This study is devoted to such a significant socio-cultural phenomenon as food, as well as the role of various factors in the adaptation of innovations in the structure of nutrition nowadays. On the one hand, the alimentary sphere is one of the most conservative: the habits that have developed since childhood undergo correction very slowly. On the other hand, even in the most traditionalist society, the influence of the prestige factor (prestigious consumption, attractive forms of leisure, orientation towards new cultural and political centers, the formation of new reference groups of the population, etc.) turns out to be very strong and can drastically change over time. My field study during 1992–2022 showed that the change in the food paradigm and, most importantly, the individual and collective perception of the value of such a component of the alimentary structure as seafood, among the population of the Ionian coast (Greeks and Albanians), took place over 30 years, after the breakdown of the socialist economic system, which lasted 47 years (from 1944 to 1991). At the same time, although ethnic and confessional factors played a role in the spread of the popularity of seafood, it was not as significant as it was assumed at the very beginning of my study of sources and my own field observations. Promotion of “bio” food and a healthy lifestyle, deployed in the global information space, as well as advertising of a luxurious life style, an indispensable attribute of which in recent decades has been the once not so respected “sea reptiles”, have led to significant transformations in relation to nutrition and its components among all social and regional groups of Albanian society, in particular, the population of coastal zones, which are greatly influenced by the development of local and international tourism (with its stereotypes and values).
