Andrea Pezzana

San Giovanni Bosco Hospital and Piedmont Regional network of Clinical Nutrition units
Italy

1.Do you have any general comments on the draft political declaration and its vision (paragraphs 1-3 of the zero draft)? 

Between the causes of malnutrition I suggest to add the lack of information about malnutrition prevention, early diagnosis and treatment in almost every university course of medicine. Both general practitioners and hospital doctors, as well as nurses, speech therapists, etc. receive no information about this topic

2. Do you have any comments on the background and analysis provided in the political declaration (paragraphs 4-20 of the zero draft)?   

Food industry should update the recipes, changing the type of fats (too often they’re labelling their products as rich in unsaturated vegetable oils, the average consumer considers them quit healthy but it means that they’re full of palm, kennel and coconut oil, even richer in saturated fatty acids than butter), the quantity of sodium, the glycemic index of their products.

The food industry should be mentioned more clearly not as a cause of the present situation, but as a key factor in ameliorating public health indicators.

 

Please provide your comments in the appropriate fields relating to these commitments:         

21.

Commitment I: aligning our food systems (systems for food production, storage and distribution)to people’s health needs;    

Update food labelling laws, using glycemic index and total amounts of simple sugars

Commitment IV: ensuring that nutritious food is accessible, affordable and acceptable through the coherent implementation of public policies throughout food value chains.            

Help poorer people increasing their access to healthier food: promote community-based local food, farmers markets, help small-scale producers in finding new markets (i.e. school meals, hospital food) entering area of the market that are usually accessible only to big trades