scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Author

Sandro Dernini

Bio: Sandro Dernini is an academic researcher from Food and Agriculture Organization. The author has contributed to research in topics: Sustainability & Mediterranean diet. The author has an hindex of 16, co-authored 40 publications receiving 2408 citations.

Papers
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This review gathers updated recommendations considering the lifestyle, dietary, sociocultural, environmental and health challenges that the current Mediterranean populations are facing and contributes to a much better adherence to this healthy dietary pattern and its way of life with this new graphic representation.
Abstract: Objective To present the Mediterranean diet (MD) pyramid: a lifestyle for today. Design A new graphic representation has been conceived as a simplified main frame to be adapted to the different nutritional and socio-economic contexts of the Mediterranean region. This review gathers updated recommendations considering the lifestyle, dietary, sociocultural, environmental and health challenges that the current Mediterranean populations are facing. Setting and Subjects Mediterranean region and its populations. Results Many innovations have arisen since previous graphical representations of the MD. First, the concept of composition of the ‘main meals’ is introduced to reinforce the plant-based core of the dietary pattern. Second, frugality and moderation is emphasised because of the major public health challenge of obesity. Third, qualitative cultural and lifestyle elements are taken into account, such as conviviality, culinary activities, physical activity and adequate rest, along with proportion and frequency recommendations of food consumption. These innovations are made without omitting other items associated with the production, selection, processing and consumption of foods, such as seasonality, biodiversity, and traditional, local and eco-friendly products. Conclusions Adopting a healthy lifestyle and preserving cultural elements should be considered in order to acquire all the benefits from the MD and preserve this cultural heritage. Considering the acknowledgment of the MD as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO (2010), and taking into account its contribution to health and general well-being, we hope to contribute to a much better adherence to this healthy dietary pattern and its way of life with this new graphic representation.

1,246 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Sustainability should be considered as part of the long-term time dimension in the assessment of food security, and can play a key role as a goal and a way of maintaining nutritional well-being and health, while ensuring the sustainability for future food security.
Abstract: Objective To position the concept of sustainability within the context of food security. Design An overview of the interrelationships between food security and sustainability based on a non-systematic literature review and informed discussions based principally on a quasi-historical approach from meetings and reports. Setting International and global food security and nutrition. Results The Rome Declaration on World Food Security in 1996 defined its three basic dimensions as: availability, accessibility and utilization, with a focus on nutritional well-being. It also stressed the importance of sustainable management of natural resources and the elimination of unsustainable patterns of food consumption and production. In 2009, at the World Summit on Food Security, the concept of stability/vulnerability was added as the short-term time indicator of the ability of food systems to withstand shocks, whether natural or man-made, as part of the Five Rome Principles for Sustainable Global Food Security. More recently, intergovernmental processes have emphasized the importance of sustainability to preserve the environment, natural resources and agro-ecosystems (and thus the overlying social system), as well as the importance of food security as part of sustainability and vice versa. Conclusions Sustainability should be considered as part of the long-term time dimension in the assessment of food security. From such a perspective the concept of sustainable diets can play a key role as a goal and a way of maintaining nutritional well-being and health, while ensuring the sustainability for future food security. Without integrating sustainability as an explicit (fifth?) dimension of food security, today’s policies and programmes could become the very cause of increased food insecurity in the future.

214 citations

01 Jan 2012
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present the evidence of a worldwide unsustainable food system and propose a sustainable diets with low-input, local and seasonal agro-ecological food productions as well as short-distance production-consumption nets for fair trade.
Abstract: It is time to face the evidence of a worldwide unsustainable food system. Its complexity makes it extremely fragile to any climatic, socio-economic, political or financial crisis. Thus, we urgently need appropriate understanding and new strategies to really accommodate present and future population needs and well-being. In that context, we need sustainable diets, with low-input, local and seasonal agro-ecological food productions as well as shortdistance production-consumption nets for fair trade. Cultural heritage, food quality and culinary skills are other key aspects determining sustainable dietary patterns and food security. Nutrition education about appropriate food choices remains essential everywhere. It thus appears very urgent to profoundly change our food strategy and to promote fair, culturally-appropriated, biodiversity-based, ecofriendly, sustainable diets. Authorities should urgently assume their responsibilities by orienting and supporting the appropriate and sustainable foodstuff productions and consumptions in all parts of the world.

