The incidence of the diabetes in Italy it has more than doubled and continues to grow. 800.000 new cases in the 2000-2010 decade alone. This is what emerges from the study just published on Nutrition, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Diseases. (1) A public health emergency is emerging, still neglected, requiring drastic measures on advertising, labels and purposeful taxation.
Diabetes, Italy emergency
The analysis was developed starting from 'Istat multipurpose surveys: health conditions and use of health services'on samples of subjects over 20 years of age, representative of the general Italian population.
'Diabetes is confirmed as a chronic disease with a high impact for the health system and destined to grow in the years to come.'(2) This is the dramatic conclusion of the researchers, who have precisely traced the parable of a real emergency in Italy. With a serious impact on the quality of life of individuals, as well as on the resulting social and public health costs.
The study shows how the prevalence of diabetes increased over the period 1980-2013:
- from 3,3% to 7,1% (+ 115%) in the male population, from 4,7% to 6,8% (+ 45%) among women,
- diagnoses increased from 1,6 to 3,4 million.
With a greater occurrence in the population with low schooling and in the 'elderly' (over 65 years of age).
The numbers are destined to grow in the following years, according to the researchers, due to the aging of the population 'but also due to the increase in the prevalence of overweight / obesity '. In line with the forecasts of the International Diabetes Federation (3) and with i trends International.
Diabetes and non-communicable diseases, the rules you need
The statistical data is inescapable, diabetes is a real epidemic that already affects almost 6% of the Italian population and is still growing. The incidence of type 2 diabetes - which represents 90% of cases in the study - is moreover linked to unbalanced diets and unhealthy lifestyles. Prevention it is crucial, but the tools adopted so far in public-private synergy they have not even served to mitigate the phenomenon.
A can of Coca-Cola is enough to exceed 20% the daily sugar threshold recommended by the WHO to an adult individual. Il junk food it sends the immune system into a tailspin, but his dealer on the web ei social networks knows no limits, in spite of WHO recommendations.
We need drastic rules. Prohibition of any form of advertising and commercial promotion on foods that qualify as HFS extension (High Fats, Sugar and Sodium), Or junk food. Taxation of sugary drinks, just as the WHO has suggested (4) e soda tax.
The color codes on the labels of secondary industrial processing foods, the so-called semaphores, albeit in the French version NutriScore. To help less educated consumers - the very ones that the Italian study shows to be most exposed to diabetes - to reduce excesses. With the sole exclusion, from all the aforementioned measures, of traditional foods derived directly from agricultural raw materials (eg fruit juices, honey, oils, dairy products, processed meats and fish products).
It's impossible otherwise stem the scourge of non-communicable diseases, to which the largest study ever conducted on the subject - in 195 countries, between 1995 and 2016 (su The Lancet) - attributes one in five premature deaths. And much more diseases, the costs of which cannot burden individuals and the community alone. (5)
Dario Dongo
Footnotes
(1) R. Gnavi, A. Migliardi, M. Maggini, G. Costa, Prevalence of and secular trends in diabetes diagnosed in Italy: 1980-2013, its Nutrition, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Diseases, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.numecd.2017.12.004
(2) The prevalence of diabetes in Italy from 1980 to 2013, presentation of the above study, on http://www.epicentro.iss.it/problemi/diabete/PrevalenzaItalia1980-2013.asp
(3) 'Global estimates of diabetes prevalence for 2013 and projections for 2035 ', L. Guariguata, DR Whiting, I. Hambleton, J. Beagley, U.Linnenkamp, JE Shaw, on Diabetes Res Clin Pract, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.diabres.2013.11.002
(4) See finally the WHO / WHO document Reducing consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages to reduce the risk of unhealthy weight gain in adults, su http://www.who.int/elena/titles/ssbs_adult_weight/en/
(5) Purpose taxation serves precisely to distribute at least part of the social costs of the diseases it causes to junk food producers, the so-called NCDs, Non-Communicable Diseases https://ncdalliance.org/
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
