Traditional Atlantic Diet and Its Effect on Health and the Environment

Abstract

ImportanceThe universal call to action for healthier and more sustainable dietary choices is the framework of the United Nations’s Sustainable Development Goals. The Atlantic diet, originating from the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, represents an example of a traditional diet that aligns with these principles.ObjectiveTo explore a 6-month intervention based on the Atlantic diet’s effects on metabolic and environmental health, assessing metabolic syndrome (MetS) incidence and the carbon footprint.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsThe Galician Atlantic Diet study was a 6-month randomized clinical trial designed to assess the effects of this regional traditional diet on families’ eating habits. The study was conducted from March 3, 2014, to May 29, 2015, at a local primary health care center in the rural town of A Estrada in northwestern Spain and involved a multisectoral collaboration. Families were randomly selected from National Health System records and randomized 1:1 to an intervention or control group. This secondary analysis of the trial findings was performed between March 24, 2021, and November 7, 2023.InterventionsOver 6 months, families in the intervention group received educational sessions, cooking classes, written supporting material, and foods characteristic of the Atlantic diet, whereas those randomized to the control group continued with their habitual lifestyle.Main Outcomes and MeasuresThe main outcomes were MetS incidence, defined per National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III guidelines, and carbon footprint emissions as an environmental metric using life cycle assessment with daily dietary intake as the functional unit.ResultsInitially, 250 families were randomized (574 participants; mean [SD] age, 46.8 [15.7] years; 231 males [40.2%] and 343 females [59.8%]). The intervention group included 126 families (287 participants) and the control group, 124 families (287 participants). Ultimately, 231 families completed the trial. The intervention significantly reduced the risk of incident cases of MetS (rate ratio, 0.32; 95% CI, 0.13-0.79) and had fewer MetS components (proportional odds ratio, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.42-0.82) compared with the control condition. The intervention group did not have a significantly reduced environmental impact in terms of carbon footprint emissions compared with the control group (−0.17 [95% CI, −0.46 to 0.12] kg CO2 equivalents/person/d).Conclusions and RelevanceThese findings provide important evidence that a family-focused dietary intervention based on a traditional diet can reduce the risk of incident MetS. Further research is needed to understand the underlying mechanisms and determine the generalizability to other populations, taking into account regional cultural and dietary variations.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02391701