It is estimated that in 2025, 2.7 billion people in the world will be obese or overweight, with a cost for health that will reach one thousand two hundred billion dollars: to shed light on a disease often underestimated on 11 October, World Obesity Day, an annual event that aims to bring out the severity related to the problem of obesity, a complex pathology, caused by genetic, psychological and environmental factors, which affects 1 in 10 people in Italy.

Obesity: how and why it should be fought
What is obesity? In medical parlance it is a syndrome characterized by an excess of subcutaneous fat, and a consequent huge weight gain. Today in western societies obesity represents the first cause of foreseeable death and is also among the first most important risk factors of the onset of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Among ultra-processed foods, abandoned portions, abuse of sugars, fats and salt, bad habits today also concern low and middle-income countries. For Corinna Hawkes, director of the Center for Food Policy of the University of London City, "from a health point of view, the first thing to do is clear: make healthy foods more available, more palatable and more affordable".
The aim is therefore to make healthy choices easier by involving producers, distributors, merchants, restaurateurs and advertisers in this battle: incentives are needed to encourage greater use of healthy ingredients, greater transparency in labeling and attention in communications, especially those aimed at children.
 

Initiatives in Italy
On the occasion of the World Obesity Day 2018, the specialists of the Italian Association of Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition will be available for free information, education and advice on obesity, on 10 October, within the 120 ADI diet centers in the area national on the theme "Mediterranean regional diet".
 

Eat properly even outside the home to avoid obesity problems
According to Fipe.it data, 50% of Italians frequent bars and restaurants during the week and on the weekend, 12 million Italians usually have lunch outside the home and 3 million Italians have dinner at the restaurant at least three times a week. At the same time, 37% of restaurateurs have seen an increase in the demand for balanced and healthy food in the last year and 38% of restaurateurs have seen growth in the consumption of balanced dishes in line with a healthy diet in the last 12 months. “Based on this growing demand, the DaRò Wellness Cuisine project was born, a food consulting service for restaurateurs who choose to offer customers balanced menus, created with a careful selection of ingredients and prepared with innovative cooking techniques, balanced options that alongside the menu of catering activities - explains Dalila Roglieri, nutritionist biologist and creator of the project - we must dispel the myth that wellness linked to food must deprive itself of flavors, both at home and in the restaurant and to do it we work alongside restaurateurs and ambassadors providing healthy, low-calorie ideas, menus and recipes without giving up the pleasure of a good meal away from home ”.