• Are there any 'healthy' nutritional traffic lights?

It is the first time that there are data on the prevalence of obesity and overweight in the adolescent strip. And the data is not exactly good.

Until now, high rates of obesity were known in children up to 9 years old through the Aladdin study of the Ministry of Health, but the Gasol Foundation has developed a new investigation, the PASOS study, which has been carried out in more than 3,000 schoolchildren among 8 and 16 years and that has allowed detecting that 35% of Spanish children and adolescents suffer from obesity or overweight. Specifically, 14.2% would be obese and 20.7% overweight.

Research has also revealed that 63% of children and adolescents include the recommendation of the World Health Organization to perform at least 60 minutes of moderate or vigorous physical activity a day and up to 45% also fail to comply with recommendations during the week of not being more than 120 minutes a day in front of the screen . In the weekend this breach occurs in up to 80% of children.

Specifically, children and adolescents aged 8 to 16 spend 179 minutes a day during the week in front of the screen and 282 minutes a day at the weekend.

The problem is even more serious in the case of adolescents than in that of primary school children, with breaches of recommendations of up to 92%. Specifically, on weekends, the average daily hours in front of the screen is 180 minutes for boys and girls in 3rd grade while shooting up to 352 minutes in the case of students in 4th of ESO.

Sedentary lifestyle in front of screens is also more pronounced in boys than in girls. The teenage boys of 16 years are more than six and a half hours a day in front of screens on the weekend , while the girls, with also high data, are around five hours.

more hours of gymnastics at school

Pau Gasol, who attended this Tuesday together with the Minister of Health, María Luisa Carcedo, at a school in Madrid to present the research data of its foundation, dedicated to the promotion of healthy habits in children, has urged take action from families, schools and the Administration to fight the epidemic of obesity and sedentary lifestyle.

According to Gasol, "we must increase the hours and quality of physical exercise in schools. The World Health Organization recommends a minimum of 60 minutes of moderate or vortex physical activity a day and that is not being met. Before it was difficult to put children at home and now it is hard to get them out of the house . That dynamic must be broken. And it is up to parents and schools to limit the use of screens by children and adolescents. "

Abdominal perimeter

Gasol, which received just a few months ago the Naos Strategy award from the Ministry of Health for its promotion of healthy habits in children, has also urged "to invest in prevention policies, launch community activities and strengthen the training of pediatricians in matter of obesity. "

Not surprisingly, the study has detected that the way to measure obesity that is being used, the body mass index (BMI), does not detect all real cases of obesity.

The investigation concludes that it would be appropriate for pediatricians to start measuring the abdominal perimeter of children instead of just BMI, as an underdiagnosis of obesity of at least 10% could be occurring.

With the minister next door, Gasol has thrown the glove at the Administration asking for "a national plan against childhood obesity economically gifted and led by the Ministry." A plan that should not lack in his opinion a reinforcement of the hours of physical exercise in schools, but also "food education so that adolescents know from the beginning what they eat and know how to choose knowing what each product can cause in the future".

Gasol: "Of course I had trouble eating fish"

In that matter, however, Gasol has focused mainly on parents sending a clear message: "Of course as a child it was hard for me to eat fish and beans with boiled potatoes, of course I wanted something else, but my mother never had contemplations. "

However, Gasol has acknowledged that the problem is more complex and that measures must also be taken on the food industry so that "the titans of unhealthy products are also forced to change. We know that it is complex, but it is also within our objectives to address the private sector. "

malnutrition is no longer malnutrition

Minister Carcedo who, just a few months ago, presented Gasol with the NAOS Stategy award against obesity for her promotion of healthy habits in children, has recognized that "for the first time malnutrition no longer means malnutrition but obesity and overweight" and in that the minister has insisted that not only do they have to see personal habits but also socio-economic issues.

In fact, from the Probitas Foundation, which has acted as a strategic partner of the Gasol Foundation in the study, it is explained that "we are faced with a contradiction: families of vulnerable groups that do not have malnourished children but are obese and overweight. try not to fill stomachs but to do it with products that from a nutritional perspective are of quality ".

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Madrid
  • Pau Gasol
  • Health

Meatloaf These are other foods that are not recommended to consume Health: Andalusian pork rinds, loin with Jerez and loin with paprika from 'La Mechá'

AndalucíaCarcedo affirms that the origin of the outbreak is in the meatloaf factory

Safety index Tokyo, the safest city in the world