"Every diet always starts from the brain: now 4 out of 10 patients come to my surgery asking me to prescribe amphetamines or other substances deemed useful for weight loss. Which I don't regularly do, but which shows how, unfortunately, it is less and less clear that obesity is not like pneumonia, it cannot be treated with pills”. Comment like this Dr. Sara Emerenziani, gastroenterologist and food, nutrition and diet expert at the Campus Bio-Medico University Hospital, the decree with which the Minister of Health, Beatrice Lorenzin, today banned 7 substances used so far in pharmacies for slimming preparations.

"Pathologies related to obesity – continues Emerenziani – they are essentially behavioral and multi-factorial. For this, it is rather necessary to educate the patient to eat healthily and to move more. The idea of ​​eliminating the disorder through drugs is a dangerous shortcut. To date, in fact, there is no prescribable centrally acting anorectic drug". "After all – explains the expert – it is difficult to inhibit the center that regulates appetite in our brain without producing serious side effects. Furthermore, it is important to remember that many overweight people already suffer from mood disorders and are, therefore, even more at risk if they are given antidepressants, anxiolytics and antiepileptics".

"We must not forget – adds the specialist – that weight is to all intents and purposes a clinical parameter, just as important as blood pressure, blood sugar, body temperature. Yet, on a cultural level today it is perceived above all as an aesthetic parameter: I want to be thin because I will be beautiful. Here, I say no, rather it should be said: I want to be thin to feel good. No one would ever dream of taking a mixture of substances to treat hypertension, because pressure is perceived as a parameter to be submitted to the attention of a specialist. Weight, on the other hand, is often treated as a purely aesthetic parameter. But it is not and must, instead, be controlled with the seriousness and scientific rigor that characterize the approach to other pathologies".