09 Jun 2024 08:02
by Francesca Torricelli
From Romania he arrived in Terni when he was just a child. Today Elisei Petrovici is 21 years old, has already graduated in nutrition and human food sciences through an online Swiss university and is about to open, in the city that saw him grow, the ‘Petrovici Nutrition’ clinic, aimed at treating ailments of eating behavior. «I chose to take the path of nutrition – he says – because since I was a child I was bullied because of my weight. Until 5 years ago I was suffering from type 3 obesity and I reached the point of weighing 137 kilos, then in the last two years of high school I experienced the hell of anorexia nervosa and I reached 56 kilos. I can say that experiencing both disorders formed and shaped my heart, leading me to choose what is now my profession.”
As soon as he graduated Elisei «immediately applied to a women’s gym managed by one of my collaborators, Arianna, and in a clinic, where I knew Michele, I started collaborating with both professional figures and having my first patients who call me’ trendy doctor’. In Umbria there is only one reception center for people with eating disorders and it is located in Todi. As far as I’m concerned, it’s not enough because in Italy we have more than 3 million people who currently suffer from an eating disorder. I therefore decided to open my own clinic, presumably in September 2024 because we are still evaluating various places in the city, where an endocrinologist, a dietician, a psychologist and a personal trainer will also work. The final objective will be to support people and help them understand how fundamental food education actually is today.”
To people who want to approach the clinic, Elisei wants to say that «I know how they feel, I know what they are going through, I know how it feels in an intimate moment with your table. To those girls who hear ‘that fat girl’, or to those boys who are told ‘eat more’, I want to say that we are waiting for them, both for a hug and for help in getting out of that little monster.”
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