The Mediterranean Diet: From the pyramid to the circular model

The Mediterraneann Diet (MD) is a millennial example of healthy and sustainable nutrition for humankind and the planet. It bases its principles on the limited and responsible use of resources, encouraging their reuse, whenever possible, and preventing overexploitation. The MD is also a healthy food model because it prevents many chronic non-transmissible diseases, safeguarding human health of present and future generations. The advancement of health through healthy eating has made it necessary to disseminate nutritional recommendations in line with the scientific guidelines. To make these recommendations more accessible to the population, it has become commonplace to use graphic models that are expressive and easy to understand such as the pyramid model. The intuitiveness and simplicity of its Powered by Editorial Manager® and ProduXion Manager® from Aries Systems Corporation interpretation made the food pyramid an effective educational tool for disseminating nutritional recommendations. Over the years the pyramidal representations have been enriched in an attempt to provide more and more information, while at the same time becoming more difficult to read. To represent nutritional recommendations, in addition to the graphic choice linked to the cultural context of the territory and in addition to pyramid models, circular graphic models are also spreading in the collective imagination. The goal of our study is to propose a new representation of the Mediterranean diet based on circularity. Our representation wants to highlight both the importance of the different components / categories of the model and the cyclical nature that distinguishes human life, the seasonality of food, the cyclical nature of the production chain, the circular economy hidden behind each product. The choice of a circular model therefore wants to represent the concept that virtuous choices can feed a “virtuous cycle” and reestablish a healthy balance among people, environment and society.