The objective is to demonstrate the effectiveness of the diet in reducing weight and cardiovascular risk factors
Demonstrate that a diet inspired by mediterranean diet, low in energy and enriched with typical products such as pomegranates, chickpeas and dried fruits, for example, is more effective in reducing body weight and associated cardiovascular risk factors to juvenile obesity compared to a conventional low-energy diet.
This is the objective of the European project Med4Youth, which will last four months and will be carried out on 240 adolescents, aged between 13 and 16, who suffer from obesity and live in Italy, Spain and Portugal.
Med4Youth involves University of Parma, the Eurecat technology center (Spain, project coordinator), the University of Coimbra (Portugal), Shikma Field Crops (Israel), the Food Scientific Center (Jordan) and Novapan (Spain).
According to WHO data from 2016, youth obesity has quadrupled in the last 30 years, while 18% of children and adolescents between 5 and 19 years old are overweight or obese, with a particularly high incidence in Mediterranean countries such as Italy, Spain and Portugal.
This is the first time that an investigation of this type will be carried out with participants from different Mediterranean countries.
With agency information Lusa e Handle
