countries, particularly in France and Italy, as contrasted to what observed in North America and several northern and central European countrie...

Sustainable Diets and the Decalogue for Sustainable Food and Nutrition in the Community

Journal of Environment and Health Science, 2016

Sustainable food systems play an important role in increasing resource efficiency, more sustainab... more Sustainable food systems play an important role in increasing resource efficiency, more sustainable use of resources, and building resilience in communities responding to a rapidly changing global environment. Sustainable diets' notion links food consumption to production by taking into account nutritional requirements. The Decalogue for Sustainable Food and Nutrition in the Community provides a platform for community-based actions towards more sustainable diets, by reconnecting together within the community context the place of production and the space of consumption. This linkage between a dietary pattern and a geographic area has loosened with globalization. Within a period of radical transformation of the contemporary global scenario, the complexity of food security, nutrition and sustainability issues requires, within the people-centered development paradigm, new forms of community-based dialogues and actions. The Decalogue with its 10 points provides an operational ground for the development of meaningful discussions among communities towards a better understanding on how to integrate sustainability and food security and nutrition within their food systems. There is a need of more community-based sustainable food systems projects and intersectoral case studies for revitalizing local capacities. The Decalogue encourages the development of community-based projects and multi-stakeholder initiatives, such as the Island in Your Plate project, rooted in the cultural respect for the territory, in the sustainable management of natural resources, in the recognition and consumption of seasonal local products, and in the appreciation of the richness of local varieties and biodiversity. Connecting food security and sustainability to the nutritional well-being of the individual and of the community is the today challenge.

Albanian consumer attitude and behaviour toward ethical values of agro-food products

It is of paramount importance to know consumers’ behaviour and attitude toward specific values li... more It is of paramount importance to know consumers’ behaviour and attitude toward specific values linked to agro-food products. In fact, there is a constant increase of consumer concern on and interest in products bearing ethical values. The study aims at exploring Albanian consumer knowledge of and attitude toward agro-food products with ethical values such as organic, fair-trade and typical/traditional ones. The work is based on primary and secondary data. Primary information was collected by face-to-face interviews with 311 adult Albanian consumers concentrated mainly in the central, south-eastern, south-western and northern part of Albania. Respondents were contacted randomly mainly in markets and other shopping areas. Questions dealt mainly with sources of information, knowledge and attitude toward agro-food products with ethical values, including reasons and motivations for buying them, purchasing channels, as well as opinion about prices and willingness to pay. Results obtained ...

Chapter V : A Closa Reading of Plexux Black Box

A multicultural aesthetic inquiry into "Plexus Black Box" : an international community-based art project

UMI eBooks, 1997

ABSTRACT

Exploring the Socio-cultural Sustainability of Traditional and Typical Agro-food Products: Case study of Apulia Region, South-eastern Italy

Journal of Food and Nutrition Research, 2017

Traditional and typical foods represent the opposite of mass production and are important element... more Traditional and typical foods represent the opposite of mass production and are important elements of the Mediterranean cultural heritage. The paper aims to present a preliminary methodological approach and a first set of indicators for assessing the socio-cultural sustainability of Apulian typical agro-food products. An expert focus group approach was used, within Agriculture & Quality programme (2013-2015) of Apulia region, to identify sustainability principles and criteria and to select for each criterion appropriate indicators referring either to business activities or products. A 0-10 rating system was developed for each indicator: 0 (unsustainable), 10 (very sustainable) and 5 (sustainability benchmark value). Social sustainability is defined as the capacity to ensure equity in life quality and human well-being conditions, independently of class and gender. From a cultural viewpoint, it is important to take into account the community’s own distinctive and traditional elements ...

Sustainable Diets and Biodiversity

It is time to face the evidence of a worldwide unsustainable food system. Its complexity makes it... more It is time to face the evidence of a worldwide unsustainable food system. Its complexity makes it extremely fragile to any climatic, socio-economic, political or financial crisis. Thus, we urgently need appropriate understanding and new strategies to really accommodate present and future population needs and well-being. In that context, we need sustainable diets, with low-input, local and seasonal agro-ecological food productions as well as shortdistance production-consumption nets for fair trade. Cultural heritage, food quality and culinary skills are other key aspects determining sustainable dietary patterns and food security. Nutrition education about appropriate food choices remains essential everywhere. It thus appears very urgent to profoundly change our food strategy and to promote fair, culturally-appropriated, biodiversity-based, ecofriendly, sustainable diets. Authorities should urgently assume their responsibilities by orienting and supporting the appropriate and sustaina...

