Fight against obesity starts at table, says 'Eating Planet'

(ANSA) - Naples, March 21 - The fight against obesity starts at the dinner table and continues outside the home: obesity in Italy has tripled over the past 30 years, and in the country's south it's an alarming trend, according to a study by the Barilla Foundation's Center for Food & Nutrition (BCFN), presented in Naples during the conference "Food Culture, Evolution of Food Systems and Health".
    In the southern region of Campania, for example, nearly one in every two children is obese, for a total of 70,000 children, among whom 20,000 are serious cases; and another 180,000 children are considered overweight, according to the second edition of the BCFN project "Eating Planet, Food and Sustainability: Building Our Future".
    In Italy, nearly two adolescents out of every 10 carry excess weight, 10% are considered obese, and, together with Greece and Spain, Italy has the highest rate of overweight and obese children in Europe, the study said.
    The problem of childhood obesity appears even more serious when viewed in light of the global situation, in which 170 million school-aged children are overweight or obese.
    In Europe, the problem is spreading like wildfire, with a figure that varies between 11.8 to 16.6 million children with excess weight, among whom 2.9 to 4.4 million are obese.
    Obesity levels in Italy and Europe come closer to painting an even more delicate picture when one considers that only one in three young people and adults participate in some form of sport.
    Figures for the youngest children aren't any better: only one in six practice sport for one hour or less per week.
    One suggestion is to "rediscover" the Mediterranean diet, which last September celebrated its five-year anniversary as part of UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
    It's a dietary style that has nearly disappeared in Italy, where the tendency to follow the Mediterranean diet is losing ground to other types of diets.
    Every day in Italy nearly 105 million meals are consumed, of which 24% are eaten outside the home, with lunches prevailing over dinners, 53% to 47% respectively.
    The quickening pace of daily life is reflected in eating habits: for 9% of those surveyed, lunches are eaten "on the go" in less than ten minutes, and 14% don't even sit down to eat but rather eat while standing.
    The result is that time dedicated to eating is shortened and given less importance than other daily tasks, and even outside national borders, the situation isn't much different.