Nutritionists propose a paradigm shift with the focus on food education for comprehensive health with a improvement in quality of life, instead of the “diet to lose weight” modelwithin the framework of Nutritionist’s Day which is celebrated every August 11 throughout Latin America.
For the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)“healthy nutrition is essential for the prevention of diet-related risk factors, such as overweight and obesity, and associated noncommunicable diseases.”
About, Jesica Lavia, Bachelor of Nutrition, specialized in comprehensive nutrition educationtold Télam that “we are going through a very strong paradigm shift in health in general and in nutrition in particular in which we stop thinking about health through the size of people’s bodies and stop associating thinness with health”.
At this point, he stressed that, socially, “we are beginning to realize that health is much more than that, a body.”
Lavia, also an adviser in the Secretary of Access to Health of the Ministry of Health of the Nation, maintained that it is important to understand that it is not just about what we eat and the quality of what we eat.
And he explained: “it is important to include in that equation: How do we relate to what we eat? What is the access to that food? What resources do we have both economic and access to education? What is healthy?”.
It is not only about physical health but also mental and social health because “without one part of health we cannot enjoy the other”Jessica Lavia
All this, he added, is necessary to “link us in a much more positive way with food in general and nutrition in particular, with our bodies and with the comprehensive view of what health is.”
In addition, the nutritionist emphasized that It is not only about physical health but also mental and social because “without one part of health we cannot enjoy the other”.
This new look, according to Leiva, moves the focus of the scales, of the diets, and calls for rethinking the theme from a more complete look.
“This view cannot be unilateral but social, and public policies must enter into this change, a State that accompanies and guarantees access to health and food and the concept of food sovereignty,” he said.
For her part, Alexa Gómez, a nutritionist in the Department of Food and Dietetics at Hospital de Clínicas, spoke about the role played by nutrition specialists at that hospital and emphasized the importance of “giving the patient the tools to have healthy eating, that your meal plans are good.
At this point, he recommended “getting away from weight-centrist care and having a much more comprehensive and compassionate approach from the professional towards the patient, but also from the patient towards himself.”
“Get out of weight-centrist care and have a much more comprehensive and compassionate approach from the professional towards the patient but also from the patient towards himself”alexa gomez
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From work in the hospital, it is important to discuss with the patient that weight is a single factor to be taken into account in everything that encompasses their comprehensive health and quality of life,” Gómez explained, because if they only focus on weight, they will always lead to what “If it goes down, it’s a success and if it doesn’t, it’s a failure, and that’s reductionist and doesn’t provide the patient with tools,” he added.
From the consultations received at the Clinics, it emerges that patients often face various diseases that require dietary advice such as diabetes, gastritis, infertility with women and men, cardiological diseases, cirrhosis, nephrology, among many others.
The attention, said Gómez, “is a joint effort between professionals and patients.”
As an example, he said that it is essential to have adequate nutrition for each patient and each disease, such as a patient suffering from a fertility problem.
In that case, “it is essential to provide a preconception diet in order to reach the time of pregnancy with an adequate nutritional status, which will have an impact on the assisted fertilization treatment.”
The day of the nutritionist is celebrated on August 11 in recognition of Pedro Escudero, an Argentine doctor born in 1877 who is considered a pioneer of nutrition and the main promoter of this specialty in Latin America.
