The dietician and nutritionist María Merino made herself known a couple of years ago, after sharing on her social networks a photo of her two-year-old son eating a handful of vegetables for breakfast. On May 27, he published Breakfast with chickpeas (La Esfera de los Libros), a title that breaks several myths about the supposedly most important meal of the day.
Question. On social networks, you made yourself known after showing that your son had chickpeas for breakfast. What do you attribute that products such as cookies are normalized at breakfast compared to much more beneficial foods such as legumes?
Answer. At the advertising and commercial pressure of large companies in the food industry. To the direct and indirect messages that they have been sending us for years, that associate these "breakfast" products with the happiness of children. They have been normalized by the insistence in the advertising media.
P. According to your book, in Spain, the percentage of overweight children is 24.6% and, with obesity, 18.4%. How does this standardization of certain products influence these figures?
A. It influences directly and negatively. The causes of these figures are clear: poor diet and sedentary lifestyle. And, in addition, there are more and more products of this type and they are increasingly available to everyone, including children. Most advertisements for products high in sugar, trans or hydrogenated fats, refined flours, and / or salt are issued during children's hours. 70% of the ads that a child watches are for unhealthy products, despite having our self-regulation codes (PAOS and HAVISA code), which are ironically regulated by the same food industry that advertises these products. To give some figure, almost nine out of 10 ads violate this code. There are also many studies that show a direct correlation between television consumption and calorie and weight intake. Not a trace of the WHO's number one recommendation: "The purpose of policies should be to reduce the impact on children of promoting foods rich in saturated fat, trans fatty acids, free sugars or salt." We spend the day receiving inputs to buy these products and, as if the scope were not enough, their prices are usually low.
Q. Sometimes the words and recommendations of nutritionists are not without controversy. Why do you think they raise so many blisters?
A. Because they harm the great lobby of the food industry. And because, suddenly, what was held as absolute truth is called into question. Suddenly, they tell you that freshly squeezed orange juice is not healthy (if you crush or squeeze a food that contains intrinsic sugar, it is generating free sugar) and they break your schemes, because it seems that ignorance is preferable to the effort to have to change the diet (or that of children). In the end, it is an action that we carry out an average of five times a day and it affects us directly. But nutrition is a science and as such it advances.
Q. What does a shopping cart say about a person?
R. For me, it says a lot. Says it all. And this is something that I accidentally do often: I analyze the person and his car. The purchase you take will tell you how you eat but, at the same time, it can give as much information as the number of people who live, presence or not of children, time the person has to cook, food preferences, nutritional culture or even their emotional state.
Q. What do you think of the behaviors that associate the consumption of certain foods to a certain emotional state (I have a chocolate "because I have earned it", I gobble up ice cream "because I had a bad day" ...)?
A. We eat for emotions. Everybody. For positive and negative emotions. We cover our thoughts and emotions with food. Instead of talking, expressing ourselves and saying what we think and feel, we cover our mouths with food and, usually, it tends to be with some kind of insane food, usually sweet (but this is already a more physiological matter).
Q. Is the sugar totally dispensable?
A. It depends on the sugar we are talking about. If it is free or added sugar, yes, it is totally dispensable. The WHO recommendation not to exceed 10% of ICT or 5% if we want benefits is a "do not exceed", not a minimum to reach. If we talk about naturally present sugars, such as those in fruits or vegetables, it is not. Something that the food lobby used (again) to conclude that "the body needs sugar and / or that our brain needs it to function."
Q. In your book you also dismantle myths such as that breakfast is the most important food and that, necessarily, it should always contain dairy, cereals and fruit. As a nutritionist, what are the main resistances you find when it comes to fighting these kinds of claims?
R. Mistrust. People are suspicious and do not believe what you are saying. Something that I love and promote is "never believe what they tell you, nor what I tell you." Read and listen to me, but also read and listen to other dietitians-nutritionists and other professionals. Search papers , documentaries, reports and draw your own conclusion. Faced with this mistrust, I show facts. What I say is scientifically studied and demonstrated. However, there are still some unbelievers left, so I can only challenge them. And that's when I encourage you to try, to experience in your meats the benefits of having a free breakfast and taking off certain "breakfast" products.
Q. What would you say is the biggest lie that the food industry has sneaked into us?
R. Hard question, there are so many ... I think the one that "the body needs sugar". Because then it is the addiction that makes you continue consuming it. And also its direct association with happiness. Make us believe that our problems will be solved with a pinch of white gold.
Q. When designing a healthy menu, do you play more against ignorance or laziness?
R. I would say that it is voluntary ignorance, ignorance sought. The population prefers not to know and, consequently, not to act or not see itself in the moral obligation to change. We always look for the excuse and justification to do what we do. I disagree with laziness, because it is something quick and easy to do, if you want and are interested in knowing how. Priorities also greatly influence. I always give the same example: if they gave you 10,000 for planning your menu, would you do it?
P. You assure that a subject of Food and nutrition in educational projects would be more than convenient. What conditions do you think should be in place for its implementation?
R. We get into the political arena and that is something that neither interests me nor particularly matters to me. But, of course, I think that the educational model should be rethought, as well as the plan that we currently have, although I leave this to the Minister of Education. Yes, I am going to get wet and I will tell you that, if that happened, it is likely that the consumption of ultra-processed foods would be reduced, so that the food industry would lose a lot of money, and I doubt they would allow it. In the end it all comes down to the same thing: "dirty money."
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