Nutrition and obesity: Laura Jorge gives us the key to nutrition and obesity

Obesity is becoming more and more widespread.
How to fight it?
Our nutritionist reveals it to us.

admin timp · Reading time: 7 min.

11 May 2021

Of all the health problems that beset us in the 21st century, obesity is one of the most worrying, reaching epidemic proportions.

At TIMP we are concerned about maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and food is one of the fundamental pillars to achieve it.
For this reason, and taking advantage of the fact that May is the European month against obesity, we have asked our collaborator Laura Jorge, dietician-nutritionist, to shed some light on this issue.

In this interview Laura will talk to us about interesting issues such as the factors that influence obesity, which ones protect us against it or to what extent the food industry conditions the way we eat.

And he will also give us some tips to prevent overweight in a simple way in our daily life.

First of all, Laura, we would like you to give us an X-ray of the current obesity panorama in Europe, and especially in Spain.

Currently in Spain, one out of every two adults is not at a healthy weight, and unfortunately, obesity rates in the population continue to increase.

In fact, it is a global trend of which we are a part.
This is reflected in these data from the WHO:

Since 1975, obesity has almost tripled worldwide.
In 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults aged 18 years and older were overweight, of which, more than 650 million were obese.
In 2016, 39% of adults aged 18 or older were overweight, and 13% were obese.
The majority of the world’s population lives in countries where overweight and obesity claim more lives than underweight.
In 2016, 41 million children under the age of five were overweight or obese.
In 2016, there were more than 340 million children and adolescents (aged 5-19 years) who were overweight or obese.

The worrying thing about all this is that overweight and obesity are two risk factors that contribute to the development of metabolic diseases , cardiovascular and renal diseases, cancer, etc.

It is estimated that 23% of Spanish adults are obese.
What are the causes of such a large percentage of the population suffering from obesity?

Obesity is a multifactorial disease: it is influenced by many factors in our lives such as quality of sleep, physical activity, genetics, etc. Diet is a determining factor in its prevention and development.

The main influencing factors are:

Poor dietary choices
Certain habits ingrained in our social lives
Sedentary lifestyles
Chronic low-grade stress

Do you think the pandemic has influenced obesity in our country?
In what way?

I do believe so, since during the pandemic several of the main factors I mentioned earlier have been very present: poor dietary choices, sedentary lifestyles and stress.

To what extent does the food industry’s huge investment in marketing influence our eating habits?

It has a huge influence.
The food industry uses strategies to make consumers decide to buy its products.

For this reason, and more and more, dietitians-nutritionists are trying to convey to the population that they should not get carried away by this marketing, and that they should review the list of ingredients.

Of course, in order to do so, we must learn to interpret the list of ingredients, and in many cases it is complicated because we get carried away by marketing and they do not make it easy for us.

Is it possible to eat without ultra-processed foods in today’s fast-paced lifestyle?
How can we do it?

Yes, it is possible.

First we must know what is an ultra-processed food and differentiate it from a healthy processed food, because although our diet has to be based on real food, resorting to good processed food when we are short of time can be a good alternative to eat healthy.

Secondly, I believe that organization and planning are key.
My advice: during the weekend it is good to take time to think about next week’s menu, go shopping and, if we can, spend 1 or 2 hours in advance preparing the dishes we will eat the next few days.

Especially in the afternoon-evening is when we tend to resort to ultra-processed foods, so if during the weekend we have prepared some of our next dinners, it will be easier to continue with our good habits.

The Nutriscore is generating a lot of controversy by rewarding very sugary products and penalizing others that contain fats, which are not necessarily harmful.

Do you think it is a tool that benefits the consumer or the industry itself?

Well, I have my doubts.

The banana does not carry Nutriscore, nor does it need it.
And this is, in my opinion, what needs to be transmitted and encouraged: that we consume more fruits and vegetables, and fresh products without labels.

It is likely that if someone is going to buy a product and sees that it is marked in red, they will not take it or will think about whether or not to give it to their children.

But it is clear to me that if this measure does not go hand in hand with other campaigns and policies…

The population needs more nutrition education!

Do you think that the Mediterranean diet, of which we have boasted so much in Spain, is being lost?
If so, how could we recover it?

Yes.
We are consuming less fruit and vegetables, more meat and much more ultra-processed products.

We can recover it by basing our diet on fruits, vegetables, legumes, dried fruits and nuts, EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)…

Are there protective factors against obesity?

I return to the main influencing factors to understand how we can prevent it:

Poor dietary choices: we need to forget about ultra-processed foods and educate the population about their harmfulness.
Social life: stop normalizing binge eating and alcohol consumption.
A sedentary lifestyle: walking, physical activity and moving as much as possible.
Chronic low-grade stress: most of us experience it on a regular basis, so we need to stop and slow down from time to time.
Spending time in nature, taking time for self-care, practicing yoga, meditation…

As a professional, what recommendations could you offer our readers to help them eat as healthily as possible to prevent or alleviate obesity?

My recommendations are in line with what I have already commented:

Avoid ultra-processed foods and alcohol.
Base our diet on real food.
Consume 5 daily servings of fruit and vegetables.
Don’t keep at home what you don’t want to eat 😉
Organization and planning of the week’s menu.
Learn to interpret product labels.
A healthy plate structure is the Harvard plate: it can come in handy for them to have a guide for lunches and dinners.
Water is the beverage par excellence.

Unfortunately, when it comes to obesity, one of the most affected age groups is childhood.

How can we protect our children against this health problem that affects them so much?

My main recommendation here is that we have to lead by example.
This is the key for children to eat healthy.
If we don’t do it, it is impossible for them to do it.

The idea is to learn to eat healthy ourselves so that we can pass it on to them.

After this talk with Laura, several things are clear to us.
The main one is that, in terms of factors we can control, preventing obesity is a matter of common sense: the food of a lifetime, unprocessed or with minimal processing, is the healthiest.

And although it may seem obvious, it never hurts to be well informed about what you eat.

Educating ourselves nutritionally is the way to eat well.

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