Pizza, pasta, potatoes, protein – how Italian children became so overweight

pporridgeraisin about 7 hours ago 14 commentsRead Article on bbc.com

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Discussion (14 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

fco356pal•about 2 hours ago

Pasta and other carbohydrate-rich foods are nowhere near as bad as sugar for children. In the Nutella filled pastry, it is not the bread that’s the problem.

Sugar (particularly in beverages) and lack of exercise are the main contribution of child obesity increase worldwide.

Don’t blame the potato.

cogman10•about 1 hour ago

> Pasta and other carbohydrate-rich foods are nowhere near as bad as sugar for children.

Sugar is as bad as it is because it's almost instantly absorbed. Plenty of carbohydrates are the same.

Fiber is what separates healthy carbs from unhealthy carbs, heck, even sugars.

An apple is healthy even though it's loaded with sugar because it's also loaded with fiber.

Apple juice is unhealthy because it's basically just the sugar.

Were I to guess, what's changed in italy is what's changed in the US. Flour has become highly refined, removing all the fiber that used to be present. This gives flour nice properties in terms of baking and pasta making, but it also removes a vital part of pasta.

porridgeraisin•about 1 hour ago

> removing all the fiber

Yes this.

Also reduced vegetable intake. In many cases the fiber from vegetables can offset some refined carbs intake.

weezing•about 1 hour ago

Regular pasta and pizza dough are as almost as bad as sugar. Bread might not be as bad as Nutella but is still bad. Most popular Italian food tastes good but is horrible health wise.

bni•about 2 hours ago

Article is good but with one puzzling flaw. They mention protein is one of the culprits, but nothing about why or how.

bryanlarsen•about 1 hour ago

They don't say that. They say the 5P diet is unhealthy and the Mediterranean diet is healthy. But the Mediterranean diet contains the 5 P's too -- just in moderation and accompanied by lots of vegetables. So the 5 P's aren't necessarily unhealthy by themselves, but a diet that basically only has the 5P's is.

avree•about 2 hours ago

Surely writing 374 lbs is easier than 26st 10lb.

julianlam•about 1 hour ago

What an Americentric point of view.

Not everybody measures weight in pounds, and to the primary readership of the BBC, stones and kilograms mean much more than weighing pounds.

Source: Canadian who understands neither kg or stones.

release-object•about 2 hours ago

The 2nd number immediately means something to me. While I have to consider the first. From my perspective it isn’t easier to comprehend.

An unrelated point. I’ve noticed more people in the UK measuring their weight in KG. I think I may be in a dwindling minority of people who think in stones and pounds.

drweevil•about 5 hours ago

In 2004 I visited my family in Valencia, Spain. There was a local construction boom. There were family owned shops everywhere. Bakeries, fruit stands, etc. When I went back in 2014, it seems everything had changed. The shops were gone. The construction had slacked off. Instead there were now giant supermarkets and superstores. They were on the Euro now. My cousins blamed the EU for this. I'm assuming something similar happened in Italy, tho it is not mentioned in the article, which instead tends to blame the victims. When you replace the local food supply chain with prepared branded foods (Nutella, etc.), you get this. The EU has been great for European capitalists, but a detriment to the people in Europe.

PS This was one of the major complaints of the long forgotten yellow-vests protests in France.

mercurialuser•about 3 hours ago

I'm over 50. I played in the streets whole afternoons, full days during school vacations. They were dangerous years in Rome, terrorism, political violence, heroin everywhere.

Despite we are now living in safer years, no kids are playing in the streets anymore. Also in the nearby park, they struggle to reach a 5 vs 5 football (soccer) match when we had plenty more for a 11 vs 11.

A prominent psycologist just released an interview: why do italian parents love Sinner, the tennis player, praise his capabilities, his energy and willingness to train, but accept that their kids spend hours sitting on the couch playing games or browsing socials?

I also agree with you about local, family owned shops: in my area there were 2 supermarkets and they were far away. Now there are at least 6 and one is less than 300mt from my house. The family shops are still operating and thriving, but some have changed, adding locally pre-cooked food to the old offer.

So, less sport, more easily available junk food, more parents working late to keep supers open so more use of pre cooked food, more time spent on social media... a explosive mix

tweetle_beetle•about 2 hours ago

The hypermarket concept was more or less invented in France in 1963. Clearly joining the EU allowed greater trade options which suit large scale market leaders, but their growth would have happened anyway.

A lazy illustration, but there is not a single mention of the EU, the introduction of the Euro, or the single market on the extensive Wikipedia about the topic in the context of France, suggesting minimal impact.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large-scale_retail_in_France

snowpid•about 2 hours ago

Nobody is forced to eat (Italian!) Nutella instead of local made alternatives. As such many Germans do that.

I do look for regional food, though they are more expensive but also Aldi + Lidl are a bless.

thefz•about 1 hour ago

...In the South.

It's a culture thing.