Vacations are the ideal time to rescue that book we’ve been wanting to start for a long time, cook that recipe we never found time for, or recover that podcast we’ve been longing to listen to. From Comer La Vanguardia we bring you some episodes of the Stay to Eat podcast so you can enjoy them calmly this summer.
The well-known dietitian and nutritionist Julio Basulto stars in this chapter of the podcast Stay for a meal. This expert, accustomed to being labeled a Taliban, makes a call against fatphobia. “Not only relatives, but colleagues, doctors and even nutritionists label people with obesity as lazy and incapable of regulating their own pathology, and that is totally unfair and stupid.” It is not all nutritionists, he qualifies, “but there are many who blame, recriminate and stigmatize their patients for obesity.”
Basulto explains how he approached the world of nutrition, moved by his own health problems, and how when he began to study he discovered a great passion that prevents him from disconnecting from his profession and encourages him to help whenever possible. “Lots of people email me asking questions, I get hundreds, and when I see that it is something serious, or that they are taking a risk in the hands of a naturopath who is giving them bad advice, they are stronger than me.”
The author, among many other titles, of Eat Shit (Vergara), justifies the forcefulness of his statements on issues that go beyond all or nothing: “People need messages that remove them to become aware of the risk of issues such as sedentary lifestyle or self-medication” and ensures that it is important to be well informed in order to freely choose how we want to eat.
About the food culture in which he grew up, he explains that it has nothing to do with what he and his partner, Olga Ayllón, also a nutritionist, pass on to their children. “But I don’t blame my mother, because the intention was good.” In addition, he assures him, there is always time to incorporate small changes that will greatly improve our quality of life: “You should not suddenly become a vegetarian or vegan. Reduce your consumption of ultra-processed foods a bit and that will already be a great step”.
This expert highlights the importance of the emotional aspect and encourages cooking at home and eating together. “The good atmosphere at the table is more important than the food.” Regarding the feeding problems of the little ones, he explains that a sedentary lifestyle and poor quality food will make them less long-lived. “Someone may not be interested in their life expectancy now, but be careful, because reaching 80 years after 20 years of good health is not the same as 20 years in an ailing body and admitted to a hospital.”
Basulto recalls that there is a pandemic of people with eating disorders, but we must avoid confusing cause and effect. “Vegetarian adolescent girls are more at risk of suffering from an eating disorder, but it is wrong to believe that it is the vegetarian diet that causes it, when surely the opposite has been the case.” He assures that eating disorder has multiple causes: “Sometimes emotional abandonment during childhood, for example, is what leads many adolescents to follow a vegetarian diet in the belief that it will make them gain weight. And we must not forget that it is a psychiatric pathology, not a nutritional one”.
Regarding the need to buy nutritional supplements, he is blunt: “We don’t have to supplement ourselves, it’s a business. The problem in our society is not a lack of nutrients, we do not lack nutrients, although perhaps some foods have lost a little, but there are no deficiencies. The problem is that we have plenty of salt, sugar, flavor enhancers, sweeteners, alcohol, refined flours, ultra-processed products”. As a nutritionist, it seems more useful to convey this message to the population when it comes to shopping than to say ‘take a lot of fruit and vegetables, they have vitamin C’. “We know that this message means that they continue to take ultra-processed foods. It is the talismanic effect, since when I eat that kiwi so rich in fiber, I unconsciously continue eating ultra-processed foods”.
Basulto insists on the importance of not self-medicating, not even with stomach protectors, unless prescribed by a doctor, nor with probiotics or prebiotics. He explains that many people self-diagnose food intolerances that they don’t really have and is reluctant to diet or intermittent fasting. “There is no evidence of the efficacy of intermittent fasting, which has only been shown to cause loss of muscle mass. That’s a stab in the back to the metabolism.”
When asked to explain his position on wine consumption in a less radical way, looking for nuances, Basulto assures that “there are already many people looking at the gray ones”, advises consuming “the less, the better” and is in favor of indicating on labels those products that can be harmful to health.
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