Contribution for Zero Draft “CFS VOLUNTARY GUIDELINES ON GENDER EQUALITY AND WOMEN’S AND GIRLS’ EMPOWERMENT”
Authors: Andrea Devecchi*, Sofia Fratianni**, Andrea Pezzana***
In the Section 3.8 “Women and men’s ability to make strategic choices for healthy diets and good nutrition”, the promotion of sustainable diets could be emphasized.
The implementation of SUSTAINABLE DIETS (FAO 2010 - "diets with low environmental impact that contribute to food and nutritional safety and a healthy lifestyle for present and future generations" [1]) in various contexts worldwide, could be the solution to reform the global food system, re-addressing the food habits and consequently the food demand on one hand, and production and distribution on the other hand, in order to obtain opportune effects on human health and the environment at the same time [2].
This could trigger a virtuous circle: the diet would allow to satisfy the health needs of both women and men, and the sustainability of these models would counteract climate change, an enemy of women's entrepreneurial development and empowerment in particular. In a One Health approach context, diet can play a crucial role, providing tools to counteract all types of malnutrition and instruments of sustainability promotion, both of which are useful for improving gender equality.
To provide concrete examples of this concept, the Mediterranean Diet could be cited as a model to follow for multiple reasons:
- for its frugality
- for the environmental sustainability that characterizes it
- for the multiple positive effects on human health
- because the Mediterranean Diet historically embraces geographic regions in which all three forms of malnutrition are represented and in which the problem of gender equality is present under different points of view.
The empowerment of the new generations and adolescents would be important, even with nudging interventions in schools, on the principles of traditional healthy and sustainable diets; this is why the governmental Agenda should be aligned with the principles of UN Agenda 2030, in particular for the SDG1,2,3.
[1] Simposio Scientifico Internazionale: Biodiversità e diete sostenibili Uniti contro la fame. 2010. Available from: http://www.fao.org/ag/humannutrition/25918-0f89629169d179b29a284d08802c…
[2] Pezzana, Andrea & Tolomeo, Martina & Pistone, erika & Guidi, Sabrina. (2021). CCM Project-Central Action 2019 of the Ministry of Health (General secretary). Models of healthy and sustainable diets starting from traditional diets.
*University of Gastronomic Sciences of Pollenzo, **Ordine degli psicologi del Lazio, ***ASL Città di Torino
Dr. Sofia Fratianni