Historical and Behavioral Perspectives of the Mediterranean Diet

Mediterranean Diet, 2016

Mediterranean diet (MD) patterns have developed over the past 5000 or more years spreading from t... more Mediterranean diet (MD) patterns have developed over the past 5000 or more years spreading from the Fertile Crescent and influenced by the conquests of many different civilizations. As a result the MD is in continuous evolution. There is not one single MD, but rather a number of variations on a basic theme adapted to individual country’s cultures. The MD is more than just a diet; it represents a lifestyle, a social cultural expression of the different Mediterranean food cultures.

Mediterranean diet pyramids: towards the Italian model

Annali di igiene : medicina preventiva e di comunità

There is a long history to the representation of the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid which may be seen... more There is a long history to the representation of the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid which may be seen as a form of cultural--culinary evolution as each country applies the foods best suited to its national diet. Different Mediterranean Diet pyramids have been designed for the population of Greece, Spain and Italy, tailored for their different food habits. These refer variously to portion sizes and frequency of consumption--daily, weekly and monthly and are not standardized. The 3rd CIISCAM Conference held in Parma, Italy was devoted to highlight the overall biodiversity and nutritional well being values and the sustainable benefits of the Mediterranean diet, recognised as one of the healthiest dietary pattern, and to reduce the rapid erosion of "lifestyle and food habits. It is necessary, therefore, to refer more to a Mediterranean Lifestyle of which diet is only a part. It should include physical and social activity, recreation and rest. It may be possible to construct a Mediterra...

Nutritional indicators to assess the sustainability of the Mediterranean diet

Sustainable diets: linking nutrition and food systems

Abstract There is increasing evidence of the multiple effects of diets on public health nutrition... more Abstract There is increasing evidence of the multiple effects of diets on public health nutrition, society and environment. Sustainability and food security are closely inter-related. The traditional Mediterranean diet (MD) is recognized as a healthier dietary pattern with a lower environmental impact. As a case study, the MD may guide innovative inter-sectorial efforts to counteract the degradation of ecosystems and loss of biodiversity and homogeneity of diets due to globalization, through the improvement of sustainable healthy dietary patterns. This chapter defines a suite of the most appropriate nutrition and health indicators for assessing the sustainability of diets based on the MD. Thirteen nutrition indicators of sustainability were identified in five areas: biochemical characteristics of food (A1. Vegetable/animal protein consumption ratios; A2. Average dietary energy adequacy; A3. Dietary energy density score; A4. Nutrient density of diet and foods); food quality (A5. Fruit and vegetable consumption/intakes; A6. Dietary diversity score); environment (A7. Food biodiversity composition and consumption; A8. Local/regional foods and seasonality; A9. Organic/eco-friendly production and consumption); lifestyle (A10. Physical activity/physical inactivity prevalence; A11. Adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern); and clinical aspects (A12. Diet-related morbidity/mortality statistics; A13. Nutritional anthropometry). These proposed nutrition indicators will be a useful methodological framework for designing health, education and agricultural policies in order to conserve the traditional diets of the Mediterranean area as a common cultural heritage and lifestyle and also to enhance the sustainability of diets in general.

Changing Route: Common Action on Food Systems Transformation in the Mediterranean

New Medit, 2020

The Coronavirus pandemic has revealed the fragility of our food systems, affecting all dimensions... more The Coronavirus pandemic has revealed the fragility of our food systems, affecting all dimensions of food security and nutrition across the world. It has highlighted how deeply our world is interconnected and the importance of better recognising and understanding the interconnections that are intrinsic to these systems and their key role in pursuit of the SDGs of the 2030 Agenda. There is now, more than ever, a stronger need for a “route change” towards a common action on food systems transformation. Dialogues among all stakeholders to redesign the future of tomorrow’s food systems are needed to trigger collective, multi-stakeholder actions on the ground, at local, regional and global level, towards more sustainable food systems, linking sustainable food production to more healthy and sustainable food consumption. In this context CIHEAM, FAO, and the Union for the Mediterranean Secretariat (UfMS) initiated in 2019, a joint collaborative effort for the establishment of a multi-stakeh...

Food security and sustainability: can one exist without the other?

Public health nutrition, Jan 16, 2015

To position the concept of sustainability within the context of food security. An overview of the... more To position the concept of sustainability within the context of food security. An overview of the interrelationships between food security and sustainability based on a non-systematic literature review and informed discussions based principally on a quasi-historical approach from meetings and reports. International and global food security and nutrition. The Rome Declaration on World Food Security in 1996 defined its three basic dimensions as: availability, accessibility and utilization, with a focus on nutritional well-being. It also stressed the importance of sustainable management of natural resources and the elimination of unsustainable patterns of food consumption and production. In 2009, at the World Summit on Food Security, the concept of stability/vulnerability was added as the short-term time indicator of the ability of food systems to withstand shocks, whether natural or man-made, as part of the Five Rome Principles for Sustainable Global Food Security. More recently, inte...

