Patrones de consumo de alimentos en España

Abstract

Spain has been considered as a reference of the Mediterranean Diet, known for its contribution to a higher life quality. This diet is reknown for its consumption of olive oil, fresh foods, red wine, more fish than meat and the absence of processed foods. Our goal is to know the consumption pattern of the Spanish population and the different Spanish regions, comparing them and measuring their adherence to the Mediterranean Diet. Therefore, apart from the descriptive analysis of the food intakes of every Spanish region by food group, a cluster analysis in two stages is performed, using both the hierarchical Ward’s method and the k-means to clasify the Spanish regions by their food consumption. Additionaly, the adherence of the Spanish diet to the Mediterranean Diet is studied. The “Mediterranean Diet consumption pattern” is compared to the Spanish regions. It is hard to conclude that the current counsumption patterns in Spain are within the standards of the Mediterranean Diet.