The Department of Food Science and Nutrition, University of the Aegean, is pleased to invite you to the 1^st Summer School taking place in Myrina, Lemnos Island on 26-31 August 2012 entitled:

Content - Topics

The content of the Summer School focuses on the Mediterranean Foods and their Nutritional Value highlighting the current trends in the field of Food Science and Nutrition. The Mediterranean Foods develop within the unique geomorphologic landscape and alternating climate of the Mediterranean. Through these unique characteristics of the Mediterranean basin, a rich biodiversity of plant and animal organisms emerges which, in turn, transforms into plentiful foods of plant and animal origin. This diversity in the mediterranean nature generously offers its inhabitants the opportunity to consume foods with high nutritional value, interrelated nowadays with longevity and good health. Current epidemiological studies have revealed a significantly lower frequency of cardiovascular diseases and various types of cancer as regard the inhabitants of the Mediterranean compared to the other populations of the developed countries in the West World. These comparative advantages of the Mediterranean Nutrition are mainly attributed to the synergistic nutritional value of individual macro-nutritional and micro-nutritional ingredients contained in the Mediterranean Foods and are the object of extensive research worldwide. In this framework, the subject matter of the 1^st Summer School will be presented in three Thematic Units:

1^st Thematic Unit: The natural and anthropogenic environment of the Mediterranean, a birthplace of values, goods and services.

2^nd Thematic Unit: Mediterranean Foods: production, nutritional value and food quality.

3^rd Thematic Unit: Mediterranean Nutrition: a valuable tool for the protection of human health. 

Intended Goals

The Summer School aims at highlighting the multilateral parameters which co-determine the nutritional value of the Mediterranean foods. A great number of discernible and/or disparate parameters (Mediterranean area, biodiversity, local products and production process, mediterranean nutrition and human health) make up an interdisciplinary puzzle which lends unique quality to the products of the Mediterranean.

The main goal of the Summer School is to bring the participants in contact with a great number of internationally renowned scientists from the fields of Environment, Food, Nutrition and Health Sciences. The participants will benefit not only from this interdisciplinary coexistence and training but also from the opportunity to get to know the production process followed for real, successful Mediterranean nutrition-related products coming from the land of Lemnos.

The educational activities offered during the Summer School will provide the participants with a unique educational experience during which a gradual decomposition, study and synthesis of the characteristics of the Mediterranean foods will bring their nutritional value to the foreground, substantiating the need for a holistic approach to its preservation. This knowledge adds an important educational value for all the participants (attendants and lecturers) and constitutes the innovation of the Summer School.