A partnership to fight childhood obesityLaunch of a new Award of 10,000 euros

The Foundation is working closely with the ECOG

The ECOG (European Childhood Obesity Group) and the Louis Bonduelle Foundation have joined forces to create a European €10,000 prize to reward research work or public health activities aimed at combating child obesity.

You can download the application forms from this section of the website in May. The completed applications should be sent back by the end of June at the latest. The 2011 Prize was awarded in September during the ECOG's annual conference in Hungary.

The ECOG is an association comprised of scientists, researchers or clinical practitioners working together at a Europe-wide level to share best practices and to launch concrete activities aimed at fighting child obesity.

Find further information about ECOG.

The 2011 winners are the team of the nutrition department of Liverpool John Moores University.

On 9 September, the ECOG and Louis Bonduelle Research Award 2011 was bestowed on the nutrition department of Liverpool John Moores University.

 The winning team, represented by Dr Lynne Boddy, Dr Allan Hackett, Ms Liz Lamb and Professor Gareth Stratton, was rewarded for their work titled: "SportsLinx, a cross-city partnership". This is a programme of research and study into the eating habits of children in Liverpool. This study, conducted since 2008, has enabled 6,000 children from around a hundred Liverpool schools to be made aware of the necessity of engaging in physical activity and eating a balanced diet. Furthermore, the consumption of fruit and vegetables has increased since the study was launched. This programme has been the subject of 17 scientific publications in peer review journals.

This third ECOG and Louis Bonduelle Research Award was presented at the Hotel Palatinus in Pécs (Hungary) during ECOG's 21st European conference. The Prize has also been given to Margherita Caroli, Nutrition Unit, Department of Prevention, Azienda Sanitaria Locale Brindis, for her career.

The 2010 winners are the team of the AP-HP, Robert Debré Hospital, Paris

Doctor Pascale Isnard, Child Psychiatrist (on the right), received the award on behalf of the team from the l'AP-HP, Robert Debré Hospital, Paris. The research prize has been awarded by Laurence Depezay (on the left), nutritionist of the Louis Bonduelle Foundation, during the 20th ECOG European Workshop, on 19 November 2010, in Brussels.

The subject of the project is:"Psychopathological assessment of obese adolescents: eating disorder, emotion, body esteem, self esteem- comparative study before and after treatment in a dietetic center-".

Through this project Pascale Isnard shows that: "When we take an interest in obese children and teenagers who come to us to seek treatment to lose weight, we realise that often these youngsters also suffer from psychopathological problems”.

For 20 to 30% of these youngsters, one of these problems is bulimic hyperphagia, or binge eating, which is defined as ‘snacking or eating large quantities of food in a short space of time, often in secret and without being able to stop’. This problem is closely linked to obesity and can be associated with hyperactivity when youngsters are suffering from a lack of attention or are very agitated.

In her research into obesity in youngsters, Pascale Isnard also identifies psychopathological problems in the parents (anxiety, depression) “which are linked to the psychiatric problems of obese children and teenagers.”
Another project led by the child psychiatrist and her team shows "that the eating disorders and psychopathological problems of youngsters can often be largely resolved after six months to a year of treatment in a dietetic center.”