Obesity is the pandemic of the XNUMXst century and it also kills
Professor Gil, researcher of the “Biochemistry of Nutrition. Therapeutic Implications” of the ibs.GRANADA warns that we are moving away from the Mediterranean diet and misses a global political strategy that affects health from better eating habits.
Ángel Gil Hernández, who has just turned 70, from Granada and researcher at ibs.GRANADA, has established himself among the main international references in nutrition from the Department of Biochemistry of the Faculty of Pharmacy and the Institute of Nutrition and Technology of Foods, at the University of Granada. Professor Gil, one of the great defenders of the Mediterranean diet, has just been awarded the Sir David Cuthberson Lecture Award 2021, and he becomes the second Spanish researcher to achieve this recognition since 1979.
In his scientific career, Professor Gil has already accumulated 40 national and international awards that accredit him as one of the 59 UGR researchers selected by the Stanford University ranking among the most cited scientists in the world. His words give rise to four fundamental ideas for a healthy life: less plate and more shoe, have breakfast like a king and dinner like a beggar, instill education in nutrition from preschool, and take obesity as a pandemic very seriously that causes millions of deaths in developed countries. Ah, warn that miracle diets do not exist!
-What have you eaten today?
-I have had a salad with five different vegetables with a little extra olive oil, a little grilled kid and fruit, a little melon.
-Always underline “a little”. Does size matter in food?
-Of course. Serving size is essential in a balanced diet. In the Mediterranean diet one of its characteristics is frugality. You can eat everything, but you have to eat little of everything.
"Someone once advised me to have breakfast like a king, eat like a prince, and dine like a beggar, isn't that a bit of an exaggeration?"
-Absolutely. One can distribute the meals in very different ways but it is good to make a good breakfast in which there is dairy, cereals, fruit, a little bread with virgin olive oil, and the healthiest thing is to make very light dinners. Poor digestion does not facilitate the development of a healthy life.
-You won't be a lot of dinners ...
-I usually dine, but I do it responsibly. For example, a grilled fish, a little cooked ham, or cheese. And do it early, long before I go to sleep to facilitate proper digestion.
-Includes fruit in your diet and advises taking it. Is eating a lot of fruit healthy or fattening?
-You have to have control in everything we consume. The diet should be varied but always moderate and bear in mind that all fruits do not have the same energy capacity.
-I'm sure you've heard someone say that even with water they gain weight. Why does obesity appear in some people and in others not eating and drinking the same thing?
-Today we know that there are genetic characteristics that determine the energy expenditure of an individual, the expenditure we make of energy at rest. My research group works on childhood obesity. It is clear that there are genetic determinants that predispose to obesity, but it is also true that eating conditions and other healthy life factors such as the quantity and quality of physical activity can be modified, and that predisposition to obesity can be largely compensated. obesity. Of course there are people who complain that their beer makes them fat, but what about the seven tapas that accompany it?
-That is, not necessarily chubby children from obese parents ...
-Not necessarily, but it is true that there is a percentage of up to 70% inheritance in genetics. We have shown in the analysis of genetic polymorphisms that this burden exists, but also that environmental conditions, bad family habits that are transferred from parents to children, cause many children or young people to have obesity problems without having a previous genetic load.
-Where are the main risks in the feeding of our children?
-The risks have a lot to do with educational factors. If parents eat well, children will eat well. It is a question of good habits that they must also learn at school. Nutrition education is fundamental in a country that wants to improve its quality of life. He asks me about the risks and I think the most important are in the consumption of inappropriate amounts of very dense products, in addition, in sugar or fats, especially saturated ones, and along with it the increase in inactivity, which is not the same than sedentary lifestyle. It is a scourge worldwide that has generated a pandemic of overweight and obesity.
-The fashions that are fed from social networks, can they project a model of worship to the body that is not always healthy, especially in adolescents?
-Of course. The problem is that from the classrooms or in the families there is no adequate preventive training. Knowing the advantages of healthy eating should be encouraged from preschool age and followed in the following phases of their life. For that it would be necessary to educate educators first and extend that training in families. Although it has been improved and some compulsory subjects are taught in secondary education, but I think that instilling good habits should be done from the very beginning. Social networks can be very useful but through them biased, false content can be generated, which can lead to confusion. It is true that fashion profiles are "sold" to young people that can lead to serious nutritional disorders, such as abulimia or anorexia, which are difficult to treat.
-For a healthy diet we have the opportunity to follow the Mediterranean diet, but in the end it does not seem that it is deeply rooted in our environment ...
