Nutrition and the Covid-19 pandemic: Three factors with high impact on community health

Aims: In the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple suggestions have been delivered through websites and social media referring to natural substances and various kinds of supplements with thaumaturgical properties in preventing and/or fighting the coronavirus infection. Indeed, there is no clinical trial evidence that a dietary or pharmacological supplementation of any particular substance will increase the effectiveness of the immune defences. There are however three nutritional issues that deserve special attention under the present circumstances, namely vitamin D deficiency, excess salt intake and inappropriate alcohol consumption. Here is a short review of the current knowledge about the possible role of these factors in the immunity defence system and their potential impact on the modulation of the immune response to SARS-COV2 infection. Data synthesis: For all of these factors there is convincing evidence of an impact on the immune defence structure and function. In the absence of RCT demonstration that increased ingestion of any given substance may confer protection against the new enemy, special attention to correction of these three nutritional criticisms is certainly warranted at the time of COVID pandemic. Conclusions: We propose that the inappropriate intake of salt and alcohol and the risk of inadequate vitamin D status should be object of screening, in particular in subjects at high mortality risk from SARS-COV 2 infection, such as institutionalised elderly subjects and all those affected by predisposing conditions

Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet in children and adolescents: A systematic review

Background and aim: A decreased adherence to the Mediterranean Diet (MD) may be related to a rise in chronic non-communicable diseases from childhood onward. The aim of this systematic review was to summarize the available literature regarding MD adherence in children and adolescents, and focusing, more specifically, on the association of MD adherence with demographic and anthropometric variables, body composition, lifestyle, and diet adequacy. Methods and results: A search of scientific literature was carried out on PUBMED, SCOPUS, Clinical Trials Results, Google Scholar, and British Library Inside for studies published in the last 20 years. Fifty-eight papers were finally included according to the following criteria: MD adherence evaluated through a quantifying score or index, age 2-20 years, sample size >200 participants, observational or intervention studies regarding the general population.The KIDMED index was the most widely used scoring system. MD adherence widely varied within the Mediterranean countries for both children and adolescents, with also large differences among various European countries, while few data are available for non-Mediterranean countries. Most of the eligible studies showed that MD adherence was directly associated with physical activity (and possibly with diet adequacy) and inversely with sedentary behavior, while the results for gender, age, socioeconomic status and weight status were not consistent. Conclusions: Further validation of MD indexes in terms of reproducibility and consistency with the MD is needed. At the same time, more prospective cohort and intervention studies may better elucidate the relationships of MD adherence with behavioral and health outcomes

Healthy behaviours and abdominal adiposity in adolescents from southern Italy.

Objective: The present study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of meeting health recommendations on diet and physical activity (having breakfast, eating fruit and vegetables, consumption of milk/yoghurt, performing moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, limiting television watching) and to assess junk snack food consumption in adolescents from southern Italy. The association between healthy behaviours and abdominal adiposity was also examined. Design: In a cross-sectional protocol, anthropometric data were measured by trained operators while other data were collected through a structured interview. Setting: Three high schools in Naples, Italy. Subjects: A sample of 478 students, aged 14–17 years, was studied. Results: The proportion of adolescents who met each of the health recommendations varied: 55?4% had breakfast on $6 d/week; 2?9$5 servings of fruit and vegetables/d; 1?9% had $3 servings of milk/yoghurt daily; 13?6 moderate-to-vigorous physical activity for$60 min/d; and 46?3% watched television for ,2 h/d. More than 65% of adolescents consumed $1 serving of junk snack foods/d. Only 5 habits tended to correlate with each other. As the number of health recommendations met decreased, the percentage of adolescents with high abdominal adiposity (waist-to-height ratio$0?5) increased. The trend was not significant when the proportion of overweight/obese adolescents was considered. Logistic regression analysis indicated that male gender and watching television for $2 h/d were independently associated with a higher waist-to-height ratio. Conclusions: Most adolescents failed to meet the five health recommendations considered. Male gender and excessive television watching were associated with abdominal adiposity