In Italy “bad malnutrition and bad eating habits cost more than 50 billion a yearlet’s talk about diabetes mellitus, malnutrition and obesity“. So Antonino De Lorenzo, Professor of Food and Human Nutrition at the Tor Vergata University of Rome, today in Rome in his speech at the opening of the National Conference on Nutrition at the Ministry of Health. While on the famous and much envied Mediterranean diet, “there is an erosion: less than 20% of Italians follow it, we are increasingly dominated by hyperpalatable foods”, remarks the specialist. While we should “focus on consumer education with respect to the food offer, the quality of food in canteens and on the territories, and then also to the training of young people”, suggests De Lorenzo.
“Today we have to deal with the universal and sustainable health system, but there has never been great attention to the role of lifestyles and nutrition in the sense of real savings for the National Health Service – highlights the expert – While tangible and immediate results can be seen, one example is the diabetes reversal plan put in place in the UK working on effective weight loss with a meal plan and the results are enormous.In less than three months full-blown diabetes has undergone a reversion, this must be the goal for chronic-degenerative diseases. Today we have the personalization of treatments that makes interventions even more effective than drugs”.
But with what resources? “Unfortunately we are traveling with a definancing of the NHS, we should have 10% of GDP invested in healthcare to make the system work at its best – observes De Lorenzo – We could do well with +1.4% of GDP invested and this would lead to having a resilient system. A percentage divided as follows: 0.7 personnel, 0.4 technologies and 0.3 to prevention and nutrition. This last point could lead to truly effective results, given that then the current investment required by law, the 5 % of the resources in prevention, has never been fully spent and really used”.