At school age, more than 1 in 3 children is overweight.
There is no point in boasting about being the home of the Mediterranean diet: in Italy, a country whose food tradition is considered one of the healthiest in the world, more than 1 in 3 children is obese. This is revealed by a study presented at Expo 2015, according to which the worst hit age range goes from 9 years old to adolescence.
Promoted by Artoi, the Association for Research and Integrated Cancer Therapies, as part of the "Health on the move" project designed to prevent childhood obesity in schools, the study was conducted in elementary and middle schools in Lazio. In total, more than 2,900 boys and girls aged 6 to 13 took part. The collected data painted an even worse picture than what could have been expected based on research conducted in the past. In particular, 29.3% of elementary school students in Lazio were found to be obese. The problem hits even harder in adolescence, when 33.6% of students are obese, mostly girls.
What makes the situation worse is the well-known link between obesity in childhood and obesity in adulthood.
Obese teenagers, in fact, risk carrying their weight problems into adult life.
According to experts, all of this can only be avoided by teaching young people how to eat properly, getting rid of bad habits at the table, and leaving behind a sedentary lifestyle.
The cost of prevention based on this approach is limited, while its benefits are high: with an estimated investment of 17 euros per person, 150,000 victims of the consequences of obesity could be saved every year, from diabetes to cardiovascular diseases, including cancer.
