Health benefits and social determinants of the Mediterranean diet at a time of economic crisis : results from the moli-sani study

In this thesis, the diet typical of the Mediterranean basin was associated with lower grade of inflammation and reduced risk of all cause-mortality in diabetic subjects. Yet Italian people are shifting from this healthy dietary behavior.
Besides social changes, the increasing cost of many key-foods of the Mediterranean diet, such as fish, fruits and fresh vegetables, led people to give up this eating pattern for less expensive products that allow to save money but are generally of poor nutritional quality. The current economic crisis is likely to increase socioeconomic disparities and to produce unfavorable health outcomes especially among the less wealthy groups.