The results of the ViviSmart project-promoted by Coop Italia, Danone and Barilla to bring Italian families closer to the Mediterranean diet and a healthy lifestyle-were presented at Lumsa University, Rome, on 6.2.19. The children involved drink more water, consume fruits and vegetables, give up some of the sedentary games for exercise, and drag their parents into the change.
45.9 percent of minors in Italy are obese or overweight, but change can, indeed must, be made. (1) And ViviSmart offers an excellent example to follow. W!
#LiveSmart, lectures and workshops
The ViviSmart project was piloted in the 2017-2018 school year on 1,525 children in 16 schools. 80 teachers and 16 supermarkets in 4 cities (Milan, Parma, Genoa and Bari) were involved. In addition to classroom activities, together with teachers, young consumers participated in initiatives organized in Coop Italia stores. The first large-scale retail (supermarket) group to have eliminated:
– hydrogenated fats from snacks and other branded products as early as the turn of the millennium. Giving birth to the ‘Club 4-10‘ line, dedicated to children and teens, with lower amounts of fat, sugar and salt,
–palm oil (and thus the saturated fats it contains at the rate of 50 percent), excluded from all Coop Italy branded products as of 2016.
‘The ViviSmart educational project
has used multiple communication tools,’ explains Renata Pascarelli, head of Quality at Coop Italy. ‘Our stores hosted information stations that over the course of 15 weekends provided families with clear and simple news about health and diet, with focus on different foods. To engage the children, we organized workshops with animators who vividly explained the principles behind healthy eating and proper lifestyle. Sensory experiments stimulated children’s curiosity about the food pyramid of the Mediterranean diet. Guiding them to a conscious spending exercise, thanks to the newly acquired notions‘.
Smart, how to Live Better
Better Live with an Approach ‘
Smart
‘, that is, ‘Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely.’ Health goals must be concrete and realistic, within the reach of the families involved. They must be measurable and able to be achieved within a defined period. Therefore, the classical style of frontal lecture, or doctrine ‘lowered from above,’ must be avoided. Precisely because, as Barilla’s Roberto Ciati explains, ”Imposing rules does not work. Instead, we need to actively involve individuals and families‘.
The intervention strategy was focused by a multidisciplinary team of experts that the Coop Italia, Danone and Barilla groups decided to dedicate to this public benefit initiative. An excellent example of CSV (‘
Contributing to Social Values
‘).”The project started three and a half years ago,’ ‘ says Salvatore Castiglione of Danone. ‘We sought to understand the reasons for the failure of other programs to develop an innovative model revolving around families. A pilot project, which has proven to work and which we would like to expand to other partners‘.
ViviSmart, effects on eating habits
LUMSA University, together with Parthenope University of Naples and Roma Tre University, measured the effectiveness of the ViviSmart nutrition education project. A questionnaire was submitted in three different stages-before, during and after the program was run-to 609 young people who participated. And to 249 of their peers who did not follow it instead (control group).
The data show that 11 percent of ViviSmart participants started drinking more water, and more frequently, throughout the day. And the number of young consumers of both fruits (up 6 percent) and vegetables (up 13 percent) has increased.
Physical activity – unfortunately much reduced in the younger generation, which is used to spending hours and hours in front of video games, TV and smartphones – improved slightly, from 3.4 to 3.8 hours of exercise per week.
The halo effect
The increased awareness
of children toward nutritional profiles
of foods was noted by the teachers themselves (36 out of 52). Who observed a change in the type of snack consumed at school, with a greater presence of fruit and a reduction in deli sandwiches, snacks and other energy-dense snacks.
Even more parents have noticed the change. Fifty percent of respondents say children now ask to buy different foods closer to the Mediterranean diet. They thus contribute to changes in the eating habits of the entire family, causing the so-called ‘halo effect’.
Marta Strinati and Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) More than one-third of the adult population (35.5% vs 35.3% in 2015) is overweight, slightly more than one in ten is obese (10.4% vs 9.8% in 2015). Overall, 45.9% (45.1% in 2015) of individuals aged ≥18 years are overweight. In Italy, over the period 2001-2016, the proportion of overweight people increased (33.9% vs 36.2%), but more importantly, the proportion of obese people increased (8.5% vs 10.2%). The differences found across the territory are considerable, and the North-South and Islands gradient is confirmed: as in 2015, southern regions have the highest prevalence of obese (Abruzzo 14.2%, Puglia 13.1% and Molise 12.4%) and overweight (Basilicata 40.6%, Calabria 40.4% and Molise 39.8%) people aged 18 and over compared to northern regions, which show the lowest prevalence figures (obesity: Bolzano PA 8.1%, Trento PA 8.3% and Lazio 8.6%; overweight: Bolzano PA 30.7%, Trento PA 31.6% and Aosta Valley 31.7%). Source: 2017 OsservaSalute Report of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart.
Professional journalist since January 1995, he has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and periodicals (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). She is the author of journalistic surveys on food, she has published the book "Reading labels to know what we eat".
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
