On the occasion of World Obesity Day 2023, the Valter Longo Onlus Foundation reconfirms its commitment to prevention
Obesity is on the rise globally and efforts to address it are challenging due to misconceptions about obesity and the role it plays in a person’s health. Together we can correct misconceptions about obesity, recognize its complexities, and take effective collective action. Because when we all speak, discuss and share, we can change the norms and transform health outcomes for all.
The latest estimates from the World Health Organization reveal that 50% of adults and 30% of children and adolescents on the planet are overweight or obese.
In Italy there are over 25 million adults who are overweight, or almost half of adults (over 46%) and 26.3% of children and adolescents (2 million and 200 thousand people). In particular, in the population group between 3 and 17 years of age, starting from 2020 the figure on excess weight has grown up to 27%, certainly also linked to the increase in sedentary lifestyle, which characterized the young population in the two-year pandemic period . The most critical situation is found among children aged 3-10, where it reaches 34.5%.
In practice, 3 out of 10 children (29.8%) (**) are overweight and among these 1 is obese (9.4%). We are second only to Cyprus and almost on a par with Greece and Spain, with a prevalence of overweight children in the South.
A dramatic count, which must be brought out, also and above all, on the occasion of World Obesity Day, the World Day for the Prevention of Obesity and Overweight which is celebrated on 4 March. The Call to Action for prevention comes from the Valter Longo Onlus Foundation, the first in Italy dedicated to guaranteeing everyone, especially the disadvantaged and in poverty, a long and healthy life through proper nutrition and a healthy lifestyle .
” That it is time to act is now obvious since, among other things, obesity is responsible for some forms of cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, so much so that it represents a significant problem not only for health but also for the sustainability of public health expenditure ”, explains Antonluca Matarazzo, CEO of the Valter Longo Onlus Foundation. “In this battle, first and foremost of health literacy, the Valter Longo Foundation is proving to be at the forefront with over 30,000 Italian children and students sensitized on this issue in the last two years and a nutritional assistance activity provided daily to many overweight or condition of obesity who, thanks to the longevity diet, are significantly reducing their weight and, in just under 6 months, already showing a reduction in the risk category of certain related diseases, such as diabetes or cardiovascular diseases”.
Obesity is a serious risk factor and we need to speak clearly
Every 2 seconds a person between the ages of 30 and 70 dies of a “chronic non-communicable” disease, such as cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases, cancer and diabetes (***), all pathologies whose onset is favored by the chronic inflammatory state in obese subjects. In fact, obesity predisposes to allergic pathologies and, by reducing immune surveillance, increases the risk of cancer and quintuples the possibility of developing diabetes. Overweight and obesity also favor the onset of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s.
Obesity under control with the centenarian diet
Here, below, is the precious handbook of advice on which the Valter Longo Onlus Foundation bases its Nutritional Assistance programs for overweight or obese patients. These are Guidelines which are based on the Longevity Diet and which draw on the golden rules of the table of centenarians and the longest-lived elderly:
1. 100% vegetable menu (or almost):
adopt a plant-based diet as much as possible (legumes, vegetables, fruit) and fish (2 or 3 times a week), avoiding those with a high percentage of mercury. Finally, a green light for extra virgin olive oil, to be consumed in relatively large quantities, from 50 to 100 ml per day.
2. Eat more, not less, but better:
take rich portions of complex carbohydrates (tomatoes, broccoli, carrots, legumes, etc.) and include beans, chickpeas, peas, as the main source of protein.
3. Minimize hydrogenated and trans fats and simple sugars:
eliminate junk foods and those rich in simple sugars from your menu, favoring foods rich in unsaturated fats, such as salmon, walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, and low in hydrogenated and trans fats, such as those of industrial and packaged products.
4. Eat Two Meals And A Snack:
to maintain or reduce weight, a 2 + 1 diet is recommended: breakfast, lunch and snack in the evening or breakfast, snack at lunch and main meal in the evening.
5. Eat Within Twelve Hours:
have breakfast after 8 and dinner before 20, or have the first meal of the day at 9 and dinner before 21.
Friday 3 March 2023, free nutrition talks
On the occasion of World Obesity Day, the Valter Longo Onlus Foundation reconfirms its commitment to prevention by offering, on Friday 3 March 2023 from 10.00 to 13.00 and from 14.00 to 18.00, free nutritional talks for obese or overweight patients (BMI ≥ 25) by video call or telephone
To book, fill in the form on the Valter Longo Foundation website on the dedicated page www.fondazionevalterlongo.org/world-obesity-day-2023/ subject to availability.
Valter Longo Foundation on the front line against obesity
The prevention and treatment of obesity and overweight are central to all the programs of the Valter Longo Onlus Foundation, carried out thanks to a team of expert biologists, nutritionists and educators on a rigorously scientific basis. This is why World Obesity Day has always been part of a broader framework of Nutritional Assistance initiatives for patients and Awareness Campaigns in Schools. It is active in information campaigns on the risks of poor nutrition at all stages of life and above all in favor of disadvantaged people. To support the interventions of the Valter Longo Onlus Foundation: https://www.fondazionevalterlongo.org/dona-ora/
Sources:
* 4th Italian Obesity Barometer Report 2022
** Survey by OKKio alla Salute for WHO European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative – COSI, 2019 data.
*** ONU, 2018 – “Third UN High-Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases”
