In Italy, obesity is increasing exponentially and is increasingly 'killer', with a number of deaths per year 4 times higher than that of car accidents, and a forecast, by 2035, of 1 in 3 Italian adults being obese. In this scenario, therefore, diet-related risk factors are mainly responsible for the loss of years of disease-free life globally. This is the alarm launched by the Italian Society of Human Nutrition (Sinu) to raise awareness of the importance of food sustainability and the adoption of correct food choices, capable of acting positively on both man and the planet. Among these is the Mediterranean diet, based on a large consumption of plant foods, including fruit, vegetables and whole grains and a moderate consumption of foods of animal origin.
A plant-based diet – nutritionists recall – would not only prevent the onset of food-related diseases, but also halve greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere linked to the production and consumption of food, which, contributing to global warming, in turn have deleterious effects on human health. Monitoring the impact of food, taking into account all environmental indicators – they underline – also allows us to identify the critical issues related to their production and apply mitigation actions that improve their environmental performance.
To promote healthier and more sustainable choices – continue the Sinu experts – the final consumer must also be educated through strategies of education, facilitation of choices, incentives and restriction of supply, aimed at limiting food waste. It is important, for example – they warn – to educate people to read expiry dates correctly. Very often food is thrown away because the difference between the expiry date and the minimum shelf life (TMC) is not clear, and more than a third of Italians, in fact, do not know that a food exceeding the TMC is still consumable, without health implications. . The issues of environmental sustainability were explored in depth at a conference of Sinu's under 40 experts in Milan, which anticipated some of the topics that will be explored in depth at the next national congress of the scientific society, in Piacenza from 4 to 6 June.
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