Milan to Host First World Conference on Mediterranean Diet

Scientists and experts will be gathering in Milan, Italy on July 7-8, 2016 for the first World Conference on the Mediterranean Diet.

Organized by the International Federation of Mediterranean Diet (IFMeD), the stated aim of the two-day international conference is to “revitalize the Med Diet, from a healthy dietary pattern to a healthy Mediterranean sustainable lifestyle.”

Thirty international scientists have been invited to participate, said an IFMeD press release announcing the event, which also revealed that the highlight of the conference will be the unveiling of a new food pyramid of the Mediterranean Diet, referred to as the “New Pyramid of Sustainable Mediterranean Diet.”

Sandro Dernini, general secretary of IFMeD, and an expert at the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) explained why a new Mediterranean Diet food pyramid is necessary: “The concept of the Mediterranean Diet has evolved over the last 50 years: from a healthy dietary pattern, it has become a model of sustainable diet. The innovative approach of this new pyramid is to connect the health dimension to the sociocultural, economic and environmental sustainability dimensions.”

The conference will launch an international campaign to promote the Mediterranean diet at a roundtable session called “MED DIET 4.0 – a multicountry and multistakeholder framework to improve the sustainability of the Mediterranean diet,” organized by IFMeD, in collaboration with the Rome-based research organization CIISCAM (Centro Interuniversitario di Ricerca sulle Culture Alimentari Mediterranee); CIHEAM-BARI (Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes), an intergovernmental organization of 13 Mediterranean countries and headquartered in Paris; and the Forum of Mediterranean Food Cultures based in Rome.

Created in 2014 and with a registered office in London, IFMeD is an international foundation of institutions, universities, and research centers from different countries dedicated to the promotion of the Mediterranean diet.

The program of the conference is available on the IFMeD website.

Source of article Oliveoiltimes