A Dietary Model Constructed by Scientists: The Mediterranean Diet

The purpose of this article is to review the historical development of the healthy food model of ... more The purpose of this article is to review the historical development of the healthy food model of the Mediterranean Diet and related scientific knowledge from the early 1960s to the present time. The review presents the origins of the first pyramid of the traditional Mediterranean Diet in 1993 and how it has been revised to produce, in 2010, a new updated Mediterranean Diet pyramid. What emerges over the years is the evolution of the Mediter -ranean Diet from a range of specific foods to a comprehensive Mediterranean lifestyle in which food, health, culture, people, and sustainability all interact, even if its practice in the Mediterranean is diminishing. The food transition in Mediterranean countries and the emerging issues of overweight and obesity are also highlighted in the article. The present-day lifestyle is characterised by a wide availability of food and an ever-increasing rate of physical inactivity leading to a situation of apparent psycho-physical well-being, which, howev...

Chapitre 3. Un modèle alimentaire construit par les scientifiques

MediTERRA 2012, 2012

The Med Diet 4.0 framework: a multidimensional driver for revitalizing the Mediterranean diet as a sustainable diet model

Sustainable diets: linking nutrition and food systems, 2019

The Mediterranean diet (MD), despite the fact that it is acknowledged as one of the healthiest di... more The Mediterranean diet (MD), despite the fact that it is acknowledged as one of the healthiest diets in the world, is paradoxically becoming less the diet of choice in most Mediterranean countries. This process of erosion of the MD is alarming as it has undesirable impacts not only on health, but also on social, cultural, economic and environmental domains in the Mediterranean area. The Med Diet 4.0 has been developed as a multidimensional framework to revitalize the MD. It characterizes the MD as a sustainable diet model, through four interdependent sustainable benefits, with country-specific variations: (i) well-documented nutrition and health advantages, preventing chronic and degenerative diseases and reducing public health costs; (ii) low environmental impacts and richness in biodiversity, reducing pressure on natural resources and climate change; (iii) positive local economic returns, reducing rural poverty; and (iv) high social and cultural food values, increasing appreciatio...

Sustainable Diets: A Historical Perspective

Chapter V : A Closa Reading of Plexux Black Box

Appendix B : Plexus Documents

The Mediterranean Diet: A Sustainable Consumption Pattern

The term “Mediterranean Diet” was coined over 40 years ago, as the way of living and eating obser... more The term “Mediterranean Diet” was coined over 40 years ago, as the way of living and eating observed in the lands around the Mediterranean Basin and it was linked with the health benefits observed among the people adhering to it. The Mediterranean diet is closely related to social habits revolving around agriculture and food production, as well as the traditions linked to food preparation and consumption. This way of living has been known in the Mediterranean from the years BC, albeit with local adaptations to the various existing economic, social and religious contexts around the different regions.

Chapter VI : Related Literature

Mediterranean diet, overweight, cancer risk and sustainable benefits

Epidemiology, biostatistics, and public health, 2017

The dietary patterns embraced by the Mediterranean people over the centuries are the result of a ... more The dietary patterns embraced by the Mediterranean people over the centuries are the result of a number of factors: food production availability, seasonality, the use of small-scale technologies, the wide variety of local cultivars used, the freshness of the food consumed, their homemade preparation, the frugality and the conviviality of meals, and a physically active lifestyle. The so called Mediterranean diet has been favourably related not only to the risk of cardiovascular diseases, but also of several cancer sites and overweight. Overweight and obesity, in fact, are related to a number of cancer sites, including – among otherspost-menopausal breast, endometrium, colorectum, esophagus (adenocarcinoma), gallbladder, pancreas, liver and kidney. Overweight and obesity, however, have not been rising over recent years in several Mediterranean countries, particularly in France and Italy, as contrasted to what observed in North America and several northern and central European countrie...

Sustainable Diets and the Decalogue for Sustainable Food and Nutrition in the Community

Journal of Environment and Health Science, 2016

Sustainable food systems play an important role in increasing resource efficiency, more sustainab... more Sustainable food systems play an important role in increasing resource efficiency, more sustainable use of resources, and building resilience in communities responding to a rapidly changing global environment. Sustainable diets' notion links food consumption to production by taking into account nutritional requirements. The Decalogue for Sustainable Food and Nutrition in the Community provides a platform for community-based actions towards more sustainable diets, by reconnecting together within the community context the place of production and the space of consumption. This linkage between a dietary pattern and a geographic area has loosened with globalization. Within a period of radical transformation of the contemporary global scenario, the complexity of food security, nutrition and sustainability issues requires, within the people-centered development paradigm, new forms of community-based dialogues and actions. The Decalogue with its 10 points provides an operational ground for the development of meaningful discussions among communities towards a better understanding on how to integrate sustainability and food security and nutrition within their food systems. There is a need of more community-based sustainable food systems projects and intersectoral case studies for revitalizing local capacities. The Decalogue encourages the development of community-based projects and multi-stakeholder initiatives, such as the Island in Your Plate project, rooted in the cultural respect for the territory, in the sustainable management of natural resources, in the recognition and consumption of seasonal local products, and in the appreciation of the richness of local varieties and biodiversity. Connecting food security and sustainability to the nutritional well-being of the individual and of the community is the today challenge.

