The Eurecat technology centre is leading the European MED4Youth project, the first nutritional intervention study to evaluate the effects of a Mediterranean diet-based dietary intervention against obesity in teenagers across several countries with a view to encouraging and helping this population segment to adopt healthy habits.
As of 2016, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that youth obesity has quadrupled in the last 30 years and 18 percent of children and teenagers between 5 and 19 years of age are overweight or obese.
In Spain, the PASOS study brought out by the Pau Gasol Foundation in 2019 concluded that 35 percent of children and teenagers aged 8 to 16 are overweight or obese, a similar percentage to nearby countries such as Italy and Portugal.
“The onset of obesity is very often associated with an unhealthy diet and a sedentary lifestyle,” says Dr Antoni Caimari, the project’s principal investigator and director of Eurecat’s Biotechnology Division. “So it’s crucial to promote healthy habits in teenagers since juvenile obesity is a strong predictor of obesity in adulthood. This in turn can lead to the premature onset of high blood pressure and metabolic disorders, including high levels of cholesterol, triglycerides and sugar, which increase the risk of non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes.”
The Mediterranean diet, declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO, meets the requirements of a healthy and sustainable eating and lifestyle pattern. However, “no clinical and nutritional intervention study has been carried out on teenagers with obesity across a number of European countries in which the health effects of a Mediterranean diet have been evaluated,” notes Dr Montserrat Rabassa, a researcher, dietician and nutritionist in Eurecat’s Nutrition and Health Unit.
The MED4Youth project “is designed to address this need and confirm that a Mediterranean diet is effective in combating youth obesity and promoting a healthier lifestyle,” she adds.
The study is being conducted with overweight and obese teenagers aged 13 to 17 in Catalonia, Italy and Portugal. It suggests introducing foods characteristic of the Mediterranean diet such as sourdough bread, pulses, pomegranates and nuts.
This dietary intervention is coupled with technology and gamification using an educational app tailored to teenagers and their parents to deliver nutrition and health content and thus show teenagers how to eat better and put good habits in place over time to enhance their health and quality of life.
Omic technologies will be harnessed as part of the research which “will allow us to learn more about how the Mediterranean diet has a healthy effect on the body by analysing the bacterial populations and metabolites in the gut,” says Dr Caimari.
The teenage volunteers are monitored by nutrition and health experts to help them stick to the nutritional guidelines laid down. Together with their legal guardians, they also get online support throughout the study via a web app which provides healthy recipes and tips to inspire them to achieve a healthy weight and healthy habits.
The MED4Youth project consortium, coordinated by the Eurecat technology centre, also includes the University of Parma (Italy), which is leading the study in Italy, the University of Coïmbra (Portugal), which is heading it in Portugal, Shikma Field Crops (Israel), the Scientific Food Center (Jordan) and Panishop-Novapan (Spain). The project is additionally partnered by the Cooperativa Agrícola de la Selva del Camp (COSELVA) which will supply the nuts to the participants.
The project comes under the PRIMA programme which is backed by the European Union, Catalonia Trade & Investment, the Spanish Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI), the Israeli Innovation Agency, the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR), the Jordanian Scientific Research Support Fund and the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT).
