Food is a friend: Do healthy people need to go on a diet?
In theory, the work of a dietician - This is the use of nutritional recommendations for people with certain diseases when the diet becomes part of the treatment protocol (including in combination with medications). In the mass presentation, diet is a means of losing weight, and a nutritionist is one who helps to lose weight. Elena Motov, a dietitian at the Dawn Clinic, author of the book My Best Friend is the Stomach. Food for Smart People, and a blog about evidence-based dietetics, told why so many healthy people come to a dietitian in our country and how disorders occur eating behavior.
Orthorexia and detox
In half of the cases, they come to a doctor of my specialty to lose weight (and sometimes gain weight) or for a nutrition plan, when after amateur diets there are health problems. It happens that a person gets lost in contradictory arguments about food and needs a guide. Although the doctor’s business is to heal, in practice it is often necessary to talk about the basics of nutrition to healthy people, and also to explain why a request for weight loss in many cases is not justified.
To convince a person with a healthy weight and other indicators that he does not need to lose weight is almost a hopeless task. Naomi Wolfe, in his book “The Myth of Beauty”, writes about “one stone solution” (6.34 kg). These are the "extra" 5-7 kilograms, which for many women with normal weight are the basis of their perception of themselves. This ill-fated stone stands between women who consider themselves "too fat" and in their ideal way. And if weight loss for the treatment of health problems is justified, then body dissatisfaction is a bad reason for losing weight, sometimes it is a direct way to eating disorders and to a real loss of control over your kilograms.
It seems that everyone understands what is "healthy" and "proper" food, but these definitions seem to me to be incorrect. Just want to ask - and for whom it is correct? Is there really the only option that suits everyone? Often, the “right” is considered to follow a lot of restrictions - and any popular diet calls for throwing away half the food from the diet, because it is they who are supposedly between you and health, beauty and slimness. Food restrictions are explained in the most bizarre way, sometimes even with the involvement of PubMed, but the only goal, which is hidden under the pile of words, is to reduce the calorie content of the diet.
There is no absolutely harmful and certainly healthy food. Possible benefit or harm makes sense only in the context of consumption, in other words, it is important what and how you eat regularly
Obsessive desire for "clean" food - orthorexia - from the side may look like concern for health and cause admiration. First, a person refuses fast food and completely prohibits sugar, then fruits and alcohol fall under the distribution. The next stage is the rejection of gluten, casein, phytates, lectins (hereinafter, everywhere) and the transition to detoxification programs. In the end - a poor diet of several foods, a constant fear of eating something wrong, obsessional concern about nutrition, social isolation. It is clear that the roots of this disorder are not in food, they are deeper and more complex - but for many such relationships with food and their own bodies seem to be an example of dedication, willpower and concern for themselves.
There is no absolutely harmful and certainly healthy food. Possible benefit or harm makes sense only in the context of consumption, in other words, it is important what and how you eat regularly. As my colleague Rene MacGregor writes: “For me, any food is a friend; but, as in life, I want to spend more time with someone of my friends, but less time with someone.”
The benefits of chocolate
People cannot be accused of not wanting to know - on the contrary, many eagerly seek and absorb information. Another thing is that among the available information on nutrition a lot of false and distorted. In 2016, the largest research of Rosstat was published, where the nutrition of more than one hundred thousand of our compatriots was studied. Most participants reported receiving nutritional information from the mainstream media and the Internet; They are at a loss due to multidirectional recommendations and do not understand what is really important and what is not worthy of attention.
Many nutritional recommendations are so replicated in gloss and web that they have become generally accepted and accepted without a critical assessment, such as advice to drink eight glasses of water daily. Filtering information from urban legends and hidden advertising is difficult, because school biology was extremely far from real life.
High-quality nutrition studies last for decades, they are technically complex and ideally should be conducted by non-interested parties. Information should be carefully collected and properly processed, at each stage it is evaluated and discussed by experts - in general, it is almost impossible to get a sensation, it is just a systematic accumulation of data. It is much more interesting to take a catastrophically poor study with problems in collecting and processing data and thunder to the whole world. Although a scientific journalist who started a farce with “research” about the benefits of chocolate for losing weight, has long publicly shared his story about the blind credulity of the media and the public, dark chocolate continues to be included in the weight loss product set. To believe in "magic", high-speed means is easy and pleasant - and yet, without relying on well-conducted research, it is impossible to predict the benefits and easily get harm. There is evidence-based dietetics - and there is everything else.
Ideal weight
Another idea, which is long overdue for critical evaluation, is that there is an “ideal weight”. Body dissatisfaction usually takes the form of weight grievance - and now the mood for the day is determined by the number on the scales. The most frequent reasons for trying to lose weight is the ability to buy smaller clothes and feel more confident (“I like myself that way”). In my lectures, I show unified images of women's bodies, arranged in order of increasing their weight, and I ask you to choose those that seem beautiful. Extremely thin women are often chosen. According to the research data, already at the age of three, girls are sure that a beautiful woman is thin, and the first diet often begins before puberty.