Albanian consumer attitude and behaviour toward ethical values of agro-food products

It is of paramount importance to know consumers’ behaviour and attitude toward specific values li... more It is of paramount importance to know consumers’ behaviour and attitude toward specific values linked to agro-food products. In fact, there is a constant increase of consumer concern on and interest in products bearing ethical values. The study aims at exploring Albanian consumer knowledge of and attitude toward agro-food products with ethical values such as organic, fair-trade and typical/traditional ones. The work is based on primary and secondary data. Primary information was collected by face-to-face interviews with 311 adult Albanian consumers concentrated mainly in the central, south-eastern, south-western and northern part of Albania. Respondents were contacted randomly mainly in markets and other shopping areas. Questions dealt mainly with sources of information, knowledge and attitude toward agro-food products with ethical values, including reasons and motivations for buying them, purchasing channels, as well as opinion about prices and willingness to pay. Results obtained ...

Strategies towards more sustainable food systems in the Mediterranean region: The Mediterranean Diet as a lever for bridging consumption and production, in a sustainable and healthy way.

Report of the 2nd World Conference on the Revitalization of Mediterranean diet, organized by th... more

Sustainable Diets: A Historical Perspective

Encyclopedia of Food Security and Sustainability, vol. 2,. Elsevier. 370–373., 2019

Interest in sustainable diets has increased markedly during the last decade as an emerging public... more Interest in sustainable diets has increased markedly during the last decade as an emerging public health challenge, as well as a critical issue for sustainable food systems, within the international debate on food security and sustainability. This article presents an overview of the historical process through which sustainable diets are gaining a broader international consensus, with also the incorporation of sustainability aspects into dietary guidelines being increasingly debated. A transdisciplinary approach is presented, through multi-sectoral perspectives, integrating health, agriculture, economic and environmental, and socio-cultural issues, to comprehensively explore the topic of sustainable diets. Sustainable diets address the sustainability of the whole food system, and a move towards healthier sustainable diets will have multiple benefits for environmental sustainability and public health, with synergies felt across a number of sectors. Sustainable diets, linking food consumption and production, are presented as interconnected and ecosystem-dependent contributions to face the challenges of feeding a richer and more urbanized growing world population, while preserving natural resources, within planetary boundaries. In the article, it is stressed the need for food systems to undergo radical transformations towards sustainability to achieve food security. The natural resources of our planet are threatened by human activities, including the way we produce and consume food. Although the evidence base must be improved, existing knowledge warrants immediate action to promote sustainable diets as contributions to the achievement of food and nutrition security. Moving towards sustainable diets is central to the earth's future to tackle the pressing challenges that have taken us to the edge of, and beyond, the planetary limit, and to connect the nutritional well-being of all to the sustainability of the planet.

Historical and Behavioral Perspectives of the Mediterranean Diet.

In, Mediterranean Diet - Dietary Guidelines and Impact on Health and Disease. Romagnolo DF, Selmin OI. (Eds.). New York: Humana Press, Springer; 29-41., 2016

Historical and Behavioral Perspectives of the Mediterranean Diet

Mediterranean diet (MD) patterns have developed over the past 5000 or more years spreading from t... more Mediterranean diet (MD) patterns have developed over the past 5000 or more years spreading from
the Fertile Crescent and infl uenced by the conquests of many different civilizations. As a result the
MD is in continuous evolution. There is not one single MD, but rather a number of variations on a
basic theme adapted to individual country’s cultures. The MD is more than just a diet; it represents
a lifestyle, a social cultural expression of the different Mediterranean food cultures.
• Current data suggest that adherence is decreasing because of multifactorial infl uences including:
lifestyle changes, food globalization, economic and sociocultural factors. In this chapter we present
the evolution of the MD from an historical and behavioral perspective, moving from the 1950s
model of a healthy diet, which reduced morbidity and mortality, to a model of a sustainable diet,
which also lessens the overall impact on the human ecosystem, and fi nally as an intangible cultural
heritage, acknowledged by UNESCO.
• As background for more detailed discussions of such questions, this chapter presents an overview
of the historical antecedents and recent interest in the MD, and identifi es future challenges related
to the current status of the MD.
• The challenge for public health nutrition is to reverse such trends especially since the MD and
lifestyle (as opposed to single nutrients) has a proven benefi cial health profi le as well as being
sustainable and eco-friendly