Myths versus facts, or what and how to eat so as not to get sick
The University has a new subject in the field of dietetics: culinary medicine. What do students learn in these classes?
Indeed, in this academic year we introduced culinary medicine and we intend to continue teaching this subject in the following years. Culinary medicine derives from lifestyle medicine and translates theoretical knowledge into practical activities in the kitchen. I will explain it with an example: a patient suffering from constipation receives a recommendation from his doctor that he or she should increase the intake of fiber in the diet. The patient returns home and does not know what to do with this information. Culinary medicine translates such theoretical recommendations into practice. Students learn how to teach patients what to do: how to modify recipes, compose menus, shop and, finally, how to prepare meals. All this still has to be reconciled with the patient’s lifestyle. And, of course, the food must be tasty!
You mentioned recommendations for healthy eating. The problem is that recommendations and trends in dietetics change very often. What is the reason for this?
To begin with, it is worth separating trends from medical recommendations. Trends emerge suddenly and usually disappear very quickly. They may be related to the vogue for a product or cuisine from a certain region. For example, coconut fat used to be popular in recent years. It was considered a panacea and recommended for almost any health condition. However, research has not confirmed its beneficial effects. Coconut oil contains saturated fatty acids that can harm our health. Of course, if we use it in small quantities and occasionally, it will not harm us. However, if we eat it everyday, it can harm us. Coconut oil was promoted mainly by celebrities, not nutritionists. And the vogue for its use did not result from medical knowledge but from the popularity of people who encouraged its consumption. Such fads quickly appear and pass away. With expert recommendations it is different. Let us assume that there is a clinical trial the results of which undermine the current nutritional principle. At the beginning, such a study is treated as a medical curiosity. It must be repeated and verified by other institutions and scientific teams. And only when we have collected the right amount of facts confirming the veracity of new data we can modify the old recommendation or introduce a new one. This is a process that can take several years. That is why the recommendations from the WHO and from various scientific societies change just once every few years.
It is not uncommon that recommendations from different specialists are mutually exclusive. For example, some suggest that we should eat 4-5 meals a day, while others recommend intermittent fasting which consists in eating within an eight-hour time window and fasting for the rest of the day. How to explain it?
This can be explained by the fact that we are not all the same. If this were the case, it would be enough to develop one nutritional scheme and we would have a human dietary guide. Meanwhile, we often need someone to check what is right for us. Someone who will take into account our lifestyle, genetic conditions and possible chronic diseases. Only then can you can tell what way of eating will be the best for you. In some patients we need to check several different approaches, styles of nutrition, before we find the perfect one. We do not have a simple test by which we can say that the intermittent fasting will work in one patient and something else in another. An experienced specialist is needed who will listen to the patient and adapt recommendations to his or her individual needs.
What are the current most important rules for healthy eating?
Today, the current scheme in Poland is the “plate of healthy nutrition” developed by the National Center for Nutrition Education. Once these dietary recommendations were presented in the form of a pyramid. Or even a few pyramids. We had a food pyramid for children, for the elderly, and so on. That has changed. The pyramids were not clear to everyone. The “plate” is much simpler to imagine and more readable. When we look at such a perfect plate and compare it with our actual one, we can easily figure out what needs to be changed. The ideal plate is divided into three parts. Vegetables with the addition of fruits occupy as much as half of the area. The next part, a quarter, is whole grain cereal products and starchy products, such potatoes. The last quarter is occupied by protein products: fish, meat, eggs, dairy, legume seeds, etc. On this plate we can see the proportions in which certain groups of products should be consumed. To this we must add tips on their quality. When it comes to carbohydrates, you need to choose whole grain cereal products with a high fiber content. However, with vegetables, the golden rule is: “the more varied and colorful, the better”. Each color, each type of vegetable has a slightly different palette of vitamins and minerals. If, for example, we eat only green leafy vegetables (otherwise very healthy), we will provide ourselves with only one profile of ingredients. And this profile is very different from the one we have, for example, in carrots or in peppers, or even in broccoli (although they are also green). It is best to include in the diet different groups of vegetables: root, leafy green, cruciferous, alliaceous, etc. Protein products should also be diverse. Fish, meat, eggs, legume seeds, nuts and dairy products can be found here.
Dietetics is a field around which many myths have arisen. Which do you think are the most harmful?
