Antonino De Lorenzo

Mediterranean diet

The Mediterranean diet is a modern nutritional recommendation originally inspired by the dietary patterns of Greece, Southern Italy, and Spain in the 1940s and 1950s. The principal aspects of this diet include proportionally high consumption of olive oil, legumes, unrefined cereals, fruits, and vegetables, moderate to high consumption of fish, moderate consumption of dairy products (mostly as cheese and yogurt), moderate wine consumption, and low consumption of non-fish meat products.

He is one of the leading researchers in the field whose research objectives include:

1. Promote the food model of the Mediterranean diet, with its positive qualitative values, cultural, historical, institutional, territorial;
2. Undertake studies to evaluate the efficacy of Mediterrranea Diet Italian reference on the health and treatment of diseases related to food;
3. Undertake Nutrigenetics studies, Nutrigenomics and toxicogenomics;
4. Provide training and implement information campaigns on the nutritional aspects of the Mediterranean diet Italian reference for a correct food education and the formation of a conscious consumer;
5. Promote, coordinate and implement activities of study, training and applied scientific research, carrying out technical and scientific advice to government agencies, national, regional and local
6. Supporting the model of the Mediterranean diet, with its positive qualitative values, cultural, historical and territorial;
7. Acquire and promote the dissemination of scientific knowledge to reduce the occurrence of diseases linked to the spread of unhealthy lifestyles, with a focus on obesity prevention, cardiovascular diseases, chronic degenerative diseases and cancer;
8. Support the promotion and the appropriate literature, informative of national and international research results;
9. Developing the establishment of a more effective health communication plan, providing a bridge between technicians and experts, between politicians and population

De Lorenzo Syndrome

In 2006, De Lorenzo A. et al. have identified the Normal Weight Obese (NWO)syndrome, characterized by normal body weight and BMI, but high TBFat accumulation. The frequency of NWO syndrome is typically found in females. A study was conducted at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, Human Nutrition Unit, on a sample of Caucasian women from Centre-South of Italy. In the study was included a complete and clear medical history of women. The subjects were also categorized into BMI subgroups according to World Health Organization (WHO) criteria, other study parameters were: gender, age, anthropometric measurements, Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), statistical analysis. The following predictive equation of PBF was derived:

PBF= 0.920 x weight (Kg) – 0.004 x (weight (Kg))2 - 0.326 x height (cm)+ 0.263 x hip (cm) + 147.110 x log (waist (cm)) – 32.309 x sqrt (waist (cm)) - 332.116

This equation allows the prediction of individual PBF on the base of easily available measures: height, weight, hip and waist circumference. Based on BMI levels and predicted values of PBF women were classified into underweight, normal, pre-obese and obese. All the 10 obese women incorrectly classified by predicted values of PBF were considered pre-obese. Among the 62 obese women incorrectly classified by BMI, 29 were identified as pre-obese but 33 were regarded as normal. The majority of women misclassified as normal by BMI were found to be pre-obese or obese by PBF. Moreover, it is important to recognize that some subjects, while having a BMI of up to 26 kg/m2, actually had a PBF of <30%, probably due to a greater percentage of muscular mass seen in athletic individuals. In post-menopausal women was reported that both BMI and WC (waist circumference, it reflects abdominal fat levels ) were associated with mortality. In the Nurses’ Health Study, waist circumference were also strongly associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease among women with a BMI of <25 kg/m2. Waist and hip measurements are useful to know different physical and metabolic characteristics of these two regions and therefore the diverse clinical outcomes in subjects with a gynoid or android body conformation. Early inflammation and genetic predisposition characterizes the syndrome. A cross-sectional study carried out to assess the prevalence of NWO in Switzerland. The classical perception of adipose tissue and skeletal muscle as an energy storage has been replaced by the notion that these tissues have a role in lipid and glucose metabolism by producing a large number of adipokines (that have a great role in the pathogenesis of obesity, insulin resistance, hypercholesterolaemia , hypertriglyceridaemia, low levels of HDL cholesterol, hypertension, glucose intolerance and CVD) and myokines.

Main publications