people with obesity are more eat breakfast outside the home, and less dining out in the street; the ones that ask for less vegetables as a main dish or accompaniment, and those who choose to usually having a sweet dessert in place of fruit. Are some of the findings of the latest survey on the habits of life carried out by the Spanish Society of Obesity (SEEDO-SEO), which has been presented this Tuesday in Madrid.
The survey reveals that 77% of the Spanish population, performed on a daily basis any of the three usual meals outside the home. The most common is the breakfast or a meal at mid-morning. “Up until now, had not been given much value to the importance of eating out, we did not have data on the subject, but we realize that we have a very important impact,” he explained to this newspaper, Francisco Tinahones, president of SEEDO.
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Among the principal variables that are associated with obesity include: age (older at greater risk); have breakfast in the street (which increases the risk by 17.8% compared to doing it in-house); have a family member or friend with excess of weight (increased by 13% and 12.3% the risk of obesity, respectively); it does not take vegetables or salad as a main dish when dining out (increases the risk by 43% compared to order it as a main dish) and make a sweet dessert (a 40% of people with obesity, compared to 22% of normal weight children).
The Company believes that with these data on the table is time to take action. “When we talk to clients we always said that meals were the time when people asked what she wanted because they were exceptional cases, but found not, that is the standard,” reflects Tinahones. In the gastronomic fair Madrid Fusion, which is taking place these days, the SEEDO will present a decalogue for restaurants, which includes providing free water, always include fresh fruits (40% of people with obesity complaint of its scarcity in the menus) and add more recipes based on vegetables in the menus.
Tinahones is fixed in such cities as New York, that already put in place measures such as free water, or other, as to include the calories of each dish on the cards. “If I see that between the first, second and dessert I’m eating 2,000 calories, since I do not need anything more. And the problem is that, while at home, we tend to ration out the amount, in the restaurants we eat everything we get,” he said.
The data of the survey, which interviewed 1,200 people from all over Spain, confirm that there is still low self-perception: 54.6% of overweight people surveyed think they are in the middle, and 7.3% believed that it is thin, with no large differences between men and women. “It is time to take action to ensure that the self-perception of people with overweight or obesity to match with its actual weight as it’s the only way we can begin to tackle the problem,” said Susana Monereo, secretary of SEEDO.
