Story perspectives

Campania Tests Fast-Mimicking Diet on Teens Amid Disorder Fears

7/26/2026

Summary

Story summary

Campania launched a trial of a fast-mimicking diet for 300 adolescents using a five-day, 1,100-calorie then 770-calorie schedule repeated every three months.
Paediatrician Berni Canani warns that evidence for such diets in children may raise the risk of eating disorders, anorexia and body dysmorphia.
Italy’s 2025 law classifying obesity as a chronic disease coincides with Campania’s over-40% overweight rate among eight- and nine-year-olds and severe obesity in teenagers as young as 16.

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Story summary

Campania launched a trial of a fast-mimicking diet for 300 adolescents using a five-day, 1,100-calorie then 770-calorie schedule repeated every three months.
Paediatrician Berni Canani warns that evidence for such diets in children may raise the risk of eating disorders, anorexia and body dysmorphia.
Italy’s 2025 law classifying obesity as a chronic disease coincides with Campania’s over-40% overweight rate among eight- and nine-year-olds and severe obesity in teenagers as young as 16.