Both the dietary and the fashion industry inspire us that bodily parameters can be adjusted to fit any pattern, we just need to try harder. But beautiful thin women from the world of glamor, role models for a huge number of people, often have a weight deficit - although there are naturally thin people, but healthy people. For most, weight reduction to model standards will be associated with costs for both physical and mental health.
The ability to control your body and change it at your discretion seems tempting. The world is unpredictable, and you want to control, if not your life, then at least your own body. At the same time, the body is not a wonderful self-regulating mechanism, but "a lazy cattle, which must be trained as hard as possible." The problem with this approach is that most of the physiological processes in the cells occur without our conscious participation, and it is simply impossible to control the body. During fasting and on tight diets, the synthesis of signaling molecules that control feelings of hunger and satiety is changing, and because of a lack of energy I don’t want to move: the body resists weight loss with all its might.
When a person comes to a nutritionist with a request to help get rid of “three extra pounds by the summer,” the specialist’s task is not to make a diet for weight loss, but to help understand that weight loss actions “for the beach” are simply meaningless
On the one hand, it is not possible to keep the body under control, but the ideal is not attained; on the other hand, constant attempts to sit on diets lead to the fact that the metabolism and perception of feelings of hunger and satiety are changing. When a person comes to a nutritionist asking for help to get rid of “three extra pounds by the summer,” the specialist’s task is not to create a diet for weight loss, but to help understand that weight loss actions “for the beach” are simply meaningless, that these three pounds are not superfluous and that the relationship with your own body is time to reconsider.
And if women try to lose weight when there is no such need for health, men have a completely different picture: according to an observational study of ESSE-RF, the prevalence of obesity in men is only increasing, and the most unhealthy eating habits are noticeable in men younger than 35 years old. Those who really need a nutritionist and rarely come to the reception are men with a waist girth of 94 centimeters or more; This value is a criterion for abdominal obesity, a significant risk factor for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.
Food policy
In May 2018, the World Health Organization proposed to ban industrial transfats by 2023. Partially hydrogenated vegetable fats derived from ordinary vegetable oils are cheap and do not deteriorate for a long time, therefore they are actively used by the food industry. The presence of trans fats in the diet adversely affects blood lipids and increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases, but you cannot find out from the label how many there are in a pack of crackers, a waffle cake, and hundreds of other products from the supermarket.
A clear food policy, when consumers are taught to choose high-quality and healthy food, and the manufacturer is obliged to provide complete information about the composition, much better than the horror stories about products. As part of the Finnish national project North Karelia, manufacturers were encouraged to use less salt — for this they had to change the legislation and introduce special labeling for the products containing it. This is one of the scientifically based methods for the prevention of arterial hypertension, and therefore, reducing the burden of heart attacks and strokes. Everyone was the winner: consumers, manufacturers and the state.
The Finnish project is a reference example of the fact that rational and focused efforts to create a healthier environment pay off. For thirty-five years of early detection of diseases and risk factors, learning, lifestyle changes across the country, life expectancy increased from 66.4 to 75.8 years for men and from 74.6 to 82.8 for women. The simplest measures have led to the fact that able-bodied men in Finland have become 73% less likely to die from stroke. For comparison: “The strategy on the formation of a healthy lifestyle” of the Ministry of Health has already passed through 48 revisions, but before its implementation as before the moon.
How is it
There is nothing extraordinary in the basic nutritional guidelines for healthy people: there is no ban after six or panic about carbohydrates. After all, this is not someone's brilliant insight and personal experience in the spirit of "if this diet helped me and my neighbor, it means that it suits everyone." WHO as a starting point offers a reasonable diet with a sufficient amount of unprocessed or low-processed vegetable food. These recommendations are supported by a 2014 meta-analysis based on 11 observational studies.
The best basis of nutrition is 600-800 g of vegetables, fruits and berries of different colors in fresh and cooked form per day, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds (unsalted and unsweetened, in moderation). Spicy herbs, spices, onions and garlic - to make food tastier and reduce salt intake. Regular salt (only 5-6 g per day) for the prevention of iodine deficiency should be replaced with iodized. As sources of protein and omega-3 fatty acids, it is recommended to eat 2-3 servings of fish and seafood per week. Dietary products of moderate fat content and eggs should be added to the diet, and poultry should be preferred to red meat. Industrial products of deep processing - from sausages to sweet soda - the smaller the better. Added and free sugars from food and drinks should not take up much space in the diet: 50 grams per day (and less) for adults, 25 for children. It is considered not only sugar, but also honey, agave syrup, fructose in fresh juice and so on.
There is not and can not be any one healthy food option: choose from different food groups those foods that you like. Eat, guided by the feeling of hunger to a moderate saturation, slowly, in a calm atmosphere, without being distracted by the TV or smartphone. Be physically active - it helps to maintain a balance between the energy obtained from food and spent on life. Buy a cookbook with interesting and simple recipes - or download the app. Plan food, buy quality products, learn to cook with the whole family, cook at home and enjoy food without fail - this is the most important part of healthy relationships with food and your own body.
Photo: anastasiafotoss - stock.adobe.com (1, 2, 3)
