“The Mediterranean Diet is not disappearing. It is evolving. The question is whether we are shaping that evolution—or simply watching it happen.”
For more than seventy years, researchers from around the world have travelled to the Cilento to understand why people here live longer, healthier lives. From Ancel and Margaret Keys to today’s interdisciplinary teams, Pollica has never been just a symbol of the Mediterranean Diet—it has been its living laboratory.
The LAFA – Longevity & Fertility Algorithm project continues this scientific journey by asking a crucial question: Can the Mediterranean Diet still protect the next generation?
The first answer is encouraging.
A new generation still rooted in the Mediterranean lifestyle
In spring 2025, LAFA assessed the dietary habits of children and adolescents living in the UNESCO Emblematic Communities of the Cilento using the internationally validated KIDMED and MEDAS-PREDIMED questionnaires. The research combined dietary assessment with education, community engagement and digital data collection as part of the LAFA One Health platform, EPITOME.
The results reveal something remarkable.
Children living in the Cilento achieved an average KIDMED score of 6.40, with 30.6% showing high adherence to the Mediterranean Diet. This is approximately twice the Italian average reported in recent meta-analyses and almost three times the average observed across Southern Italy.
Even more importantly, the data demonstrate that the Mediterranean Diet remains a measurable and living cultural asset—not simply a historical narrative.
Pollica: where the Mediterranean Diet is still a public policy
Within the surveyed communities, Pollica stands out.
Acciaroli recorded an average KIDMED score of 7.32, with 42.9% of children achieving high adherence. Pioppi reached the same percentage of high adherence, while Pollica itself recorded 31%, all well above national benchmarks.
These are not accidental outcomes.
They reflect years of integrated local action: Mediterranean school meals, educational programmes, family engagement, landscape-based learning, and a community that continues to see food not simply as nutrition, but as culture, identity and public health.
Throughout LAFA, schools became living laboratories where children did not simply complete questionnaires—they explored food through experiential learning, cooking, storytelling, neuroscience, civic imagination and community workshops. More than 73 educational activities were organised between autumn 2024 and spring 2025 across schools and communities, transforming dietary assessment into an educational process.
The good news—and the warning signs
The data tell a nuanced story.
Traditional Mediterranean markers remain exceptionally strong.
- 96% of children report olive oil as their primary fat.
- 82% eat pasta or rice daily.
- 70% consume legumes at least once a week.
- Sofrito—a cornerstone of Mediterranean cooking—remains widely used.
Yet LAFA also identifies emerging vulnerabilities.
Despite living in one of the world’s iconic Mediterranean territories:
- fruit and vegetable consumption remains below optimal Mediterranean recommendations;
- fish consumption is unexpectedly low for a coastal community;
- industrial breakfast products are increasingly replacing traditional breakfasts;
- sugar-sweetened beverages are consumed daily by a large proportion of children.
These findings mirror the wider nutritional transition occurring across the Mediterranean basin.
The Mediterranean Diet has not disappeared.
Industrial food environments are gradually reshaping it.
Beyond measuring diets: building healthier communities
One of LAFA’s most innovative contributions is that it does not stop at measuring dietary adherence.
The project integrates nutrition, environmental quality, education, neuroscience and community participation into a single One Health framework through the EPITOME platform. Lifestyle data are analysed alongside environmental indicators, cognitive wellbeing and community participation to understand how healthier environments generate healthier lives.
This makes Pollica more than a case study.
It becomes a predictive model for healthy territories.
The future starts with children
Perhaps the most important lesson from LAFA is also the simplest.
Children do not choose their food systems.
Communities do.
When schools, families, local governments and researchers work together, children naturally adopt healthier lifestyles. The Mediterranean Diet becomes easier to practice because the environment supports it.
The findings from Pollica demonstrate that preserving the Mediterranean Diet is not about nostalgia. It is about designing policies, educational systems and food environments that allow future generations to thrive.
In a world increasingly dominated by ultra-processed foods, Pollica reminds us that the Mediterranean Diet is not a relic of the past.
It remains one of the most powerful and scientifically grounded investments we can make in the health, resilience and longevity of our children.