“After the Mediterranean diet, already a World Heritage Site, the extension of this recognition to all Italian cuisine is, I think, the right initiative. Our diet has at its heart the cornerstones of the Mediterranean diet, the use of very varied elements ranging from animal proteins to vegetable proteins, from fish to fruit and vegetables, and then extra virgin olive oil.Elements that are interpreted in the many regional recipes that are unique and varied worldwide. Italy is one of the countries with the highest life expectancy, eating healthy and in a balanced way is a boost to longevity”. Thus at Adnkronos Salute the geriatrician Nicola Ferrara, professor of internal medicine at the Federico II University of Naples and former president of the Italian Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology, spoke on the official candidacy of the Italian Government of Italian cuisine as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
“In our country there is a culture of food quality, of work on the supply chain, for example the ‘km 0’, of appreciation for the taste and sociability linked to food. So it is right to defend Italian cuisine – continues the geriatrician – because we also help a work on prevention, we know that Italy is experiencing an epidemic of childhood obesity which arises, in part, from being open to foods that do not belong to our food history and culture”.