Assessment of the Mediterranean Diet Adequacy Index of a collective of young cyclists.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To assess, the degree of adequacy to Mediterranean Diet (MD), by young cyclists team, and its comparison with the one of young Spanish males of the "enKID study". BACKGROUND: Now days it has been observed that, the abandoning of the MD, together with sedentary lifestyle, provokes a rapid increase of obesity among the Spanish youth. The progressive abandoning of the MD was firstly evident, in longitudinal studies of the "seven counties", involving active rural populations in Italy. METHODS: The Mediterranean Adequacy Index (MAI), is computed by dividing the sum of the percentage of total energy from typical Mediterranean food Groups (Cereals, Legumes, Fruits, Fish), by the sum of the percentage of total energy from non-typical Mediterranean food groups (Meats, Eggs, Cookies, industrial dishes). The collective under the study was 45 young cyclists in the area of Madrid, and homologous young Spanish males of the "enKID study". RESULTS: The average value of MAI of the collective of male cyclists was 2,31(modest value); and the MAI of homologous young males of the "enKID study" is 1.51 (low value). The MAI in Italy several decades ago was 7.2 (very good), when the adequacy to the MD was high; Those results demonstrate that unfortunately the Spanish young people are abandoning the adherence to the Mediterranean Diet. Around 20% of the cyclists have almost null adequacy to the MD, as their MAI was 1.08 (very low value). The quality of the diet Index(DQI) of the cyclists team was 67 over 100, which means that their diet was "good, but it needs to be improved". The lipid profile (measured by the cocient of intake of MUFA and PUFA divided by SFA) of the cyclists team was 1,71 (lower than the recommended value which should be > 2), quite similar to the cocient of homologous young males of the enKID study Diet which was 1,69. This illustrates the poor lipid profile of young people diets. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Spanish youth are abandoning the traditional MD. Therefore there is an urgent need to organize Educational campaigns among the youth, their parents, teachers, and coaches in order to reverse this situation, in order to recover the healthy MD lifestyle. The adherence tot the traditional MD (rich in vegetable, fruits, fish, nuts, and olive oil), together with prhysical activity, contributes to the prevention of cardiovascular diseases and obesity.