Abstract
Food supply in the Mediterranean area has been recently modified by big retail distribution; for instance, industrial retail has favored shipments of groceries from regions that are intensive producers of mass food, generating a long supply chain (LSC) of food that opposes short supply chains (SSCs) that promote local food markets. However, the actual functional role of food retail and distribution in the determination of the risk of developing metabolic syndrome (MetS) has not been studied hitherto. The main aim of this study was to test the effects of food chain length on the prevalence of MetS in a population accustomed to the Mediterranean diet. We conducted an observational study in Southern Italy on individuals adhering to the Mediterranean diet. We examined a total of 407 subjects (41% females) with an average age of 56 ± 14.5 years (as standard deviation) and found that being on the Mediterranean diet with a SSC significantly reduces the prevalence of MetS compared with the LSC (SSC: 19.65%, LSC: 31.46%; p: 0.007). Our data indicate for the first time that the length of food supply chain plays a key role in determining the risk of MetS in a population adhering to the Mediterranean diet.
Highlights
Several studies have demonstrated that the Mediterranean diet significantly reduces the risk of developing metabolic syndrome (MetS) [1,2,3,4], a cluster of clinical conditions that occur together and increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes [5,6,7]
The overarching aim of our study was to test the effects of food chain length on metabolic alterations in a population accustomed to the Mediterranean diet
We excluded from the analysis patients younger than 30 (n = 70) and older than 80 years (n = 30) because of the previously reported relatively low adherence to the Mediterranean diet by populations at those ages [12,24,25,26]
Summary
Several studies have demonstrated that the Mediterranean diet significantly reduces the risk of developing metabolic syndrome (MetS) [1,2,3,4], a cluster of clinical conditions that occur together and increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes [5,6,7]. The exact role of food retail and distribution in the risk of developing MetS has not yet been fully determined. The development of big retail food distribution has deeply modified food supply in the Mediterranean area [8,9]. The origin of food, the long period of time elapsing from production to consumption, the need to add preservatives, as well as the loss of perishable nutrients such as vitamins, can all contribute to reducing the quality of food. Whether food quality loss has an impact on the health of the population remains to be determined
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