The Mediterranean diet (MD) is considered one of the healthiest dietary models. Many of the characteristic components of the MD have functional features with positive effects on health and wellness. ...The MD adherence, calculated through various computational scores, can lead to a reduction of the incidence of major diseases (e.g., cancers, metabolic and cardiovascular syndromes, neurodegenerative diseases, type 2 diabetes and allergy). Furthermore, eating habits are the main significant determinants of the microbial multiplicity of the gut, and dietary components influence both microbial populations and their metabolic activities from the early stages of life. For this purpose, we present a study proposal relying on the generation of individual gut microbiota maps from MD-aware children/adolescents. The maps, based on meta-omics approaches, may be considered as new tools, acting as a systems biology-based proof of evidence to evaluate MD effects on gut microbiota homeostasis. Data integration of food metabotypes and gut microbiota "enterotypes" may allow one to interpret MD adherence and its effects on health in a new way, employable for the design of targeted diets and nutraceutical interventions in childcare and clinical management of food-related diseases, whose onset has been significantly shifted early in life.
OBJECTIVE: To know how Italian nursery and primary schools survey and manage children with food-related problems. DESIGN: A pilot study during the period March-May 2005, filling out a questionnaire. ...SETTING: All nursery and primary schools in a Northern Italian region (Friuli Venezia Giulia). SUBJECTS: There were 479 eligible schools RESULTS: Global response rate was of 29.6%. In 77.5% (110/142) of the schools there were children with food-related pathologies. Programs about nutrition were carried out by 44.4% (63/142) of the schools in the previous two years; 9.5% (6/63) dealt with food-related pathologies and 57.1% (36/63) required the intervention of outside experts to have these projects realized. In the same period training courses about nutrition for teachers were conducted in 9.2% (13/142) of the schools. CONCLUSIONS: Data provide a first overview of the situation in Italy on food-related topics in children attending nursery and primary schools. Therefore many programs could not rely on funds to be developed, but had to use internal resources of the school.
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