In brief
In southern Italy, a growing tide of children and teens are becoming severely overweight, with a young teen named Salvatore weighing 170kg and struggling to walk. While Italy is famous for its Mediterranean diet, modern eating habits—pizza, pasta, pastries and processed snacks—have taken over. Doctors are turning to surgery, medication, and new fast‑mimicking diets, while schools and a 2025 national law aim to tackle the epidemic through education and policy.
Salvatore, 17, weighs 170kg (26st 10lb) and can’t tie his own shoelaces or ride his Vespa without his scooter breaking. He eats constantly, and his weight makes surgery risky.
In the Campania region, more than 40% of eight‑ and nine‑year‑olds are overweight—far above Europe’s average, where Italian kids are now some of the fattest.
Doctors are trying different fixes: cardiothoracic surgeons offer weight‑loss surgery that removes most of the stomach, diabetes specialists use GLP‑1 injections to curb appetite, and researchers are testing fast‑mimicking diets that cut calories for a few days every quarter.
Schools are stepping in too. The Valter Longo Foundation runs nutrition workshops in 25 schools, reaching >17,000 students, and teachers are encouraging parents to see “chubby” kids as “healthy” is now mistaken.
Italy passed a 2025 law recognising obesity as a chronic disease, aiming to parent, school and health‑care interventions to change how kids eat—and how their families learn to think about food.
Salvatore’s story shows that obesity is not just a matter of bad habits. It involves biology, the environment and the cultural love for food. The challenge is keeping childhood nutrition healthy without turning the fun of pizza and pastries into fat.
