Encourage the Regions to equip themselves with specific guidance tools for the nutrition of children in nursery schools – in the wake of the virtuous path started for example by the Lombardy Region – but at the same time ensure, through actual national guidelines, that throughout Italy, common principles are followed, shared and validated by the scientific community, to also enhance the Mediterranean diet and the Italian agri-food chain. This is the appeal addressed to the institutions by the leading pediatric and nutrition experts gathered today in Rome, who at the same time made the commitment to create a working table aimed at defining guidelines on the matter. A compass – reports a note – not only for the Regions, but also for all the authorities and educational institutions that want to offer nursery school children a diet that complies with the most advanced scientific evidence on pediatric nutrition. The initiative was announced in the Senate, during the press conference ‘From regional good practices to national guidelines on feeding children in nursery schools’, promoted by the vice president of the Senate Gian Marco Centinaio.
“I wanted to promote this initiative in the Senate because I believe that the institutions must pay the utmost attention to everything that concerns the protection of health, starting from the little ones. The well-being of an adult, in fact, arises from the good practices they learn as children. It is therefore important that paediatricians, businesses and all the actors involved help families to teach prevention and correct nutrition – said Centinaio – My experience then leads me to appreciate the commitment to promoting the diet Mediterranean and, in particular, Made in Italy agri-food. It is not just about defending our products, our farmers and our food industry, but about promoting lifestyles and nutritional habits that are good for us and allow us to be among the longest-lived and healthiest people on Earth”.
“We paediatricians – declared Gianluigi Marseglia, director of the Pediatric Clinic of the University of Pavia, Fondazione Irccs Policlinico San Matteo, and director of the School of Specialization in Paediatrics of the University of Pavia, as well as president of the National College of School Directors of Paediatrics – we consider our profession as a social commitment for the well-being of children and adolescents. In synergy with other experts in the field, the pediatrician of the future will increasingly be a ‘sentinel’: not only to defeat diseases, but I would say above all. to preserve and defend health, from birth to 18 years of age; and will work alongside institutions, companies and families to keep attention high on the risks, both short and long term, linked to all incorrect lifestyles , starting from an unbalanced, or in any case inadequate, diet from the first days of life. We therefore believe that a precise commitment to the drafting of national guidelines for the nutrition of children in nursery schools is part of our institutional tasks . A shared initiative, for which we thank vice president Centinaio, who has always been at our side in promoting safe nutrition for the little ones.”
“Children have specific nutritional needs, which are not those of a small adult. Just think of the enormous quantities of pesticides and contaminants that a child could take on, in relation to his weight, if he consumed foods intended for feeding older adults – he explained Ruggiero Francavilla, full professor of Pediatrician at the Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine (Dim) and head of the simple operational unit of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Pediatric Nutrition at the University Hospital of the Polyclinic of Bari – Giovanni XXIII Pediatric Hospital – It exists precisely for this is a specific regulation, which regulates the production of foods intended for the 0-3 year age group, aimed at minimizing the risk of exposure to harmful substances. And for this same reason all foods marketed as ‘baby food’ comply with standards of rigorous safety and quality, and are subjected to strict controls. All requirements are far more stringent than, for example, those of organic products. Faced with such a demanding discipline for the production of food for the youngest children, it is paradoxical that there are still no precise national guidelines to direct choices on the matter in nursery schools: a place where the youngest consume thousands of meals, and in which at the same time they should learn to eat correctly”.
“Since Italy is rich in food and wine traditions, it is physiological that there are differences from North to South in children’s diet, at home and in nursery schools – noted Ersilia Troiano, president of the Scientific Association of Food, Nutrition and Dietetics (Asand But precisely to protect the safety of the child, it is essential that a set of fundamental principles for the nutrition of the little ones is defined at a national level: certainly to give uniform indications to the local authorities in charge, so that, for example, they purchase adequate food. through the relevant tenders, but also to ensure that, through school nutrition, children and their families also acquire correct knowledge to eat in a healthy and nutritionally adequate way. From this point of view, the presence of us dietitians at this table represents a guarantee of the concreteness and practical usefulness of the guidelines that will see the light; because schools and families need not only scientifically validated indications, but also concrete examples of safe and balanced foods”.
Regarding the guarantees offered by Italian foods, Alessandro Apolito, head of the economic area of Coldiretti, spoke at the press conference: “We believe it is essential – he said – that the foods that children eat in the first years of life come from Italian raw materials, as our agri-food supply chain ensures the highest quality and safety standards, guaranteed by regulations and controls that are not replicated by any other supply chain at an international level. This is why we are very satisfied with the initiative promoted by the leading experts in paediatrics and nutrition gathered today in the Senate, with the aim of developing a national policy document on the nutrition of younger children. Like Coldiretti, we will be happy to collaborate with the institutions to concretely carry out this project, also offering increasing volumes to nursery schools. of raw materials coming from the Italian supply chain”.
“Since the signing of the memorandum of understanding in 2019, with the then Minister for Agricultural Policies Gian Marco Centinaio, Plasmon has committed to collaborating with the main players in the sector to activate a real Italian agri-food supply chain dedicated to children – has highlighted Luigi Cimmino Caserta, Head of Institutional Affairs of Kraft Heinz-Plasmon – We have not only dedicated ourselves to the production of ‘Made in Italy’ foods characterized by the highest safety and quality standards, but also to the promotion of a series of communication initiatives , aimed at families and institutions, all oriented towards a single objective: to promote culture and awareness on the importance of nutrition in the first thousand days of life, a fundamental determinant of health for today’s children and tomorrow’s adults, who can find an irreplaceable ally in the Mediterranean diet and in the Italian supply chain”.
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