According to the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s estimates, the prevalence of obesity has more than tripled in many European countries since the 1980’s, making obesity one of the largest public health challenges of the 21st century. This epidemic is not only affecting adults but also children and adolescents, due to a worldwide shift in diet towards foods that are high in fat, salt and sugar, paired with a decline in physical activity. It is therefore necessary to address this problem since an early age. For this reason, the main objective of the project is to train adolescent students, age 15 to 18, and school educators across Europe to pursue a healthy diet and providing them with the proper tools to make better decisions on the food they consume. The project’s goals include persuading participants of the importance of paying attention to the composition of daily-consumed food products (quantity of free sugars, trans fats, salt etc.) and teach students how to read and understand nutrition labels. We will provide educators with the tools needed to navigate the social and mental health implication of adolescent obesity in their classrooms. In addition, we will encourage social inclusion of disadvantaged students and students suffering from eating disorders or health conditions. Pursuing this objective the project will also reinforce the social inclusion of disadvantaged students in their local communities through the implementation of a didactical e-learning programme focused on health education and critical thinking, to tackle discrimination against students with obesity and other health conditions. The project activities have been in fact designed to support the social inclusion of high school students who come from poor/disadvantages areas and suffer from obesity. It is evident that these students have problems of integration not only in the classroom and school community but also, later in life, they find it difficult to find a job. Additionally, they can be victims of bullying due to their physical situation. A combination of all these factors can thus result also in a decreasing performance of these students and in an earlier drop-out. A total of 10 partners from 5 EU countries (Belgium, Italy, Germany, Poland and Greece) will be involved. The consortium includes: 5 NGOs, 1 University, 1 Children’s Hospital and 3 schools. The project will produce three intellectual outputs: - IO1: Student Training Handbook - IO2: E-learning platform for exchange of ideas and best practices on obesity management, healthy lifestyle, nutrition information - IO3: Educator Training Handbook A short-term exchange of group of pupils will be held in Brussels to support and reinforce the education of students making them work in an international and multicultural environment. Some of the expected results are the following: - Increased dialogue on the issue of adolescent obesity; - A commonly accepted “best practice” towards tackling the adolescent obesity epidemic created by experts in health, obesity and nutrition from across Europe; - Creation of a more comprehensive and well-rounded e-learning programme for educators and adolescents; - Educators and students will acquire transversal skills, such as critical thinking and social inclusiveness: this will help educators improve as teachers, as they will be more able to handling students with weight-related health issue. By better understanding this segment of the student population they can adapt their teaching to improve students’ performance. These skills will also increase the employability of students. - Better trained educators on adolescent obesity and related issues. - Adolescent equipped with valuable skills that will help them secure better employment opportunities in the future; - Minimize the effect of social exclusion and bullying experienced by adolescents with a weight problem. Creating an increased psychological support, benefiting social inclusion; - Minimize the effect of socioeconomic position on the incidence of adolescent obesity; - A cumulative effect in time that will reduce the incidence of childhood and adolescent obesity as time goes by; - Reduction of health care costs associated with obesity related health problems such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, orthopedic problems, mental disorders, underachievement in school and lower self-esteem.
Nearly 1 in 4 adolescents are overweight or obese in Europe. Tackling obesity is not as simple as telling people to exercise more or eat less. Obesity is the problem of a society full of aggressive marketing, body shaming, and bullying towards obese people. This epidemic is not only affecting adults but also children and adolescents, due to a worldwide shift in diet towards foods that are high in fat, salt, and sugar, paired with a decline in physical activity. It is, therefore, necessary to address this problem from an early age. For this reason, the main objective of the project is to train adolescent students, aged 15 to 18, and school educators across Europe to pursue a healthy diet and provide them with the proper tools to make better decisions on the food they consume. The project’s goals include persuading participants of the importance of paying attention to the composition of daily-consumed food products (quantity of free sugars, trans fats, salt, etc.) and teach students how to read and understand nutrition labels. The education material provides educators with the tools needed to navigate the social and mental health implications of adolescent obesity in their classrooms. In addition, the project encourages the social inclusion of disadvantaged students and students suffering from eating disorders or health conditions. The project is coordinated by SAFE- Safe Food Advocacy Europe and involves partners coming from very diverse horizons: 1 European network specialized in the field of nutrition and adolescent obesity, 2 national obese patient associations, 1 University, 1 association that gathers nutritionists and dietitians experts on plant-based diets, 1 psychologist expert on obesity-related matters, and 3 high schools in which training are tested. In order to raise awareness regarding obesity-related problems in adolescents and their families, the project partners have worked together to create three intellectual outputs covering nutritional education: - IO1: A Student’s Handbook - IO2: An E-learning platform for the exchange of ideas and best practices on obesity management, healthy lifestyle, nutrition information - IO3: A Teachers’ Manual These three intellectual outputs are available in English, French, Greek, and Italian to be implemented in schools and successfully tested in the schools in Greece and Italy. Thanks to the creation of these education materials, our project expects to be implemented in as many schools as possible in Europe to increase dialogue on the issue of adolescent obesity and create a more well-rounded e-learning program for educators to better counsel them on adolescent obesity and related issues.