What does the Alicia Foundation do?
Research with scientific rigor so that we eat better.
Since when do you research?
We have just completed… 20 years of life!
Congratulations! Why Alice?
“Ali” for food and “cia” for science.
What does science say about food?
That we are “carnivorous” animals.
Cuinivores?
More than omnivores (eating everything) we are cuinivores (cooked food): our evolution is linked to cooking.
Define kitchen.
Art of predicting food.
Boiled, cooked, roasted…
…marinated, fermented… Evolutionarily, the kitchen saved us a lot of energy in the digestive function.
And that energy saving… why?
The brain took advantage: its 2% of body weight uses 20% of calories!
We are children of the kitchen, then.
For two and a half million years, cooking has improved the world. Every culinary innovation brings knowledge.
What has Ferran Adrià meant?
Ferran Adrià is to the art of cooking what Pablo Picasso is to the plastic arts.
Deconstruction?
And creativity. And it has transcended into everyday cooking and restaurants. From extraordinary cuisine to ordinary cuisine!
What does Alice do with this knowledge?
Go deeper to eat better always. For example, in case of illness.
What diseases?
We have researched how to cook for certain patients to eat better.
Can you give me an example?
Check out Oncoalicia.com – we’ve researched, designed and uploaded tons of helpful recipes for every cancer treatment and sixty different diseases.
This is wonderful.
Tastes change during chemotherapy, and we help the patient to enjoy eating. And sores in the mouth are not the same as low salivation or difficulty swallowing… We give easy-to-cook recipes for the patient’s relatives.
Thanks for helping us!
And with what you have in your fridge, if you don’t feel like going out, we tell you what to cook.
Here is some very useful research.
And diabetics can enter our D iabetesalacarta.org page: we show how to prepare a healthy and tasty weekly menu at home.
More diseases where they can help us…
Epileptics can reduce their flare-ups through dietary habits such as low-carb pizzas…
“Cheat pizza”!
And fake fried eggs, thanks to the spherification invented by Ferran Adrià, and also fake cakes… Because eating is also a relational experience that you don’t need to deprive yourself of… thanks to science.
Once again Ferran Adrià!
Ferran Adrià taught us to work with nutritionists, technologists, chemists… to create knowledge. And with doctors, like the great cardiologist Valentí Fuster.
And do they think about food for the elderly?
Yes, textures against dysphagia. And menu bars in towns and neighborhoods: a bar is more important than a town hall for social life! We advise your meals.
What other groups do you take care of at the Alicia Foundation?
Peasants and farmers! Small producers in the countryside. We accompany them to innovate: bean pâté, chickpea pâté, high-protein broths…
Do these groups need help?
Big monopolistic agri-food companies are eliminating them… and in the end, unfortunately, the food will come to us from too far away and it will not be healthy, sustainable or tasty food.
I see him worried.
The closest food is healthy, sustainable and good. Why should we replace toast with oil for… toast with avocado? We have 1,500-year-old olive trees here!
What did your mother cook for you?
Zucchini omelette: unsurpassed! A well done fried egg. Stewed beans Lent cod. Wind donuts They are fabulous dishes! Look, every dish that is missed is a cultural, social and gastronomic drama!
Did our grandparents eat better or do we eat better?
We eat better than our grandparents did and worse than our parents.
How can we improve it?
In order not to be squatters for our children, we need to eat more legumes and less meat: chickpeas with spinach… they are the wafer!
I take note, I take note.
In our courses on health and nutrition, we summarize this question like this: more sardines and less aspirin!
