• It emphasises values of hospitality, neighbourliness, intercultural dialogue and creativity, and a way of life guided by respect for diversity.
• Shared family meals help people eat well and avoid excess, while the TV dinner habit is linked to obesity.
• It involves a set of skills, knowledge, rituals, symbols and traditions concerning crops, harvesting, fishing, animal husbandry, conservation, processing, cooking and particularly the sharing and consumption of food.

It is not a weight-loss regime such as the Atkins or Dukan diets. It is actually not a prescriptive diet at all, rather a pattern of eating.

It is based on a rural life where people ate what they grew. It has no preservatives. It is freshly picked, plucked and cooked.