THE ITALIAN PARADOX: THE WHOLE WORLD IMITATES THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET BECAUSE IT’S THE BEST, WHILE ITALY IS DROPPING IT. IS IT A NEW DIET TREND? NO, IT’S A WAY TO SAVE MONEY

The entire world, or almost all of it, has copied the Mediterranean diet, but in Italy it no longer seems to be in style. Apparently, not because there is another more fashionable food trend, but because Italians have decided they need to start saving money.

On Italian dinner tables, there continues to be less and less bread, pasta, fruit, vegetables and wine. And the reason behind this is the vertiginous price increases that went into effect in 2007. In fact, the average Italian family’s domestic acquisitions declined by 1.8% last year.

This data is the result of a Cia-Italian Agricultural Federation study that, with the use of a series of statistics, revealed the effects of the increase in the cost of food prices in 2007.
The study showed how in 2007 the main ingredients that make up the Mediterranean diet shot up in price and, consequently, how they shot down in consumption.
Bread consumption fell by 7.3%, pasta by 4.5%, fruit 2.8%, vegetables 3.2% and wine by 8.4%. The decline was not just related to the traditional diet but also to most other areas as well: beef consumption dropped by 3.8%, pork by 4.7%, milk 2.3%, cheese 0.6%, and seed oil by 6%. There were just a few products that actually increased in consumption in 2007: chicken consumption grew by 6.8%, eggs by 5.5%, yogurt 4%, and extra virgin olive oil by 1.5%.

According to Cia, these changes in eating habits were greatly influenced by the largely unjustified price hikes over the past year. The record price increase in bread products (+12.3%), pasta (+8.4%), dairy (+7.6%), fruit (+5.6%), and vegetables (+6.8%), for a total of an 18.8% overall increase in food costs, was second only to cost of living increases for housing (+26%) in 2007.

Total food spending for Italians goes primarily to meat and egg products (23.4%), followed by milk and dairy (18.2%), then vegetables (16.8%), grains and cereals (14.8%), seafood (8.9%), alcoholic beverages (5.7%), oils and fats (3.9%), and, finally, sugar, salt, coffee and tea (2.8%).

As for actual consumption, in 2007 the average Italian ate 123 kilos of grain products (bread, pasta, cereals, etc.), a little over 190 kilos of vegetables, 130 kilos of fruit, and 48 liters of wine. Speaking of pasta, Cia noted that total national consumption in 2007 reached 1.6 million tons for a value of over 2 billion euros. Total sector production reached over 3 million tons, for a value of about 3.5 billion euros. Exports absorbed about 46% of total production with 1.4 million tons, for a value of over 1.1 billion euros.