It doesn’t take much to improve a baby’s immune defenses through nutrition. This is the message carried forward by the Italian Society of Pediatrics and addressed to all families with young children and adolescents.
Good shopping doesn’t cost more
Poor eating habits in terms of snacks, rich in fat and sugar, have long been associated with a low economic level, but not only. Packaged snacks are useful for everyone, practical and fast, but a too “advantageous” price also means a worse nutritional quality. “This education often escapes parents. There is a lack of correct information being conveyed to mom and dad,” he explains Elvira Verduci, pediatrician, expert in clinical nutrition and Sip advisor.
The shortcomings
The Italian Pediatric Society has assessed the impact of quarantines in children and adolescents, confirming a worsening of the state of obesity in children. But it also conveyed attention to the concept of nutritional deficits and alterations related to micronutrients, something that is not seen: a child may have a normal body shape but suffer from some deficiencies. “And there are deficiencies that impact the immune system. There is nothing that prevents Covid, of course, but there are dietary measures that can improve the basics of a child’s immune defenses. It has been seen that the little ones who contracted the infection with slightly more serious forms had lower than normal levels of vitamin D or other micronutrients. “
The right foods
What nutrients should therefore be added to the diet? “We focused on vitamins such as D, which seems to have protective effects, vitamin C, but also A and E, Iron, Zinc and Omega 3, which are fats contained mainly in oily fish, have an anti-inflammatory role and can help organism to counterbalance the inflammation given by the virus “. And in which foods are they found? Vitamin D is found in tuna, salmon, swordfish, anchovies, but also in egg yolk and mushrooms. Vitamin E is found in nuts, green leafy vegetables, mangoes and avocados. Vitamin C in citrus fruits, fruits such as kiwifruit, pineapple and strawberries, and in vegetables such as broccoli, tomato, spinach. Zinc is found in meat, white or red, in nuts and in Grana Padano.
“Unfortunately many of these foods are not appreciated by children. Our advice is to start approaching them to healthy eating patterns from an early age – continues Dr. Verduci – it has been shown that if a child has a healthy eating pattern for two years, he will also have it at 8. There is talk of the so-called food trekking, it tends to be stable over time. But the opposite is also valid ”.
Covibesity
In the last year there has been, all over the world, an increase in eating disorders among adolescents, which in Italy has reached 30 percent. At the same time there was also a lowering of the age group, which now ranges from 13 to 16 years, and a consequent worsening of obesity rates, the so-called covibesity. In our country, 40 percent of children have changed their eating habits, consuming more snacks, fruit juices, sugary drinks. The closure of schools has led to an increase in sedentary lifestyle and more hours in front of the computer. The Ministry of Health stressed the importance of one hour of physical activity at least three times a week, because lack of movement can also cause sleep disturbances, anxiety and depression. The confirmation comes from the fact that in 2020 there was an increase in the consumption of psychiatric drugs of 11.60% in the pediatric population.
The initiative
In Italy, in 2020, over a million ‘new poor’ were added to the 4.6 million people who were already living in a state of poverty. The presence of children has had a greater impact on the crisis and the change in lifestyle has led some of the youngest to adopt pathological behaviors related to food.
An important initiative is that of the Eni Foundation, You are not alone, for a concrete support to children, adolescents, and their families, who are in situations of social hardship and manifest eating disorders.
“In the initiative, a nutritional package was developed with simple foods that do not degrade to help families and maintain complete and balanced meals,” explains Dr. Verduci. The nutritional package, distributed through Caritas and the Food Bank, contains some foods rich in carbohydrates such as pasta, couscous, rice, wholemeal biscuits. For protein there are beans, chickpeas, lentils, condensed milk, canned tuna or mackerel, sources of fat including olive oil or sunflower seeds. Then again peeled tomatoes, sauces with vegetables, fruit mousse, because we had to be careful of degradation. “A food pattern based on the Mediterranean diet, which helps to follow a healthy and useful regime for the immune system.
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