Almost all of us agree on the benefits of following a diverse and balanced diet, such as that provided by the Mediterranean diet. Or in the benefits of exercise and healthy lifestyles. But, at the same time, we all know and have also experienced how complicated it is to acquire and, above all, maintain these practices on a regular basis.
For this reason, rather than insisting on the details of which is the best and most complete diet, it seems quite useful to know what conditions favor and allow good adherence to the correct dietary and well-being guidelines until they become habits.
To achieve this, it is essential to make a comprehensive and as complete approach as possible to the reality experienced by overweight or obese people. It is necessary to attend to genetic, metabolic, nutritional, psychological and emotional factors, but also thoroughly analyze the environment of each patient.
The focus of attention is placed on socio-environmental conditions, such as family origin, the gastronomic traditions and customs in which one has grown up, or access to a greater or lesser diversity of foods. All these aspects will be closely related to the cultural and socioeconomic situation of the person.
This set of factors can hinder, or even block, efforts to reduce excess weight. Time constraints for shopping or cooking, balancing work schedules and domestic obligations, family size, the degree of support available or the level of income often work against each other.
The proposal of the FAFO diet (acronym for Flexible And Friendly for the Overweight) arises from the meeting of two professional visions. Firstly, from my experience in the field of nutritional epidemiology together with the EPINUT research group of the Complutense University, based on interest in the multidimensional approach to obesity and the social contexts of human nutrition.
Secondly, from the clinical experience of the doctor-endocrinologist Rafael Gómez y Blasco, who accumulated for many years evidence of the problems that arise for overweight or obese people to persevere in the prescribed change of habits.
With the conviction that obesity is not derived from the individual’s lack of will, we begin a line of work to evaluate the multiple personal, family, socio-occupational, psychosocial, emotional, metabolic and bodily conditions of each case. They are specified in the following instruments:
All of this is complemented by the clinical and biometric information of each patient, placing emphasis on anthropometric and metabolic indicators. Because the FAFO method does not focus on monitoring body weight (pesocentrism), but on adiposity, body composition and metabolic health (cholesterol levels, blood pressure…).
As a whole, this proposal is formulated and disseminated for clinical practice through the FAFO Guide and its update in the 2024 version, recently published. The objective is that nutritional and health improvements go hand in hand and are adapted to the circumstances of each person. Because no one said it would be easy.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Rafael Tomás Cardoso is a Professor-Researcher of Physical Anthropology and member of the EPINUT research group at the Complutense University of Madrid.
