There are about 16 million Italians who at the end of the Easter holidays and the spring bridges have climbed on the scale and will decide to go on a diet before the beginning of the summer. This is stated by the Italian Society of Environmental Medicine (Sima) which, analyzing the phenomenon, raises the alarm and invites you to avoid "do-it-yourself" diets.
The numbers
According to the Italian Barometer Obesity Report, in Italy there are more than 25 million people in excess weight, and about 6 million individuals, equal to 12% of the population, are in effect obese, with a higher incidence in the South (14%) compared to 10.5% in the North-West and Center – explains Sima – The end of the Easter holidays, Together with the rise in average temperatures and the start of summer, every year pushes a substantial slice of the population to change their eating habits with the aim of losing weight and improving their physical appearance.
According to estimates by the Italian Society of Environmental Medicine, about 16 million Italians (27.2% of residents) will decide to start a diet, generating a business that exceeds 25 billion euros.
Do-it-yourself diets and health risks
"Over 70% of those who will start a diet will resortto "do it yourself" - warns the president Sima Alessandro Miani - changing their habits at the table using the information searched on the web, without contacting a professional in the sector. A risk on the health front, considering that an unbalanced diet can have serious repercussions on our body, ranging from simple fatigue and headaches to sleep disorders, cramps or loss of muscle mass, up to being able to cause kidney problems (in the case of unbalanced high-protein diets) and malnutrition. And it is certainly no coincidence that, according to official numbers, in Europe alone 950 thousand people lose their lives every year due to wrong and unhealthy diets".
"We must also remember the huge social costs caused by the wrong diet, which affects up to 10% of public health spending, with an impact on the state coffers of about 13 billion euros per year" - adds Miani.
The business of the food industry
"The market for dietary food is growing, i.e. those products presented to the public as low in calories, with little sugar or no added sugar, without fat, etc. Only for food supplements, spending in our country has reached 4 billion euros – adds Sima – At the same time the sale of weight loss drugs is soaring which, globally and according to official numbers, record an increase of + 25% only in the first quarter of 2023 ".
The importance of healthy and balanced nutrition
"It is important to resort to a healthy and balanced diet both to lose weight and to protect our health - concludes President Sima - turning to specialists, nutritionists, dieticians to have the correct information to avoid incurring health problems that are even more serious than being an overweight thread".