Mediterranean Diet Adherence in Contemporary Food Cultures: Challenges, Critical Insights, and Proposals for Obesity Prevention

The Mediterranean Diet (MD) is widely recognized as a cornerstone of obesity prevention and cardiometabolic health promotion. Despite its well-established benefits, sustained adherence to the MD remains difficult to achieve in contemporary obesogenic societies. These difficulties arise from complex and interrelated influences, including food industry practices, rapidly changing dietary trends, socioeconomic inequalities, the expanding role of digital and social media technologies, alongside limited food literacy and environmental constraints. While systematic reviews consistently demonstrate the effectiveness of short-term MD interventions, they also highlight that sustaining long-term adherence requires socially grounded, culturally sensitive, and structurally informed approaches.This Research Topic in Frontiers in Public Health, launched in connection with World Obesity Day, invites contributions that examine the social, cultural, and structural determinants shaping adherence to the Mediterranean Diet across diverse populations and settings. We particularly welcome critical insights and research that address lived experiences and contextual constraints from the microsocial level of dietary practices beyond individual-centered perspectives, to macrosocial level of institutional public agencies, and health policy. Analyses that problematize around the success of the reception of the concept of Mediterranean Diet among the general public, as well as its heuristic character in the world of health research, despite its limitations and weaknesses pointed out from historical and socio-anthropological perspectives, are welcome.We invite original research, reviews, mixed-methods studies, and qualitative works exploring challenges and proposals related to long-term adherence to the Mediterranean Diet. Contributions may address determinants operating at individual, community, health system, and policy levels, with particular attention to equity, cultural adaptation, and real-world implementation.Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:• Socio-cultural meanings, discourses, norms, and practices related to Mediterranean Diet.• Socioeconomic inequalities, food environments, and structural drivers of dietary patterns.• Qualitative and mixed-methods approaches, including participatory and citizen-engaged research.• Integration of Mediterranean Diet–based recommendations into community settings.• Health system strategies to support culturally sensitive Mediterranean Diet promotion, particularly in primary care, including professional training, monitoring indicators, and implementation frameworks.• Public health and policy interventions addressing structural and environmental determinants of healthy diet.Manuscript TypesSubmissions may include Original Research Articles (quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods), Systematic, Scoping or Narrative Reviews, and Study Protocols. We particularly encourage contributions that combine critical analysis with practical or methodological innovations, including qualitative insights from Mediterranean Diet interventions, participatory designs, implementation-focused research, and evaluations of healthcare system or policy-level initiatives.By integrating perspectives from epidemiology, social sciences, health economics, and public policy, this Research Topic aims to advance equitable, culturally grounded, and sustainable public health strategies that support healthier dietary patterns within contemporary social realities. Topic editors: Paloma Massó, Jean-Pierre Poulain, F. Xavier Medina Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/78869/mediterranean-diet-adherence-in-contemporary-food-cultures-challenges-critical-insights-and-proposals-for-obesity-prevention