From the Mediterranean diet to the nutritional traffic lights

Driven by the Embassy of Italy in Spain, Professor Luca Piretta, of the biomedical Campus of Rome, has lectured at the Faculty of Medicine of the Complutense University of Madrid, where he has made known the importance of nutritional education and, in this regard, the labeling on the front of the packaging

The importance of gastronomy becoming more and more healthy has long been emphasized. In this regard, the European Commission raised a few years ago the need to reduce diseases and disorders related to poor food. To this end, it was proposed, among other objectives, to modify the nutritional information that appears on the front of the food label. Thus was born the Nutriscore nutritional traffic light, of which Italy is demarcating all its weaknesses and contraindications for the health of consumers.

To try to make known the importance of nutritional education and, in this regard, of labelling on the front of the packaging, the Embassy of Italy in Madrid has promoted on Thursday, November 17, the conference ‘Mediterranean Diet and Nutrition Education What role do the labels have on the front of the package?’ at the Faculty of Medicine of the Complutense University of Madrid. An activity framed within the celebration of the 7th edition of the Italian Cooking Week in Spain that has recently been held (although another related initiative will be held on 25th at the University of Salamanca).

In opening the event to a large audience of people, Antonio Villarino, president of the Spanish Society of Dietetics and Food Sciences and professor of the Complutense University, has pointed out how this type of activities are “very good and enthrone with our work to spread all issues related to nutrition within the university framework, as in this case.”

Roberto Nocella, First Counsellor of the Italian Embassy in Madrid, has indicated how the Italian Cooking Week in the World is an important moment to spread the Italian cuisine and gastronomic culture, the Mediterranean diet, which Italy shares with Spain, and to promote a healthy diet.

“Both the products of the Mediterranean diet and the health of consumers are affected by the diffusion of the Nutriscore, a labelling system against which Italy is positioned.” “For this reason we have worked to organize an event at the Complutense University’s Faculty of Medicine in which an international renowned expert such as Professor Luca Piretta of the Rome Biomedical Campus could be involved, where the theme of food labelling could be addressed from a scientific perspective,” said the counselor.

Then, Professor Piretta has made an extended presentation mentioning the obesity epidemic that has been suffered over the last 40 years, the importance of the intestinal microbiota, whose health depends on the variety of foods that are eaten, and has also explained the concept of body composition (“you may be obese also when you lose weight”) and the front chronnonutrition (“we are not the same at 7:00 a.m.)

In the latter regard, he stressed that “the choice on the front label is a very important issue that will be developed in the coming months when the European Union decides the type of label to be used.” Professor Piretta has pointed out that “they have labeled that demonize fats without considering that we have to consume a certain amount of fat. What matters in food is not what we eat but what we do not eat: it is not appropriate to take into consideration a single food but the set of foods we absorb and eating habits. Fundamental is also rest.” Utensilios de cocina

With regard to one of the central themes of the Italian Cooking Week, Professor Piretta said that “conviviality allows us not only to be comfortable with others eating together, but it is also part of education because we see others eating different things together: Conviviality is the best way to educate children.”

The most well-known and widespread label is the Nutriscore, represented by letters ranging from A to E, from green to red. The label Nutriscore “is transmitting immediate messages but misleadingly, conditional and uninformed,” dismissing a condition imposed by the European Union. In addition, “the Nutriscore is calibrated over 100 grams portions, but no one takes 100 grams of olive oil, for example.”

There is another danger: “The Nutriscore does not explain why it attributes a letter and a color associated with this letter. If for my state of health it is advisable to take little salt information about the salt level of a product does not come from the letter of the Nutriscore. A product may have at the same time a bad Nutriscore note, but a perfect and adequate amount of salt even for people with high blood pressure and who could eat a portion of that food prohibited by the Nutriscore.”

In addition, the professor recalled that “many of the typical products of the Mediterranean diet such as oil and cheese are going to be very penalized with the Nutriscore system that is not based on the concept of diet, but on a series of prohibitions and distinctions between foods supposedly “good” and “bad”, although there are no such foods but diets that can be good or bad.”

It is avoided that people stop eating products from the Mediterranean diet simply because they are negatively valued by the Nutriscore, which is the result of “an arbitrary algorithm and without scientific evidence,” he said, adding that “giving exceptions like some countries do for their own national typical products is not adequate as soon as everyone would go to their own.”

The Professor also highlighted “the Nutriscore leads to absurd situations such as fries that receive a better note than the products of the Mediterranean diet because the calculations are done before the friction.”

The alternative that Italy proposed to this class of tagging is the call Nutrinform Battery which is a food labelling system able to report on the main nutrients (calories, fats, saturated fatty acids, sugar, salt) and where there are no colors. The consumption of an a priori food is not discouraged: the battery only shows how many of these nutrients are in a food based on the portion advised by the nutritionists and not on the unreal 100 grams considered by the Nutriscore.

Professor Piretta indicates that “the Nutriform is an antidote to Nutriscore, a link to everything else we have to do in the field of food education, such as this conference in Madrid, speaking in schools or in the media, educating families.”

In short, “through the Nutriscore we do not educate anyone in a proper diet for disease prevention.” Obviously “food education is a complex issue and cannot be limited to a front label, but in a context of education the Nutrinform label can be useful and can help, while the Nutriscore simply conditions.”

All activities of the VII edition of the Week of Italian cuisine in Spain can be downloaded in this link.

Source Comunicae

From the Mediterranean diet to the nutritional traffic lights

Driven by the Embassy of Italy in Spain, Professor Luca Piretta, of the biomedical Campus of Rome, has lectured at the Faculty of Medicine of the Complutense U

nails

en

https://doityour.health/static/images/nails-from-the-mediterranean-diet-to-the-nutritional-traffic-lights-572-0.jpg

2024-05-19

Acording with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”), Pub. L. 105-304 If you believe that your copyrighted work is being infringed, notify our team at the email [email protected]