Leggi l’articolo in italiano

March 15 marks the Italian National Day dedicated to raising awareness about Nutrition and Eating Disorders (NED). In Italy, over three million people live with these pathologies, which represent one of the leading causes of death among adolescents. An even more worrying figure concerns the age of onset, which is increasingly early: about 20% of cases involve children under the age of 14. More incisive strategies are needed: prevention, accurate information, and policies capable of addressing the problem in a structural way.

Eating disorders (ED), today more accurately referred to as nutrition and eating disorders (NED), are severe and disabling psychiatric pathologies that can be life-threatening. Those affected develop a deeply altered relationship with food, their body, and their self-image.This is not only a public health emergency, but also a social issue with significant repercussions for the National Health Service, families, and the wider community.

Among the main disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder (BED), as well as less well-known conditions such as avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID). Alongside these are emerging forms that are increasingly discussed, including orthorexia, vigorexia, and drunkorexia.

In these disorders, eating becomes a tool to control body weight and physical appearance, but above all a means through which deeper psychological vulnerabilities are expressed. In most cases, psychological distress is worsened by dieting, often self-prescribed and undertaken without any medical or nutritional support, suggested by people without proper expertise or influenced by unrealistic aesthetic standards widespread in society and the media.

The Link Between Ned and Obesity

There is a continuum between nutrition and eating disorders and obesity: both conditions have a multifactorial origin, in which biological, psychological, environmental, and social factors interact. 

In the NED, the pathology arises mainly at the psychological level and leads to serious consequences for the body; in the case of obesity, the process may initially develop at the physical level, with significant repercussions on psychological well-being. 

Factors such as low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, and insecurity are common in both conditions.

Social Pressures and Misinformation

To these individual factors are added the sociocultural ones, which are increasingly relevant. In industrialized countries and in many developing countries about half of the population is overweight or obese, while models of success and beauty – especially for women, but increasingly also for men – continue to promote ideals of extreme thinness.

This gap generates enormous social pressure. The demand for weight loss is high, but too often the response comes from quacks and self-proclaimed nutrition gurus, who offer quick fixes, shortcuts, and miracle diets with no scientific basis. The consequences are easily predictable: misinformation, unrealistic expectations, and, in the most severe cases, the triggering or worsening of eating disorders.

Information, Education, and Balance

The national day dedicated to raising awareness about NED thus represents an important opportunity to draw attention to these pathologies and to promote greater collective awareness. Addressing nutrition and eating disorders requires a scientific, multidisciplinary, and personalized approach involving doctors, nutritionists, psychologists and other health professionals, but also communication, information and lifestyle experts.

At the same time, we need public policies that promote structural investments in prevention, early diagnosis and multidisciplinary management of patients. Strengthening nutrition and health education, starting from schools and families, it is necessary to help people – especially the youngest – to develop a more balanced relationship with food, with their body and with their image. A crucial aspect also concerns information. In the era of social media, where messages about diets, body and nutrition circulate every day, it becomes essential to promote content based on scientific evidence and counter the spread of misleading narratives or harmful simplifications.

In a context where the information noise is getting louder, the real challenge is to promote balance, competence and responsibility: only through scientific knowledge, prevention and adequate support is it possible to effectively counteract complex disorders that concern not only individual health, but the well-being of society as a whole.

Read World Obesity Day 2026: 8 Billion Reasons To Rethink How We Nourish>>>