Within the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition, 2016-2025, and as a follow up of the CIHEAM 2015 MEDIET EXPO Call for Action: Time to Act towards more Sustainable Food Systems for present and future generations,  THE 2016 CALL FOR ACTION ON THE REVITALIZATION OF THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET from the IFMeD First World Congress on the Mediterranean Diet, Milan, 6-8 July 2016:

 Fully acknowledges the evolution of the Mediterranean diet concept, from a healthy diet to a sustainable Mediterranean lifestyle, an expression of the Mediterranean culture(s); 

 

 Fully acknowledges the Mediterranean diet as a significant part of Mediterranean food systems, from consumption to production, and not anymore just a diet, an expression of the diversity of Mediterranean food cultures and culinary systems; 

 

 Fully acknowledges “the Mediterranean Diet” as a pivotal element for sustainable food systems in the countries of the Mediterranean region within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, by taking into account its dimensions of health and nutrition, environment (including biodiversity), and socio-cultural and economic aspects; 

 

 Fully acknowledges that the Mediterranean diet is as a way of living of the Mediterranean people, and a complex web of cultural aspects that depend on each other and lead from nutrition to the economy, through law, history, politics or religion, strongly linked to local territories. 

 

Therefore, WE INVITE YOU TO JOIN WITH US IN THIS CALL FOR A COMMON ACTION ON THE REVITALIZATION OF THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET 

 

 1.  To act together to reduce the increasing erosion of the Mediterranean diet heritage, with the erosion of the richness and diversity of Mediterranean food cultures; 

 

2.  To act together towards the development of academic and research institution platforms for an interdisciplinary dialogue on how to revitalize the Mediterranean diet, while improving the sustainability of the Mediterranean food systems, by maintaining the close linkages of the Mediterranean diet, as the result, and driver of a food system, to production, distribution and consumption of its main characteristic products; 

 

3.   To act together towards the development of joint interdisciplinary studies and research projects to assess the sustainability of current Mediterranean diet patterns at the country level, and the adherence to an updated Mediterranean diet pyramid, a lifestyle for today, with particular regards to cultural processes and transformations; 

 

4.   To act together for effective, integrated curricula in the schools of Mediterranean countries for nutrition education and food culture, healthy lifestyle and sustainability, with particular orientation to gastronomic and convivial issues; 

 

5.   To act together to reach a consensus on how to assess the adherence and the sustainability of the Mediterranean diet at the country level; and how to reconstruct a sustainable eating culture and lifestyle more suited to the times and for all Mediterranean people. This process should respect and capture the traditional elements of the Mediterranean diet.  

Milan, 8 July 2016 

 International Foundation of Mediterranean Diet (IFMeD)- International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM)- European Federation of Nutrition Societies(FENS)-African Federation of Nutrition Societies (FANUS) – Italian Society of Human Nutrition - Spanish Society of Community Nutrition (SENC) - Société Française de Nutrition (SFN) – Interuniversity International Study Centre on Mediterranean Food Cultures  (CIISCAM) - Forum on Mediterranean Food Cultures-Al Quds Public Health Society - Braun School of Public Health , Hebrew University- Hadassah Medical School –IUIBS/ULPGC Instituto Universitario de Investigaciones Biomédicas y Sanitarias of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria - Hellenic Health Foundation- —International Commission on Food Anthropology (ICAF)- UNESCO Chair on Food, Culture and Development, Open University of Catalonia – CNR-ENEA-CREA, Sapienza University of Rome - Dipartimento di Scienze Cliniche e di Comunita’, Universita’ di Milano -  PREDIMED Network - -University of Malta- Aix-Marseille Université- University of Valencia - Chouaib Doukkali University -  Hasan Kalyoncu University Department of Nutrition and Dietetics - American University of Beirut-  Centre Català de la Nutrició de l'Institut d'Estudis Catalans - CIBEROBN "Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red-Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición"   - FIN Nutrition Research Foundation - AEN “Spanish Academy of Nutrition and Food Science” - IACON “International Association of Community Nutrition”- Institut Català d'Oncologia - the IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Mediterraneo “Neuromed - Assessorato della Salute, Regione Siciliana