Box for Health by Tradition & Innovation (B4HT): Promoting Sustainable Mediterranean Diet by Healthy Foods

Protocol summary The study aims to explore the effects of a tailored nutritional intervention for maintaining (normal-weight subjects) or reducing (overweight or obese subjects) body weight. In a subgroup of patients with prediabetes/T2DM, the effect of the nutritional intervention by Mediterranean lunch boxes developed in the PRIMA project on gluco-lipid homeostasis will be also evaluated. Secondary objectives are to evaluate the nutritional and functional benefits of the intervention strategies on pathogenetic factors affecting metabolic and pro-inflammatory status and intestinal permeability.

Patients All enrolled participants (n=450, age 25-65) will undergo, following written informed consent, a 12-weeks, controlled, randomized, multicenter clinical study with multiple arms conducted on normal weight, overweight or obese subjects with or without prediabetes or other metabolic risk factors in Italy and Lebanon.

Study design Participants will be assigned to the healthy group (HG, n= 150) or to the dysmetabolic group (DG, n=300) according to a previous clinical assessment. The two groups will be comparable for age/gender composition. In each group, subjects will be randomized to continue the ongoing diet (controls) or to receive one of the lunch boxes developed in the project (L-MedFood or F-MedFood, ~600 kcal) 3-times/week during 12 weeks (treatment). In the treated groups, healthy subjects will receive the L-MedFood lunch box, the overweight/obese subjects, with or without prediabetes/T2DM, will receive the F-MedFood Box. The consumption of lunch boxes will be associated, in all enrolled subjects, with the use of iMFood, an interactive and easy-to-understand APP developed in this project and fulfilling the goal of a new Agro-Food Value Chain solution, to enable the transition to healthy and sustainable dietary behavior.

Groups

The different arms of the study will be as follows: