INTERVIEW
During confinement, the French gained an average of almost 2.5 kilos. With the coming summer (and the deconfinement), many are now hunting for bulges. But if you feel guilty for gaining weight, Doctor Laurence Plumey will reassure you: yes, fat can also be a source of benefits.
"We must stop considering fat as something harmful that has nothing to do with our body and that we must get rid of. Fat must be considered as an organ, just like the liver or the kidneys", ensures the nutritionist, Friday afternoon in the show Without appointment on Europe 1. "The fat is an organ which lives in us since our birth, which accompanies us all our life and which will accompany us until the end", explains she.
Energy storage, but not only
On average, each person has about ten kilos of fat in reserve, which has an essential function of storage. "Fat is the element that stores the most energy under the smallest volume, since one gram of fat can store nine calories. I let you imagine the number of calories that represent ten kilos of fat in our body. would basically allow you to hold around 40 days while fasting, "says the nutritionist.
"But fat does not only have the role of storing energy. It is fat that communicates with the brain, the liver, the heart. At the level of the brain, fat intervenes in our feelings of satiety, c that is to say that when the fat develops too much, it sends a messenger to the brain which says that there are enough calories. It is an organ which self-regulates itself ", says, admiring , the author of the book The wonderful world of fat .
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Fat, essential for the development of babies
Laurence Plumey also explained the differences between men and women, who naturally have more fat in the body. "Fat will represent roughly 20 to 25% of a woman's body, or 10 to 15 kilos for a woman of about 60 kilos. Genetically, the woman is predisposed to ensure the survival of the species, therefore to give birth to a child. Its genes work very well in the economy, and there is a storage of energy which can be used in the event of famine to feed the baby, "notes the nutritionist.
"Women have a little more fat on the thighs because this fat is very sensitive to sex hormones, it is the fat reserve planned to give a little extra calories if needed was for the development of the baby", continues -she. "Man, on the other hand, needs less fat. His function is rather to go and get food, he needs to be muscular and have little fat."