Socioeconomic Determinants of the Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet at a Time of Economic Crisis: The Experience of the MOLI-SANI Study1

A large body of evidence links the traditional Mediterranean diet to reduced risk of major chronic diseases, including neurodegenerative disease. However, the dietary behaviors of Mediterranean populations have been radically changing during the last decades with people westernizing their diet. Among possible causes, the increasing cost of many key-foods of the Mediterranean diet is likely to have led people to give up this eating pattern in favor of less expensive products often unhealthy. There is reason to believe that the economic downturn is going to produce unfavorable effects on the dietary lifestyle of people, especially among the less wealthy groups.