Italy battles obesity, lifestyle ills with pasta, olive oil

(ANSA) - Rome - Italy is tackling obesity and rampant lifestyle-related illnesses with an unusual weapon: traditional, rural Italian meals, which include plenty of pasta, rice, bread and olive oil.

Two government groups are plowing 4 million euros into promoting the Mediterranean diet, a nutritional recipe inspired by eating habits from the poor coastal areas of southern Italy and parts of Greece in the 1960s.

Aimed at Italians and the burgeoning population of overweight Americans, the campaign also seeks to boost domestic and export markets for quality, regional Italian food products, such as pasta, rice, legumes, sardines, anchovies and extra-virgin olive oil.

Over the next three years, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry and Federsanita'-ANCI, a national association of public health providers, are engaging in a flurry of online marketing activities including posting a website, pasting up 500,000 posters, issuing 150,000 educational booklets (50,000 in English), and organizing over 40 events, half of which will be aimed at North American journalists.

They argue that the Mediterranean diet, unlike other nutritional and lifestyle regimes, is easy to follow and unusually tasty.

The main trick is to nearly eliminate red meat and drastically reduce other animal products, like butter and eggs. Staples include whole-grain cereals, legumes, vegetables, fresh and dried fruit, nuts, fish, white meat, and olive oil.

Moderate amounts of dairy products are consumed, mostly in the form of yogurt and cheese. Eggs, red meat, and sweets are eaten rarely, but not eliminated. Wine is consumed in moderation. And following the lifestyles of southern coastal Italians of yesteryear, the regime assumes plenty of physical activity.

Although recognized in 1945 by Ancel Keys, an American doctor stationed in Salerno, the Mediterranean diet did not gain a widespread following until the mid-1990s, when it was championed by Dr. Walter Willet of Harvard University's School of Public Health.

In November 2010, UNESCO recognized the diet pattern as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Spain, Greece, Italy and Morocco, although it is indigenous only in certain geographic areas of these countries and, at least in Italy, often marginalized by relative prosperity, which brought cars, meat, pastries and processed foods within reach of most.

The World Health Organization estimates 86% of deaths and 75% of health expenses in Europe and Italy are caused by conditions where diet and lifestyle play a large role, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, and chronic respiratory illness. The Mediterranean diet is widely recognized for its capacity to prevent and reduce metabolic disorders.

"Obesity and extra pounds, alcohol abuse, scarce consumption of fruits and vegetables, sedentary habits, excessive fats in the blood, and arterial hypertension. These risk factors are responsible, by themselves, for 60% of the loss of years of good health (in the population)," states a synopsis of the Mediterranean diet campaign.

In the United States, where obesity rates run 20% to 30% in most states, the Italian campaign for the Mediterranean diet represents a drop in a multibillion-dollar weight-loss industry ocean. It will also be preaching against prevailing diet fashions that have demonized carbohydrates - and pasta in particular - such as the runaway bestselling Southbeach Diet by Dr. Arthur Agastson.