How Europe’s being starved of the Mediterranean diet

Once hailed as the pinnacle of health, the food is being pushed out by quicker options and right-wing governments. Hannah Twiggs speaks to a nutritionist to find out more

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Flick through TikTok, thumb through the latest nutritionist’s cookbook or tune into morning TV and you'll be bombarded with praise for the Mediterranean diet.

Touted as the ultimate blueprint for healthy eating, it's plant-forward, low in meat and fish, and virtually free of ultra-processed foods (UPF). Rich in fibre, healthy fats and antioxidants. It's a diet which has been linked to better gut health, longer life and lower risk of chronic disease - and it underpins the world's so-called blue zones, where people frequently live to 100 and beyond.

Yet in the countries where it was born, it's becoming less popular.

“Spain and other parts of southern Europe are famous because of the Mediterranean diet,” says Dr Ruben Fernandez-Rodriguez, a nutritional psychiatrist and researcher at the University of Granada, “but our diets are shifting because of convenience, the price of whole plant-based food, and because we don't have time to cook. We live fast. We need fast things ready to go.”

There's a growing irony at the heart of the Mediterranean diet's global fame: while it's praised as a model for healthy, sustainable eating, its own future is increasingly under threat - and the very thing blamed for its decline might also hold the key to its survival.

Recent research shows that adherence to the traditional Mediterranean diet is in steady decline across southern Europe, even in the countries where it originated.