Childhood obesity in Italy is always lurking. 1 in 4 children are at risk due to being overweight and sedentary. The Istat report 29.10.19, ‘Lifestyles of children and youth – years 2017-2018.
Junk food and educational poverty
Obesogenic is the social context that is redolent of junk food. Ultra-processed foods laden with fat, sugar, and salt are offered and fed to children and minors everywhere, with a lightness that is not in keeping with it.
‘As many as a quarter of children and adolescents consume sweets and carbonated beverages daily, 13.8 percent salty snacks.’ (1)
Nutrition education is still lacking in schools, making good on commitments made on 17.1.19 in the State-Regions Conference. And the educational poverty of parents is associated with the prevalence of unbalanced diets and excess weight.
Obesity is predictive, moreover. According to Istat, one-third of overweight children and half of overweight adolescents retain the stigma even as adults. With increased occurrence of associated chronic diseases.
Childhood obesity and overweight in Italy, the data
25.2 percent of children and young people in Italy, ages 3 to 17, are overweight. These are 2.130 million children, inexorably predisposed to a higher occurrence of disease in adulthood. And there are few fewer-almost 2 million, or 22.7 percent of the total-those who do not engage in sports or physical activity.
The gap between North and South is pronounced. The overweight index of children in the South is prominent (32.7 percent) compared to the North (20.6 percent). Almost double in Campania (35.4 percent) compared to the Northwest (18.8 percent). 22.5% in Northeast, 24.2% in the Center, 29.9% of the Islands. And males, nationally, are more at risk than females (27.8 percent vs. 22.4 percent). (2)
The youngest children are at the highest risk, with 30.4 percent overweight reaches in the 3-10 age group and 18 percent obesity exceeds in the early elementary grades (7-8 years). Type 2 diabetes has doubled among young people (15-25) in the last decade, and there is still debate about the
Sugar Tax
in philosophical or employment terms, neglecting the health factor. (2)
Lifestyles and unbalanced diets
The diet of minors in Italy is still unbalanced on average. 74.2% of children and adolescents consume fruits or vegetables every day, but only 12.6% get to consume 4 or more servings. Above all, there is daily access to foods that are too sweet, fatty and salty. The so-called unnecessary calories:
- 28.3% of Italian minors consume sweets every day,
- 24.9% carbonated beverages,
- 13.8% salty snacks.
The family factor
Istat points out. How parents’ unhealthy behaviors can influence those of their children. Making a difference are economic inequalities, and even more so educational inequalities. ‘The higher the educational qualification attained by parents, the more accurate is the nutritional aspect of children in terms of both daily consumption of fruits and vegetables and adequacy in the amounts consumed daily‘.
Salty snacks are consumed regularly by 8.5 percent of children and youth (3-17 years old) living in households of higher socio-cultural status, and by 18.1 percent of those with at least one parent with at most a high school diploma. Same dynamic for carbonated beverage consumption, which affects 18.8 percent of adolescents if at least one parent has a bachelor’s degree or higher and rises to 29.6 percent of those with parents who have attended at most compulsory school. Thus,
‘it is observed that children and young people living in families with poor or insufficient economic resources tend to be more overweight or obese, but especially in those where the parents’ level of education is lower. In fact, the share of overweight children is 19% among those living in families with parents with a college degree but reaches 30.1% if the parents have not gone beyond compulsory education‘ (Istat, cited).
Sabrina Bergamini and Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) Istat (2019). Lifestyle of children and young people, Years 2017-2018
(2) See the previous article
Obesity in Italy, a sick country
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
Journalist. Consumption, rights, nutrition, social, environment. Head of Consumers Help. She collaborated with ResetDOC, Il Riformista, La Nuova Ecologia, IMGPress.
