Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T14:15:35.831Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Factors determining the nutrition transition in two Mediterranean islands: Sardinia and Malta

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2007

Sophie Tessier  and
Mariette Gerber
Sophie Tessier*
Affiliation:
Groupe d'Epidémiologie Métabolique, Centre de Recherche en Cancérologie, INSERM-CRLC, F-34298 Montpellier Cedex 5, France
Mariette Gerber
Affiliation:
Groupe d'Epidémiologie Métabolique, Centre de Recherche en Cancérologie, INSERM-CRLC, F-34298 Montpellier Cedex 5, France
*
*Corresponding author: Email [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
Objective

To examine and analyse consumption changes over time of 24 food items between Sardinia and Malta.

Setting

The data were collected in 2001 in Sardinia and 2002 in Malta.

Design

A structured qualitative questionnaire, articulated around four main themes: food supply, transformation, preparation and consumption habits, was administered by face-to-face interviews with the help of a local person. It encompassed mainly open-ended questions, which allowed us to measure factors contributing to change.

Subjects

Thirty mother–daughter pairs were interviewed in each insular territory.

Results

Despite a common trend revealing a shift away from cereals, pulses and potatoes to the benefit of meat products, fats and sugar, our results showed contrasting evolutions in food consumption between both insular societies. Fruit and vegetables, olive oil and fish, which are part of the main features of the Mediterranean diet, were among the top foods for which consumption frequency has increased in Sardinia. In Malta, besides an increase in olive oil and vegetable consumption, cheeses and desserts showed the highest increase. Along with modernity and improved living conditions, enhanced commercial availability and increased diversity of food preparation were also identified as factors contributing to food consumption changes.

Conclusions

Although the Sardo-Mediterranean model is evolving under the impact of modernisation, it is not disappearing. In Malta, however, modernity has led to a more sudden shift from a state of food shortage to one of affluence, but in a cultural context where the identity is no longer Mediterranean but Anglo-Saxon.

Keywords

Mediterranean dietFood habitsInsular societiesSocio-economic changesTemporal evolutionGenerations
Type
Research Article
Information
Public Health Nutrition , Volume 8 , Issue 8 , December 2005 , pp. 1286 - 1292
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2005

References

1Aubaile-Sallenave, F. Une image moderne de la cuisine méditerranéenne In: Alimentation et nourritures autour de la méditerranée. Paris: Editions Karthala et Ciheam, 2000.Google Scholar
2Calvo, E. La diversité des pratiques alimentaires dans le macro-espace social. In: Alimentation et régions Actes du colloque ‘Cuisines, régimes alimentaires, espaces régionaux’, Nancy, France, 24–27 septembre 1987. Nancy: Presses Universitaires de Nancy, 1989.Google Scholar
3Kromhout, D. Food consumption patterns in the Seven Countries Study. Seven Countries Study Research Group. up of Medicine 1989; 21(3): 237–8.Google Scholar
4Keys, A, Menotti, A, Karvonen, MJ, Aravanis, C, Blackburn, H, Buzina, R, et al. The diet and 15-year death rate in the Seven Countries Study. Study Journal of Epidemiology 1986; 124: 903–15.Google Scholar
5Ferro-Luzzi, A, Branca, F. Mediterranean diet, Italian-style: prototype of a healthy diet. diet Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1995; 61(Suppl.): 1338S–45S.Google Scholar
6Kushi, LH, Lenart, E, Willett, W. Health implications of Mediterranean diet in light of contemporary knowledge. 1. Plant foods and dairy products. products Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1995; 61(Suppl.): 1407S–15S.Google ScholarPubMed
7Kushi, LH, Lenart, E, Willett, W. Health implications of Mediterranean diet in light of contemporary knowledge. 2. Meat, wine, fats and oils. oils Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1995; 61(Suppl.): 1407S–15S.Google ScholarPubMed
8Corpet, DE, Gerber, M. Alimentation Méditerranéenne et Santé. I. Caractéristiques. Maladies cardio-vasculaires et autres affections. affectionsédecine et Nutrition 1997; 4: 129–42.Google Scholar
9Gerber, M, Corpet, DE. Alimentation Méditerranéenne et Santé. II. Cancers. Cancersédecine et Nutrition 1997; 4: 143–54.Google Scholar
10Ferro-Luzzi, A, Sette, S. The Mediterranean diet: an attempt to define its present and past composition. composition Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1989; 43(Suppl. 2): 13–29.Google Scholar
11Scali, J, Richard, A, Gerber, G. Diet profiles in a population sample from Mediterranean southern France. France Health Nutrition 2000; 4(2): 173–82.Google Scholar
12Ferro-Luzzi, A, James, WP, Kafatos, A. The high-fat Greek diet: a recipe for all? European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2002; 56(9): 796–809.Google Scholar
13Berlinguer, L, Mattone, A. La Sardegna. Storia d'Italia. Le regioni dall'Unita a oggi. Torino: Einaudi, 1998.Google Scholar
14Cassar, C. Society, Culture and Identity in Early Modern Malta. Malta: Mireva Publications, 2000.Google Scholar
15Cassar, C. A Concise History of Malta. Malta: Mireva Publications, 2000.Google Scholar
16 Isola sarda newsletter [online], November 2001. Available at http://www.isolasarda.com/newsletter2001.htm#NOV EMBRE%202001Google Scholar
17Rolland, G. Le marché des produits laitiers à Malte. Fiche de synthèse. Missions économiques. Location: Ambassade de France à Malte, 2002. Also available at http://www.dree.org/malte/Google Scholar
18Counihan, C. Bread as world. Food habits and social relations in modernizing Sardinia. In: The Anthropology of Food and Body. Gender, Meaning and Power. New York: Routledge, 1999.Google Scholar
19Cassar, C. Everyday life in Malta in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In: The British Colonial Experience 1800–1964. The Impact on Maltese Society. Malta: Mireva Publications, 1988.Google Scholar
20Cassar, C. Fenkata: An Emblem of Maltese Peasant Resistance? Malta: Ministry for Youth and the Arts, 1994.Google Scholar
21Poulain, JP. Manger aujourd'hui: attitudes, normes et pratiques. Paris: Editions Privat, 2002.Google Scholar