The experts involved in the application of the Mediterranean Diet to intangible heritage of UNESCO today launched a manifesto calling for the creation of conditions for more people to adhere to the diet, “regardless of their social and economic condition.”
The Manifesto for the Preservation of the Mediterranean Diet in Portugal draws attention to ten essential aspects in preserving this food standard in Portugal and calls for “a paradigm shift in the intervention model in order to create conditions for more people to join this healthy way of eating, regardless of their social and economic condition. ”
Subscribed by the director of the National Program for the Promotion of Healthy Eating, Pedro Graça, by the head of the Division of Culture, Heritage and Museums of the Chamber of Tavira, Jorge Queiroz, and by the anthropologist and superior technician of the National Commission of UNESCO, Clara Bertrand Cabral, the manifesto underlines the need to “pay more attention to the factors that truly affect adherence to this food standard,” as a greater focus on family time management.
According to Pedro Graça, “without a particular attention to the laws of work and the preservation of family time to buy, cook and be at table, the goal of the conviviality that underlies the Mediterranean Diet can not be achieved.”
According to the document, without an increased attention to the teaching and consumption of the Mediterranean Diet in schools, where basic skills to cook and taste the Mediterranean Diet on a daily basis, one can not have adults prepared to adopt it.
“Without the more active participation of man in domestic activities, and in particular in maintaining the family heritage linked to the Mediterranean way of cooking, we will not be able to preserve this way of eating,” he says.
The Mediterranean Diet is the most widely studied dietary standard in the world and is a safeguard for our health.
“Even though we know all this, recent scientific studies have shown that less than 10% of the national population consume according to this food standard,” say experts. “We also know that inadequate food is the main determinant of the years of healthy life lost by the Portuguese. .
The same studies also suggest that the Mediterranean Diet is less consumed in the southern regions and in the most disadvantaged populations.
It was this realization that led the group of experts who were involved in the candidature of the Mediterranean Diet to intangible heritage of humanity by UNESCO to discuss its preservation and to “present a different way to protect this way of eating.”
The Manifesto also stresses the need for a greater involvement of the cultural sector in the defense of heritage that is eminently cultural and also a growing participation of environmental experts, insofar as the Mediterranean, vegetable, local and seasonal food environmental impact by combining health with the protection of the planet.
