Fad diets have impaired the thinking of people who often go on high fat, low carbohydrate, gluten and dairy free diets, which might be depriving the individual of real nutrition, said Professor Daniele Del Rio, Head of the School of Advanced Studies on Food and Nutrition at the University of Parma in Italy on Tuesday.

Professor Rio was speaking on the sidelines of the Arab Health forum at the Positive Nutrition for Prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) symposium. He spoke at length on the role of the Mediterranean diet and its role in reducing the incidence of cardio vascular and other diseases such as diabetes, obesity and cancers.

“There is no reason to go on a specific diet free of something like gluten free or dairy free if there is no medical condition that is forcing you to do that specific choice,” he said of fad diets.

“There is no science behind prevention so if you exclude gluten that you have lower odds of getting coeliac disease for example. It doesn’t work like that. Veganism is a choice that has a lot of ethics in it and you need to be careful that you get the micronutrients that you might not get from the diet. One needs to appreciate all the nutrients present in milk, eggs and make sure one really does not miss anything like vitamin B12 that is in meat and try and get it from other sources,” he added.

Of the Mediterranean diet, he said: “It’s not a diet but a lifestyle with a lot of physical activity, the right eating habits and it can be easily adapted in countries outside the Mediterranean basin to reduce inflammation, diabetes, obesity and cardio vascular disease incidence.”

A Global Burden of Disease study conducted in the UAE from 1990 to 2016 said that cardio vascular disease is the leading killer in the country. A recent independent study from the World Health Organisation also found that one in 10 residents live with diabetes and 47.5 per cent of residents are overweight.

SOURCE : GULFNEWS