The Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR) and the Algarve Regional Directorate of Agriculture and Fisheries (DRAP) guarantee that, in the next community framework, the promotion of the Mediterranean Diet “will continue to be a priority”.
For José Apolinário, president of CCDR Algarve, the region having been one of the main promoters of the elevation of the Mediterranean Diet to Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and, «with scientific evidence emerging every day of the benefits of adopting this diet in terms of quality of life and health, we will continue, within the scope of community funds managed in the region, to support the promotion of the Mediterranean Diet, which, at the same time, assumes a differentiating role and promotes the Algarve, with all that this brings of value to the economy and to the social cohesion'.
Pedro Valadas Monteiro, director of DRAP Algarve, emphasizes the important role that the recently constituted Innovation Pole of Tavira, installed at the Center for Agricultural Experimentation of Tavira (CEAT) could play «as a national reference center for the Mediterranean Diet, bringing together multiple actors, public and private, with links to this theme in its various dimensions».
«Namely: sustainable food, endogenous resources and local food systems, historical-cultural heritage and landscape and fundamental dimensions in new policies for the active promotion of health and well-being, capable of generating synergies, multiplying and adding value to individual projects and initiatives through networking», he adds.
In this sense, another edition of the Mediterranean Diet Fair begins in Tavira, on the 8th of September. On the first day of the event, there will be a debate with some of the greatest experts in the field of nutrition and health.
One of them will be Pedro Graça, former director of the National Program for the Promotion of Healthy Eating at the Directorate-General for Health and current president of the Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences at the University of Porto.
His speech will focus on the “5 Challenges to Protecting the Health of the Mediterranean Diet”.
A staunch supporter of this food model, Pedro Graça was co-author, in 2018, of the Manifesto for the Preservation of the Mediterranean Diet, in which, among others, he argues that “the preservation of the Mediterranean Diet (MD) implies the transnational participation of Governments, sectors of culture, agriculture and health, and citizens, in order to preserve cultural diversity, biodiversity, protect the productive and regenerative capacity of soils and the health of populations”.
“Despite this consensus, we have to go further and identify the sectors and areas of intervention where we can make a difference. This is a contribution to the necessary discussion», he adds.
In this document, Pedro Graça also argues that «climate change, with the increase in average temperatures, reduced rainfall, demography and desertification, will put access to water, food production and human relationships under great pressure. DM is recognized as a way of consuming that is protective of the environment. Through more conscious food consumption we can make a difference on the planet. The preservation of the DM represents today a way of preserving the planet in which the environment sector will have a central say».
Pedro Graça also recalls that the Mediterranean Diet is recognized as promoting health, not only for the foods it incorporates (olive oil, cereals, legumes, fruit…), for the way it prepares them, «but mainly for frugality. Frugality means eating according to energy needs and eating quality rather than quantity. This is the only way to prevent diseases such as obesity or diabetes. The preservation of the DM involves valuing quality food».
Other specialists will also participate in the session, such as Professor Sandra Pais, from the University of the Algarve and the ABC-Algarve Medical Center, João Coucello from the Portuguese Cardiology Foundation, Maria Palma Mateus, from the University of the Algarve, and Teresa Sancho, from the Regional Administration of Health in the Algarve.
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