Survey on the contribution of animal origin foods in Italian dietary habits

Foods of animal origin (AF) are considered cause of health problems in developed countries while their consumption is growing in developing countries, also to reduce malnutrition. The emphasis to the Mediterranean Diet (MD) and its positive effects suggest a rise of plant derived foods (PF) and reduction of AF. Aim of our study was to estimate the average dietary intakes in 4 Italian areas and to compare them with the frequency of human diseases. Data were obtained by ISMEA/ACNielsen and concern the single foods bought weekly by a panel of 6000 families randomly spread in the whole country. According to daily intake by average person and the typical composition of each food, the energy and nutrient consumption at domestic level were calculated and estimated for a total daily intake of 2241 kcal/d. The average diets of 4 areas were compared with MD and with the frequency of cancer, vascular diseases, diabetes and obesity. Data suggest the difficulties to know the real intake of foods - lack of reliable statistics, data regarding raw materials (e.g. carcass weight for meat, uncured vegetables) - but allow an acceptable estimation of main nutrients contributing to energy in the diet: 15% proteins, 39% lipids and 45% carbohydrates. AF are responsible of 61% of protein, 38% of lipid and 16% of carbohydrate intake. Among areas a lower consumption of AF is observed in the South, while cereals and oils are higher. According to this, the adherence to the MD is slightly higher in South (64%) vs North (57%) and Centrum (61%), but lower respect to the ideal MD (85%). However, South has less cancer and vascular diseases, but higher diabetes, overweight and obesity. Despite the difficulty to compare dietary and health data, we suggest that present Italian diet is slightly poor in proteins, too rich in fat (62% from PF) and sugars (84% from PF and sweet beverages). This advise a slight reduction of cereals, sweet beverages and non olive oils as well as use of lean meat and low fat dairies.