To summarize the recent scientific evidence regarding the wellness-promoting capacity of the Mediterranean lifestyle (ML), with a special focus on physical, social and environmental wellness.

Narrative review of English-language publications in PubMed, Scopus and Embase, from 1 January 2010 to 31 October 2018.

Prospective cohort studies, interventional studies, meta-analyses and reviews of those investigating the effect of at least one component of the ML on wellness parameters.

General population.

Although an explicit definition of ML is missing, compliance with various combinations of its components improves metabolic health and protects against or ameliorates disease state. However, there is heterogeneity in the healthy behaviours that the ML-focused studies include in their design and the way these are assessed. Also, despite that features of the ML could contribute to other wellness dimensions, there are no studies exploring the effect this healthy lifestyle could confer to them.

Chronic lifestyle diseases are of multifactorial aetiology and they warrant multifaceted approaches targeting the general way of living. ML, if thoroughly evaluated, can provide a valuable tool to holistically promote health and wellness.

To estimate usual diets among Brazilian children regarding the consumption of school meals and social vulnerability risks.

A cross-sectional study. School meal consumers were considered those children who reported consuming school meals ≥3 times/week. Social vulnerability risk was classified by an index. Dietary intake was evaluated by one 24 h dietary recall for the whole sample; a second 24 h dietary recall was administered in a sub-sample (38·6 %). The National Cancer Institute’s method was used to estimate children’s usual intake of nutrients and food groups.

Municipal public schools from Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Children (n 1357) aged 8–12 years.

Half of the sample lived in low/medium social vulnerability risk areas and 27·9 % were school meal non-consumers. School meal consumers more frequently lived in high/very high social vulnerability risk areas (76·2 v. 68·7 %). Children with low/medium social vulnerability risk had a higher mean intake of thiamin (1·13 v. 1·04 mg) and a lower mean intake of candy (1·35 v. 1·42 g). Consumption of school meals among children under high/very high social vulnerability risk was associated with higher mean consumption of vitamin C (31·9 v. 24·1 mg), unprocessed/minimally processed foods (956·3 v. 851·9 g), fruits (128·5 v. 90·9 g) and vegetables (58·2 v. 47·1 g). Ultra-processed food product consumption was lower among school meal consumers (136·2 v. 187·7 g), especially ultra-processed beverages (252·5 v. 305·7 g).

Consuming school meals was associated with a better usual diet quality, particularly among those with higher social vulnerability risk.