The Mediterranean Diet (MD) is considered by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as “the best for people and the most sustainable for the environment”. In the era of Big Data, new tools are emerging to facilitate health care research. One form of Big Data is the one that accumulates in the traffic caused by publications on the web and social networks. These data can provide valuable information about the epidemiological patterns of certain behavior and interest of the population. The objective of this study was to explore through websites and its associated official social media on information related to different publications of both international or national nutrition official agencies as well as publications of scientific diffusion for the design of future nutritional education and MD programs. This study opens up future avenues of research, such as studying the acceptance of post writing in other languages in those northern European countries where MD is being implemented. Or through the use of subtitled videos, due to the great acceptance of this format. The MD remains in 2020 considered the best option to follow a healthy diet without difficulties, therefore it is very important to continue promoting the need for good nutritional health based on its qualities.
Introduction: In Spain, on 14 March 2020, a state of alarm is declared to face the health emergency situation caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus, limiting the freedom of movement of people. The Spanish population is confined.Objective: With this situation, “NUTRITIONAL HEALTH IS NOT CONFINED” arises a research project that seeks to promote nutritional education based on the pattern of the Mediterranean diet (MD) using new computer technologies. It is about providing the population with the information of general interest about the promotion of a healthy diet through social networks and analysing the impact of its dissemination, in the form of a longitudinal intervention study of the Spanish nutritional evolution during confinement, with a daily survey format, and it is intended to assess food consumption during the period of confinement. Materials and methods: In total, 936 participants were asked every day. Short publications were published every day based on the scientific evidence (FAO, WHO, AECOSAN) through social media such as Instagram, accompanied by a questionnaire of 11 questions (yes/no) where it was intended to assess the evolution of daily consumption.Results and Discussion: The diffusion through social media has allowed to have a greater reach of the population. We observed that mood throughout confinement generally improves. There are certain eating habits from the MD that are well established in the daily diet of our population, such as the consumption of fruits, vegetables, legumes, dairy products, and eggs. It seems that enjoying good health is a growing concern in pandemic situations, which is why inappropriate behaviours such as “snacking” between meals or the consumption of processed foods such as snacks, industrial pastries, soft drinks, and sweets are avoided, increasing the amount of healthy food such as meat and fish. This study opens up future avenues of research promoting MD and implements new cohort nutritional databases, especially about young adult people, who are adept at navigating digital spaces and therefore using social media.
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