Mediterranean diet and microbiota: organic food doubles the benefits

January 2026

These are important results, confirming the value of choosing organic products in our daily diet, which will also be a central theme in the next edition of SANA Food.

The Mediterranean diet is good for you, but the organic version is even better. This is confirmed by a study conducted by the University of Rome Tor Vergata, published in Microorganisms, which shows that four weeks of an organic Mediterranean diet are enough to modify the gut microbiota, increasing good bacteria and improving anti-inflammatory and antioxidant parameters.

The most significant finding is that - calories and nutrient content being equal, it is the quality of food that makes the difference. Organic foods, free of pesticide residues and richer in phytochemicals, amplify the effects of the Mediterranean diet. ‘The enhanced effect is due precisely to the higher nutritional quality of organic food,’ explains Laura Di Renzo, head of clinical nutrition and nutrigenomics at Tor Vergata.
This result is in line with the message promoted by FederBio, AssoBio and Consorzio Il Biologico through the campaign "Il bio dentro di noi”: ‘It is not enough to guarantee sufficient food, we need to guarantee good food’.
The Tor Vergata study also highlights a curious fact: women seem to benefit more from the improvement in the microbiota.

The numbers speak for themselves: after just two weeks on an organic diet, plasma antioxidant capacity increased by 21%, while the polyphenol content in organic foods was up to 312% higher than in conventional foods. This is the first clinical trial to directly compare the two versions of the Mediterranean diet, opening up new insights into the relationship between food, microbiota and health.

This topic will also be addressed at SANA Food, where the quality of organic products and their impact on wellbeing will be discussed.