212 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Med Diet 4.0 can contribute to the revitalization of the Mediterranean diet by improving its current perception not only as a healthy diet but also a sustainable lifestyle model, with country-specific and culturally appropriate variations.
Abstract: Objective: To characterize the multiple dimensions and benefits of the Mediterranean diet as a sustainable diet, in order to revitalize this intangible food heritage at the country level; and to de ...

202 citations


Cited by
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Polanyi is at pains to expunge what he believes to be the false notion contained in the contemporary view of science which treats it as an object and basically impersonal discipline.
Abstract: The Study of Man. By Michael Polanyi. Price, $1.75. Pp. 102. University of Chicago Press, 5750 Ellis Ave., Chicago 37, 1959. One subtitle to Polanyi's challenging and fascinating book might be The Evolution and Natural History of Error , for Polanyi is at pains to expunge what he believes to be the false notion contained in the contemporary view of science which treats it as an object and basically impersonal discipline. According to Polanyi not only is this a radical and important error, but it is harmful to the objectives of science itself. Another subtitle could be Farewell to Detachment , for in place of cold objectivity he develops the idea that science is necessarily intensely personal. It is a human endeavor and human point of view which cannot be divorced from nor uprooted out of the human matrix from which it arises and in which it works. For a good while

2,248 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
27 Nov 2014-Nature
TL;DR: Alternative diets that offer substantial health benefits could, if widely adopted, reduce global agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, reduce land clearing and resultant species extinctions, and help prevent such diet-related chronic non-communicable diseases.
Abstract: Diets link environmental and human health. Rising incomes and urbanization are driving a global dietary transition in which traditional diets are replaced by diets higher in refined sugars, refined fats, oils and meats. By 2050 these dietary trends, if unchecked, would be a major contributor to an estimated 80 per cent increase in global agricultural greenhouse gas emissions from food production and to global land clearing. Moreover, these dietary shifts are greatly increasing the incidence of type II diabetes, coronary heart disease and other chronic non-communicable diseases that lower global life expectancies. Alternative diets that offer substantial health benefits could, if widely adopted, reduce global agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, reduce land clearing and resultant species extinctions, and help prevent such diet-related chronic non-communicable diseases. The implementation of dietary solutions to the tightly linked diet–environment– health trilemma is a global challenge, and opportunity, of great environmental and public health importance.

2,200 citations

Book ChapterDOI
12 Jul 2017
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the ecology of human development, those forces in the person's environment that affect and influence development, i.e., social, economic, and environmental factors.
Abstract: This chapter explores the ecology of human development, those forces in the person's environment that affect and influence development. Urie Bronfenbrenner's model of the human ecosystem guides the discussion, making connections between children in families and in communities and the larger society that surrounds them. The human ecosystem model is much like the study of the natural ecology, focusing on the interactions between subjects at various levels of the environment as they affect each other. The interaction between individual and environment forms the basis of an ecological approach to human development. This view sees the process of development as the expansion of the child's conception of the world and the child's ability to act on that world. Risks to development can come from both direct threats and the absence of opportunities for development. Sociocultural risk refers to the impoverishment in the child's world of essential experiences and relationships.

2,149 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This review gathers updated recommendations considering the lifestyle, dietary, sociocultural, environmental and health challenges that the current Mediterranean populations are facing and contributes to a much better adherence to this healthy dietary pattern and its way of life with this new graphic representation.
Abstract: Objective To present the Mediterranean diet (MD) pyramid: a lifestyle for today. Design A new graphic representation has been conceived as a simplified main frame to be adapted to the different nutritional and socio-economic contexts of the Mediterranean region. This review gathers updated recommendations considering the lifestyle, dietary, sociocultural, environmental and health challenges that the current Mediterranean populations are facing. Setting and Subjects Mediterranean region and its populations. Results Many innovations have arisen since previous graphical representations of the MD. First, the concept of composition of the ‘main meals’ is introduced to reinforce the plant-based core of the dietary pattern. Second, frugality and moderation is emphasised because of the major public health challenge of obesity. Third, qualitative cultural and lifestyle elements are taken into account, such as conviviality, culinary activities, physical activity and adequate rest, along with proportion and frequency recommendations of food consumption. These innovations are made without omitting other items associated with the production, selection, processing and consumption of foods, such as seasonality, biodiversity, and traditional, local and eco-friendly products. Conclusions Adopting a healthy lifestyle and preserving cultural elements should be considered in order to acquire all the benefits from the MD and preserve this cultural heritage. Considering the acknowledgment of the MD as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO (2010), and taking into account its contribution to health and general well-being, we hope to contribute to a much better adherence to this healthy dietary pattern and its way of life with this new graphic representation.

1,246 citations