At the University of Granada and in other research groups we have analyzed the diet of more than 1.500 children aged 1 to 10 years, and the main conclusion is that they are far removed from the Mediterranean diet pattern because they consume few vegetables and fruits and they do consume in excess protein. It is tremendous, but the reality is that we are moving away from the Mediterranean diet model in the child population and also in the age segment between 18 and 50 years old, which is not only a question of consumption of certain nutrients, it is a culture, a lifestyle that includes behaviors linked to a family diet of traditional cooked preparations. Social changes have taken place and this matter has worsened when less fish and less legumes and vegetables are consumed. No one should doubt at this point that the Mediterranean diet reduces the risk of suffering from chronic, inflammatory or cardiovascular diseases, and that work necessary to not stray from a healthy lifestyle also corresponds to the different administrations. I miss a long-term national policy that watches over and takes care of our diet. If we don't do it today in thirty years we will regret it.
-It is measured that the Mediterranean diet lengthens life ...
-Sure. You live longer and with a better quality of life, which is also very important. Chronic diseases are a scourge for humanity of which 45 million people die every year in the world, and of these a very high percentage are due to cardiovascular diseases, cancer and other inflammatory pathologies. We have demonstrated in our research work the prevalence of the Mediterranean diet in reducing these chronic diseases. Someone with a Mediterranean diet lives longer and better than someone who does not follow it.
-That must have been seen in the countries of central and northern Europe, where this type of diet is currently increasing the most ...
-With certain variations. It is necessary to distinguish between countries, but on the north coast it is true that they are incorporating patterns that are variants of the Mediterranean diet, healthy, moderate, safe and sustainable. The big difference with us is associated with educational issues. When there is a public health problem, the solution requires applying different measures and in the long term. School canteens, family habits and, for example, having cities prepared to facilitate physical exercise influence. The World Health Organization (WHO) maintains that if we put into practice the knowledge that we currently have in the matter of diet, the number of deaths from chronic diseases would decrease by half.
-From what you say, it gives the impression that you do not just trust the policies that are applied by the Administration in matters of food ...
-What does not exist is a global strategy of our country in this field in the medium and long term. There are countries that carry out studies to find out what the population consumes, the prevailing dietary patterns, and according to the results, corrective or incentive policies are set that are evaluated from time to time. That does not exist in our country. If anything, purchase data is available, but there are notable differences between what is bought and what is consumed, especially in age groups. That is the basis from which we can build a healthy public policy on food. Not doing it is not thinking about the citizens.
-Lack of strategy in this matter should be disturbing when experts speak of obesity as the pandemic of the XNUMXst century in developed countries ...
-This is a pandemic that also kills. We have had a very worrying permanent pandemic for some time that we should not ignore. In 1984, the first data on well-measured childhood obesity were given in Spain, and there was a prevalence of 4,8%. Currently the incidence of obesity in the child population is almost 18%. In other words, it has multiplied by four in a few years. The problem would be to think that "it is not so bad" but it is if we take into account that between 12 and 25% of obese children under 10 years of age already present some characteristics of cardiovascular damage. It has been published and shown that these are children who generate hypertension, register high triglyceride data, with low good cholesterol and most with insulin resistance. All of this can appear in adults from the age of 50, but being in children under the age of ten is a serious health problem. These children will be conditioned to poor health from a very young age.
-I have to ask you about the diets. Are there any that work? Are they recommended?
-First and to be clear, if it is implanted it must be done by a professional. A diet in a clinical and monitored sense may be necessary and recommended, but no miracle diets, which do not exist, or self-diets that in most cases are useless and have enormous rebound effects. When changes in eating patterns are made, they should be done under the supervision of a healthcare professional.
-What is true and false when selling light products, bioactive substances, low in fat, without colorants or additives ...? Are we sufficiently protected by law?
-I always recommend reading the labels on the products very well. In Spain we have good consumer legislation. We are among the countries with the greatest security in terms of food control, but it is true that there are products with difficult to understand labeling that hide deception and confusion.
-It's a classic, but since I have an expert ... do beer and bread make you fat?
-It all depends on the quantity. Small amounts of bread and beer are not fattening. I will give you a fact: in Spain we had a bread consumption twenty years ago of the order of 53 kilos per person and an incidence of obesity three times less than the current one, which registers an average of 13 kilos per person per year and obesity has increased. The fault of gaining weight does not lie with specific products, the question is the quantity and the frequency. If we go out and drink four or five beers that are equivalent to one liter, the intake is 50 grams of alcohol that is equivalent to 200 kilocalories, to which we must add the tapas.
-What five foods would you take to a desert island?
-Some derived from cereals, extra virgin olive oil, fruit and some rabbit meat, because I think that being an island I will have the possibility to fish.