Food, Pku friendly restaurants arrive

To give back to people suffering from the rare genetic disease Phenylketonuria Pku the pleasure of having lunch at a restaurant without being forced to choose between ‘a salad or a plate of grilled vegetables’, promoting knowledge of this pathology among restaurateurs – and more generally in the population . These are the objectives of Pkuisine®, The Pku friendly kitchen, a unique project of its kind and presented today which aims to create a network of Pku friendly restaurants. PKU in our country affects approximately one child for every 3,000 live births. “Phenylketonuria – explains pediatrician Evira Verduci – is a congenital defect of metabolism caused by mutations in the gene encoding the hepatic enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase, which is responsible for converting the essential amino acid phenylalanine into tyrosine”. If not corrected from birth, this condition leads to severe neurological damage. Diet is the only way to prevent complications. “The goal of the diet is to maintain phenylanine levels in the blood around normal values ​​with an intervention based on three fundamental principles: abolition of natural proteins, use of foods for special medical purposes and supplementation of protein intake with amino acid mixtures” recalls the dietician Fina Belli. It is therefore a question of limiting the intake of foods with a higher protein content, primarily products of animal origin, cereals, legumes and nuts and integrating the diet with protein-free foods for special medical purposes such as pasta. , bread or biscuits. Thanks to this diet it is possible to guarantee the child an absolutely normal development but following such a rigorous diet for life is not always easy. And it is precisely to these needs, to these difficulties, that the campaign “Add a seat at the table – The pleasure of eating out safely” tries to answer with the Pkuisine® project, Pku friendly kitchen presented today. The project was made possible thanks to the contribution of Medifood, a division of Piam Farmaceutici, engaged in the fight against rare hereditary metabolic diseases with the support of Fipe – Italian Federation of Public Exercises, Patient Associations (Amegep Domenico Campanella, Aismme, Iris Sicilia, Cometa Asmme, Cometa Emilia-Romagna, Ammec, Apmmc), Scientific Societies (Simmesn) and a board of 10 specialists made up of dieticians, pediatricians and a neuropsychiatrist. The work led to the definition of the digital Toolkit consisting of Guidelines and Cookbook. In particular, the recipes, specially studied by the board of experts and which include protein-free foods that can be easily managed by the individual restaurateur and require the use of suitable products, of which a first free supply is sent to the restaurateurs who join Pkuisine®. An important contribution to the project came, among others, from chef Maurizio Fantinato who validated the recipes developed by the scientific committee. “The theoretical part was very well prepared by the technicians – says the chef – I adapted the recipes to a professional kitchen”. Thanks to the project, people with PKU will have the opportunity to geolocate the restaurants participating in the initiative and identify them also thanks to the window stickers applied on the windows. In addition, the list of all the restaurants will be found on the Pkuisine® website to which people with ku will also have the opportunity to report a restaurant to invite it to join the project. “Food is a source of health and well-being as well as the symbol par excellence of hospitality and welcome. For all these things, Fipe and Italian catering have always been sensitive to the issues of intolerances and metabolic diseases related to food” comments Aldo Cursano, vice president of Fipe-Confcommercio.