The Food Pyramid on the left is based on the principles of the Mediterranean diet, which has been explicitly cited by the FAO as an exemplary Sustainable Diet and whose nutritional value has been recognized since the middle of the twentieth century. The Mediterranean diet is rich in vegetables, fruits, nuts, unrefined grain cereals, with some fish and limited amounts of red meat and saturated fats. Many studies have consistently confirmed that high adherence to the Mediterranean diet can lead to tangible health benefits, including a reduction in the overall mortality rate and a reduced incidence of cardiovascular diseases, metabolic conditions, and certain oncological pathologies. The Mediterranean diet has frequently been represented in pyramid form. The largest part of the pyramid, the base, shows how a well-balanced diet should be primarily based on the consumption of plant foods, while the apex of the pyramid, its smallest part, indicates the foods, which should be consumed more restrictively. After more than 50 years of research, in 2013 UNESCO has recognized the Mediterranean diet as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
The Environmental Pyramid reclassifies food in terms of the relative magnitude of its environmental impact; thus producing an upside-down pyramid with the most environmentally damaging foods represented at the top, and largely mirroring the order of foods in the adjacent Food Pyramid. The Double Pyramid communicates the inverse relationship between nutritionally recommended foods and their environmental impacts, that is, the foods that from a nutritional point of view have the higher recommended consumption levels are also those with lower environmental impact; foods with lower recommended consumption levels are those with higher environmental impact.
The Food Pyramid provides a summary of the various internationally produced guidelines regarding the Mediterranean diet. It arranges food according to the relative amount in which they should be consumed, while adhering to the principles of the Mediterranean diet: thus fruit, vegetables, and cereals are found in the bottom half of the pyramid, while red meat, sugars, and fats are at the top. The key message conveyed by the Food Pyramid is that our diet should be based mainly on foods of plant origin, as they are rich in vitamins, minerals, fiber, complex carbohydrates, water, and plant proteins, while consumption of the foods residing toward the top of the pyramid should be minimal, being high in saturated fats and simple sugars. The recommended daily intake for each food type was obtained from the “Guidelines for a Healthy Italian Diet”, a document published by the Italian Center for Research on Foods and Nutrition.
Life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was used to generate an estimate of the environmental impact of each food type considered. LCA is an objective technique for assessing the energy consumption and environmental load of a process (which could be an activity or a service), taking into account the whole production chain. The results were communicated through three different environmental indicators:
For more information on the database and data analysis please check the Double Pyramid technical paper available here.
The Double Pyramid Model has been presented at several Scientific International Conferences and appeared in several academic journals and books. Among Others in:
Eating Planet Book The Water We Eat Book Frontiers in Nutrition Journal