Information, Culture and Socioeconomics as Determinants of Adherence to Mediterranean Diet

Despite it having been proven to be strongly associated with a reduction of major chronic diseases (coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer and neurodegenerative disease), the Mediterranean diet is disappearing from the dietary habits of people. The reasons for this have been ascribed to a wide panel of factors, and among them socioeconomic aspects have been shown to play a crucial role in promoting health-related behaviors.Income and education have been strongly linked to dietary habits with more advantaged groups having healthier diets which usually cluster with other healthy behaviors, such as physical exercise or moderate alcohol consumption. More recently research has also focused on other cultural aspects that might influence food choices of people, finding out an interesting role played by the mass media as sources of information. Indeed more informed people or subjects with higher awareness of health-related topics have higher odds of maintaining or adhering to healthy dietary patterns.