Our eating habits are formed in childhood, so the fact that 41 million children under the age of five are already obese ought to be of significant concern. Global obesity has doubled since 1980 and continues to rise, but the epidemic is entirely preventable.
Thanks to the Mediterranean lifestyle, overall obesity levels in Italy have remained relatively low. However, healthy traditions seem to be losing their appeal, and the country’s childhood obesity rates are now among the highest in the world.
Dietary preferences start developing at a tender age. The more sugar and fats children are exposed to, the more often they’ll crave sweet and fatty foods as they get older and, what’s more, they’ll need to consume greater amounts to satisfy their cravings. If, on the other hand, young people are used to sitting down and enjoying balanced meals with a variety of ingredients, including cereals, fish and fresh fruit and vegetables, they will form healthy habits for life.
Not only will this stand them in good stead for making healthy choices when they venture out into adult life, but the vegetables they eat will already be protecting them against heart disease. A 2015 longitudinal study found that adults who ate the most fruit and vegetables during childhood had significantly lower calcium build-up in their coronary arteries, even when allowing for other lifestyle factors such as smoking and exercise.
This is why Barilla was a founding partner in the unique Giocampus programme, along with the Town Hall of Parma, the University of Parma, the Regional School District Office and two local sports associations – CONI (The Italian National Olympic Committee) and CUS Parma. More recently, Barilla has partnered with other private companies to increase this “welfare community”. Since its launch in 2009, the programme – which aims to educate young people about the Mediterranean lifestyle, including the importance of physical exercise, and show them how living like this can be both delicious and fun – has reached more than 35,000 children aged five to 14. They learn to appreciate the value of food, where it comes from, and the environmental impact of food choices. And they experience the joys of eating with friends and loved ones.
Getting children into the habit of being physically active goes hand in hand with the Mediterranean lifestyle. In this spirit, Giocampus runs a summer camp, with activities, games, hands-on workshops and physical education, along with great food. And it doesn’t let winter stop children being active outdoors. Giocampus Snow offers a week of winter sports and healthy-eating education.
Despite, or perhaps thanks to, the delicious food of the Emilia-Romagna region – prosciutto, parmigiano, pasta and pomodoro (tomatoes) – Parma and the rest of the region has historically experienced lower childhood obesity than elsewhere in the country. “A little more than 27% of children in Parma were obese or overweight [before the introduction of the Giocampus project],” says Francesca Scazzina, assistant professor in the department of food science at the University of Parma, “compared with southern Italian regions, where more than 37% were overweight or obese.” However by, 2014, five years after Giocampus added nutritional education to its physical activity programme, the amount of overweight or obese children in Parma had dropped to 23.5%. The battle against obesity starts here.
