People who know what they eat are more healthy than those who dont

Knwoing what you eat is more healthy than not. One Italian study reveals that eating according to the rule of the Mediterranean diet is also the product of good knowledge on issues of prevention and health
LM & SDP
The Mediterranean diet is cited by many experts as an ideal model of correct and healthy diet.
Nevertheless, just we Italians, often do not follow correctly and somehow they pay the consequences: being overweight, cardiovascular and cancer risk – just to name a few.

However, exceptions do exist, and people are informed. According to a new study Italian in fact, people with a good level of knowledge on the topics of prevention follow the Mediterranean diet. Follow the prompts of the junk food and supercalorici food rich in sugar or salt, shows that we do not know the risks which we are meeting and we turn our backs to local pride everything that makes the Mediterranean diet model the world's most popular food for its beneficial health properties.

Because of this, in recent years, research is trying to understand the causes of the abandonment of the Mediterranean diet, in particular on the part of the populations that have kept almost intact, at least until the war.
The study that investigated in this direction was carried out by researchers of the Moli-sani project and saw the involvement of 25 thousand citizens of the Molise region.
What is immediately clear is that eating Mediterranean rule is also the product of good knowledge on issues of prevention and health. Most people prepared in this field generally have a much higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet than those who know little or nothing about healthy lifestyles.

The research, published online by the journal Appetite, was conducted on a sub-sample of approximately 1,000 people on which has been evaluated the level of knowledge and awareness in General in the field of the relationship between nutrition and health. Among the questions considered in the questionnaire, the relationship between the consumption of certain foods and the onset of diseases, dietary recommendations knowledge provided by experts and nutritional content of some of the most popular foods.

«The most aware, "explains Lucy Radwa, lead author of the research which has also recently published a book on the Mediterranean diet at the time of the crisis – have reported a greater adherence to the Mediterranean diet, regardless of other factors, such as level of education and their social status. Just to give an idea, the more informed group had 62 percent better chance that we belong to the category of high adherence to the Mediterranean diet. Not only. The more informed people also had a prevalence of obesity far below those that it knew less. The prevalence of obese in the group with greater knowledge was of 22 percent compared with a worrisome 35 percent observed among people less informed.

«These figures go in the same direction as what we had already observed in the context of a study on media exposure – noted Americo Bonanni, co-author of the study and scientific communication expert – Even in that case, be informed corresponded to increased adherence to the Mediterranean diet. All this suggests a role of information in our food and choices regarding lifestyles in General».

«Know that knowledge weighs in our life choices, not least those that we do at the table, takes a value of extreme importance, especially in recent times-says Licia I.s, head of the Moli-sani project – at a time when even the power is somehow influenced by the economic crisis, with the weaker and more, raise the level of awareness is certainly one of the most effective interventions. Data released recently showed that about half of Italians does not know the precise meaning of the term "Mediterranean diet". Perhaps this is also why people make so much effort to follow it. For our grandparents Mediterranean was being natural. We must rediscover it and try to maintain this good yet we».

So is the saying that "knowledge is health" and being informed is not merely a matter of culture, but of respect for themselves and their health.