The Mediterranean diet is in vogue because it reflects what we have lost.

It is on everyone’s lips and on many tables, a guarantee of health and longevity, a representative of an active and social lifestyle, under warm and sunny protection.

The Mediterranean diet – or Mediterranean diet – has been included in UNESCO’s list of intangible heritage since 2010. This is a guarantee of cultural value, but it is also a powerful strategic tool for promoting food products such as olive oil.

The Mediterranean diet, often cited for its health benefits, was first described in 1953 in a book on Crete. We were then surprised by the low incidence of cardiovascular diseases among residents of the Greek island compared to residents of Northern Europe.

This olive oil-based diet involves eating fresh produce, seasonal fruits and vegetables, and whole grains, among other things. It embodies the essence of the Mediterranean lifestyle. According to UNESCO definition:

It includes a set of know-how, knowledge, rituals, symbolism and traditions that relate to crops, harvesting, gathering, fishing, breeding, preservation, transformation, food preparation and, in particular, the way the table is divided and food is consumed. Communal eating forms the basis of the cultural identity and continuity of communities in the Mediterranean basin. It is a moment of social exchange and communication, affirmation and restoration of the identity of a family, group or community.

But beyond the effects on our health, what does the Mediterranean diet tell us about ourselves as a society? What is this symptom?

Postdoctoral fellow at UQAM School of Management Sciences. My research is at the intersection of heritage and tourism studies, nutrition and mental health.

In 2021, I conducted fieldwork in Cilento (Italy), Soria (Spain) and Marseille (France), where I questioned residents’ adherence to the Mediterranean diet. I listened to their stories and then traced the web of local and social dynamics underlying the concept of the Mediterranean diet.

Read more: The Mediterranean diet improves gut health and helps you age better

Mirror of a deep social crisis

Thus, the concept of the Mediterranean diet refers to a lifestyle that strengthens social relationships and is beneficial for health. Everything seems very simple and consistent.

However, the society we live in makes it difficult to meet these basic needs. These health and social aspects are extremely important because they form the basis of the balance that is missing in globalized societies.

Claude Fischler, a sociologist of human nutrition, describes the multidimensional crisis of the food system that plagues modern societies.

According to him, there is a psychopathology of daily eating. It will be characterized by “appetite disturbances, bulimic outbursts, anxious or compulsive eating, etc.” Just think about consuming ultra-processed foods or prepared and frozen meals eaten alone in front of the TV in the evening or in front of the computer during your lunch break.

In this psychopathological perspective of nutrition, which is also a mirror of the social crisis, mechanisms of cultural (and in this case food) reactivation are triggered. The rush to the Mediterranean diet is a reflection of this social crisis because it is antithetical to our lifestyle.

Read more: Drink a glass of oil a day: the Mediterranean secret to a long life

Thanks to its inclusion in the UNESCO list, the Mediterranean diet has become a prestigious “monument” of the Mediterranean culinary art.

This food culture became mythologized and became a legacy after it underwent an irreversible process of erosion of food production and consumption systems in the Mediterranean region.

Gastronativism: politics on a plate

The food arena is one of the privileged places to express the anxieties and anxieties of modern life.

Fabio Parasecoli, a food researcher, calls these concerns about globalization gastronativism. It consists of “the ideological use of food in politics to promote ideas about who belongs to a community (however it defines it) and who does not.”

Gastronativism thus embodies a political tool that provides “a sense of rootedness, comfort and security” in the face of a sense of collapse (climate change, war, pandemics, globalization, etc.).

The Mediterranean diet fits into this gastronativist logic because it embodies a lifestyle that we can adopt.

Different meanings of the Mediterranean diet according to culinary communities

Often we hear about the Mediterranean diet from institutions and scientists. On the other hand, we rarely hear the views of communities practicing this way of life.

My field research in 2021 sought to understand the different ways in which the Mediterranean diet is defined, described, understood, and followed by community.

In Cilento, the Mediterranean diet resembles a “way of life.” This is a fact of identity and a reference to the sociocultural sphere in a broader sense (“our way of life,” residents say).

In Soria, it embodies the “nutritional model” and is part of the health sector: the most commonly used adjectives are “healthy”, “wholesome” and “health-conscious”.

In Marseille, the term “diet” refers to the imagination associated with fasting, deprivation and abstinence from food, while the term “Mediterranean” refers to organic, seasonal and healthy foods. We are talking more about the agri-food sector.

“Sociocultural seismograph”

Regardless of whether the Mediterranean diet is understood as a dietary pattern, a way of life or an intangible heritage, it is an escape route for a system (social, food, economic, environmental) in crisis and in constant search of direction.

Seismographs are instruments that record and measure earthquakes. Like a “sociocultural seismograph,” the Mediterranean diet captures vibrations, i.e., changes that occur in modern society and that cultural (and dietary) practices face.