ID 1423 - Mediterranean diet

PL:
EN: Mediterranean diet
Pdf: fruits

1.2. “Mediterranean diet” (ID 1423)

The diet that is the subject of the health claim is the “Mediterranean diet” related to the following claimed effect: cardiac function.
The characterisation provided by Member States specifies such diet as “based on high consumption of fruits, vegetables, cereals, pulses, nuts and seeds; moderate consumption of dairy products, fish, poultry and eggs and little use of red meat; low to moderate amount of wine; olive oil is the main cooking and dressing oil”. However, the Panel notes that quantitative amounts and appropriate characterisation of the food items or food groups listed have not been provided, and no reference to the macronutrient composition (including dietary fibre) of the diet has been made. The Panel also notes that wine, which is listed as one of the components of the “Mediterranean diet”, contains more than 1.2 % alcohol by volume and therefore should not bear health claims in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006.
Most of the references provided for the scientific substantiation of the claim reported on human observational studies which addressed the association between some dietary patterns defined as typical of the “Mediterranean diet”, or specific components of it, and different health outcomes, including blood lipids, blood pressure, obesity, incidence of coronary heart disease, and death from cardiovascular disease and from all causes. Human intervention studies on the effects on various health outcomes of different dietary interventions, collectively designated as the “Mediterranean diet”, have also been provided.
In these studies, the characterisation of the “Mediterranean diet” is very variable. Some studies only referred to the fatty acid composition of the diet, or only considered the addition of nuts or wine (reviewed in Serra-Majem et al., 2006); other studies used the “Mediterranean Adequacy Index” obtained by dividing the sum of total energy percentages from food groups “typical of the reference Mediterranean diet” (i.e. bread, cereals, legumes, potatoes, vegetables, fresh fruit, fish, wine, vegetable oils) by the sum of the total energy percentage from food groups (milk, cheese, eggs, animal fats and margarines, sweet beverages, cakes/pie/cookies, sugar) “less typical” of the “reference Mediterranean diet” (Fidanza et al., 2004); finally, some studies used different scales indicating the degree of adherence to the “traditional Mediterranean diet” with scores which were either calculated on the basis of the mean consumption of a series of “food groups” (e.g. vegetables, legumes, fruits and nuts, cereal, fish, meat, poultry, and diary products) within the same study population (Panagiotakos et al., 2005; 2006a; 2006b; Psaltopoulou et al., 2004; Trichopoulou et al., 2003; 2005) or on the basis of fixed thresholds of intake using similar “food groups” (Estruch et al., 2006; Martinez-Gonzalez et al., 2004).
The Panel notes that different dietary patterns exist in different Mediterranean countries (EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products Nutrition and Allergies (NDA), 2010).
The Panel notes that different definitions of “Mediterranean diet” have been used in the references provided, and that therefore the diet which is the subject of the health claim is unclear.
The Panel considers that the diet, “Mediterranean diet”, which is the subject of the health claim, is not sufficiently characterised.
The Panel concludes that a cause and effect relationship cannot be established between the consumption of a “Mediterranean diet” and the claimed effect considered in this section because of the insufficient characterisation of the term “Mediterranean diet”.

Warunki i możliwe ograniczenia stosowania oświadczenia

See reference section for dietary characteristics