The Role of the Mediterranean Diet in Addressing Obesity, Diabetes, and Cancer: a Global Perspective Across the Lifespan

There is a significant global change underway in the world, and urbanization, dietary changes, and the escalating burden of chronic disorders are reshaping the agendas for public health. Among these issues, overweight and obesity have emerged as significant global health issues, affecting billions of individuals and placing significant pressure on health systems. Overweight and obesity are not only clinical problems but also social, economic, and cultural ones with intricate multi-component solutions. Nutrition is central to addressing such challenges since it is progressively recognized as a key driver in prevention and control of non-communicable disease, enabling improved health outcomes and more sustainable healthcare systems. The Mediterranean Diet, well-known for its nutritional, cultural, and environmental appropriateness, is a proven example of a dietary model with extensive health benefits. Taking such dietary models beyond their local context presents difficult issues. In regions such as South Asia, which experiences population increase and dietary transition accompanied by ongoing socio-economic and health disparity, there is a higher risk of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. In these situations, the transfer of successful dietary models such as the Mediterranean Diet entails a reasoned incorporation of cultural, economic, and environmental factors. This thesis contributes to the global nutrition discourse by exploring how evidence-based dietary interventions can be adapted and applied across different populations. It considers the feasibility of culturally tailoring the MD for South Asia, and brushes on wider issues concerning the limitations of conventional obesity treatments, personalized nutrition's future in chronic disease prevention, and the development of clinical tools to facilitate precision care.