A lot of myths or outdated recommendations concern fats. Often we can still hear that all fat is unhealthy and should be avoided. Meanwhile, there are more and more publications proving that the right amount of good fat in the diet works beneficially. Good fats are, for example, omega-3 acids found in fatty fish, or omega-6 acids contained in olive oil, nuts and seeds. Another area around which many myths have arisen is the weight loss. For example, there is a belief that the less you eat, the faster you lose weight. Therefore, people who want to lose weight restrict their intake of calories as the first measure. You have to be careful with this. If you cut down the calories down to 800 kcal per day, you will lose weight quite quickly, but you will also lose the muscle tissue and increase the risk of insulin resistance, so the yo-yo effect is unavoidable. While talking about the weight loss, the ketogenic diet is considered to be very effective. This is another myth. It is a high-fat and low-carbohydrate diet that mimics the state of fasting (causing fats to produce a large amount of ketone bodies). It provides enough energy but it is inappropriate for the vast majority of people. It was developed to treat a specific form of epilepsy and had nothing to do with the weight loss! It is very difficult to continue and, when used for a long time, it can lead to electrolyte disturbances, episodes of hypoglycemia or excessive load on the kidneys and liver.
Recently, diets in which we exclude one or more groups of products, such as the vegetable-fruit diet or the gluten-free diet, are very popular. What do you think of them?
When we remove several large groups of products from the menu and leave only vegetables and fruits, we are threatened with deficiencies. First of all, proteins, vitamins (especially vitamin B12) and minerals (mainly iron). In general, all elimination diets should be used when we are dealing with a food intolerance or allergy to a given product. Gluten is a good example. It must be excluded when you suffer from celiac syndrome or intolerance of this protein. However, you should not give up gluten products “just in case” because in this way you eliminate a wide range of products from your diet and deprive yourself of valuable fiber, as well as vitamins and minerals. Even if you replace gluten-containing products with gluten-free ones (non-supplemented) from made corn or other flour, you will get much less of these valuable ingredients, because a large part of gluten-free products consist of mixtures of highly refined flours.
And can food act as a medicine or at least support healing?
Yes, we know more and more substances contained in vegetables, fruits and herbs, which have anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, immunity promoting or intestinal support effects. If we want to have an anti-inflammatory effect, for example, we need to significantly increase the consumption of plant products. That is, we eat varied colorful vegetables, fresh fruits, legume seeds, nuts and fatty fish. The latter due to the content of anti-inflammatory omega-3 acids. At the same time, it is worth avoiding pro-inflammatory products. It is not so much about the product type as it is about its quality. The development of inflammation in the body can be promoted by eating poor-quality meat and highly processed cold cuts, as well as by using large amounts of refined vegetable fats and trans-type fatty acids.
We know from experience that food affects our mood. Is it worth improving your mood with chocolate?
What we eat can affect our mood on several levels. First of all, there is the direct action. Everyone have experienced this. When you are in a worse mood, you reach for something sweet and you feel better for a while. This has to do with the physiology of the central nervous system. The brain considers sugar to be something very valuable, so when it gets this substance, it stimulates the reward center. This mechanism is a remnant of the times when humans were hunters-gatherers. At that time, sugars, such as these contained in sweet fruits, were difficult to obtain. Today, sugar is contained in most products. We eat too much of it and we develop an addiction which leads to all the bad consequences, such as depressed mood, depressive states, etc. When we talk about the effect of food on mood, we should mention the gut-brain axis. Currently, this is one of the hot topics in dietetics. We have an increasing number of studies confirming that the composition of the intestinal bacterial flora affects the work of the brain and our mood. In light of recent discoveries, our approach to these bacteria is changing. Until recently, it was thought that we controlled them. Now it turns out that the bacteria living in our body have much more to say than we thought. Some scientists even theorize that it is these bacteria that make us who we are. When the genetic material of the bacteria was examined and then compared quantitatively with the human genetic material, it has turned out that the bacteria dominate! Therefore, it can be said that we rule the world while the bacteria control us, so it is worth taking care of the balance of the intestinal microbiome. This can be done with a diversified diet consistent with the principles of the “plate of healthy nutrition”.
Interwieved by Iwona Kołakowska
Photos Michał Teperek
Communication and Promotion Office