Nutritional habits of Croatian Island populations--recent insights.

Although Croatia is divided into continental and insular subpopulation which practice different dietary habits, a general shift in nutritional habits has been observed in the direction of globalization, including considerably higher intake of red meat, saturated fatty acids, milk, dairies etc. and accompanied by a decrease in physical activity. These relatively abrupt changes have had an especially significant impact on the insular populations, known for their traditional Mediterranean diet and have led to the increased prevalence of hypertension, metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus, coronary heart diseases etc. on Croatian islands. Since the expression of genes responsible for the occurrence of complex diseases can be enhanced in isolated populations due to the effect of evolutionary forces, genetic-epidemiological research in population isolates is of great importance, giving us insight into the interplay between intrinsic (genes) and extrinsic risk factors (diet) for disease development.