Spanish Football Federation and Ministry of Agriculture Team up to Promote MedDiet

The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food have signed a two-year deal to pro­mote the val­ues of sports, food and gas­tron­omy.

The ini­tia­tive is part of the Spanish Food strat­egy devel­oped by the min­istry to pro­mote a healthy lifestyle linked to the Mediterranean diet. The min­istry intends to take advan­tage of the con­nec­tion between food, sports and a healthy lifestyle to pro­mote Spanish agri-food prod­ucts locally and inter­na­tion­ally.

“In the case of sports enti­ties, it is con­sid­ered that sport can be a valu­able pro­moter of a healthy lifestyle, such as that favored by the Mediterranean diet, which implies a var­ied diet linked to mod­er­ate sports prac­tice,” the min­istry said.

“Soccer, due to its firm roots in our soci­ety and its broad inter­na­tional appeal, can act as an excel­lent ambas­sador for Spanish agri-food prod­ucts,” the min­istry added.

Over the years, stud­ies have shown that the Mediterranean diet con­tains var­i­ous com­pounds that enhance ath­letic per­for­mance com­pared with the Western diet.

Previous stud­ies have sug­gested that the high lev­els of nitrates and antiox­i­dants, which have anti-inflam­ma­tory and alka­liz­ing capa­bil­i­ties, may improve endurance dur­ing sport­ing activ­i­ties and exer­cise.

Another recent study found that olive oil con­sump­tion increases testos­terone in men with insuf­fi­cient lev­els. Higher lev­els of testos­terone have also been asso­ci­ated with improved ath­letic per­for­mance.

Additionally, mod­er­ate con­sump­tion of whole grains, fruits, nuts and veg­eta­bles has been shown to help main­tain mus­cle strength, high energy lev­els and sup­port mod­er­ate exer­cise.

According to a recent study pub­lished in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, adher­ing to the Mediterranean diet improves ath­letic per­for­mance; how­ever, these ben­e­fits are quickly lost when peo­ple switch to less healthy diets.

Due to the grow­ing body of evi­dence con­nect­ing nutri­tion and ath­letic per­for­mance, the min­istry saw the country’s gov­ern­ing body of soc­cer as a nat­ural part­ner.

The RFEF over­sees the Spanish Primera División, which is home to two of the world’s most suc­cess­ful clubs: FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. The RFEF also runs the Spanish men’s national team, which won the FIFA World Cup in 2010.

According to the last avail­able data from the Primera División, an aver­age of 4.6 mil­lion peo­ple tuned in each week on paid tele­vi­sion to watch the com­pe­ti­tion dur­ing the 2018/19 sea­son.

“Sport is a valu­able pro­moter of healthy lifestyles such as the one favored by the Mediterranean diet,” the RFEF said. ​“Soccer acts as an ambas­sador for Spanish agri-food prod­ucts.”

• Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
• The Royal Spanish Football Federation
• The Sport Journal