"Obesity is another pandemic and it has increased with Covid"

• EDUARDO COLOM

  Palm

Updated Monday, March 21, 2022-01:18

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• World Obesity Day One in three children between the ages of 12 and 14 suffers from obesity in the Valencian Community

Josep Antoni Tur (Palma, 1957) is a benchmark in nutrition research.

He was part of the group of experts that promoted the declaration of the Mediterranean diet as a World Heritage Site.

Now

.

he receives us in his office at the UIB.

With simplicity and a clear, frugal speech, he explains the latest findings on what he describes as "the other pandemic": obesity.

Is childhood obesity a public health problem in Spain? Obesity in general is a problem, and childhood obesity even more so.

The chubby child can be an obese adolescent or adult and that can mean serious chronic pathologies: diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular pathologies... Is all this cooked in childhood? Yes.

And if they are avoided, what we save.

We have 18-19% childhood obesity.

In Europe we are surpassed by Malta, Greece and little else.

In the north of Europe they are much better off than us although, curiously, they have horrible weather and many hours of the night.

On the other hand, we have this wonderful weather and we don't know how to do things abroad. How can this happen in a country, the cradle of the Mediterranean diet? Because the Mediterranean diet is a qualitative expression, it tells you how to eat.

Then it depends on the size of the ration, obviously whether you follow it or not and whether you move or don't move.

All of this conditions.

Our current diet is only 45% Mediterranean.

50 years ago the percentage was higher.

What are we doing wrong with our children?

They are more sedentary than they should be.

They are compared to other times and other countries.

Before it was played more in the street.

The games are increasingly sedentary, the 'tablets', the game consoles... Above three hours of TV a day there is a direct relationship with obesity.

The technology is not bad, it is the use.

You have to limit it, not avoid it.

Also the type of feeding fails.

Today there are a large number of processed and ultra-processed products, loaded with salt, simple sugars and fats.

What is bad is the excess, like everything.

There are parents and cultures that believe that fatness is synonymous with health: it is a problem

Has the pandemic increased the problem? Yes For two reasons.

First because it has reduced mobility.

And second, an inverse effect: you are more sensitive to Covid the more obese you are.

Although this interrelation is still being studied, it is a risk factor. Would you ban foods? No, never ban.

Yes, limit. What diet would you recommend? The Mediterranean diet.

With a large base of farm products, varied and frugal.

Low in calories but very rich in a variety of nutrients and linked to the territory.

Cereals, whole grains if possible.

Fruit and vegetables in large quantity and distributed.

Five a day.

And keep changing, you don't need a lot of something but a little of everything. Are there superfoods? No.

Quinoa, to cite an example, has been consumed for five thousand years.

What happens is that now the

of Western society have discovered it.

And what does it mean?

That they leave the Quechuas without food for a lifetime because it has become very expensive.

And it's a cereal, eye, there's no big deal.

Isn't extra virgin olive oil a superfood?

Milk and eggs are among the most complete foods, in chemical and nutritional composition they have practically everything. Why are there more childhood allergies to food? Probably due to less exposure at the time, because there are more chemical products, because the environment environment is more polluted.

Before we resisted more, we were more used to receiving more

.

Now we are more aseptic. Do the studies point to striking factors that can increase the risk of obesity, such as the gestation time of a baby?

It is a risk factor.

From a statistical point of view, we have seen that the lower the weight for gestational age or when the pregnancy has been shorter, the risk of having diabetes multiplies by two and a half.

That creature will have more risk but that does not mean that it will happen.

If you help prevent this from appearing with the environment, no problem.

Our diet is currently only 45% Mediterranean

Would you tell a father who has a premature baby that he has to be more careful? Yes, to monitor his diet, physical activity, the family environment... what we can modify. And antibiotics in pregnant women? In general, it has no effect, but if there is any risk, it can occur during the second trimester of pregnancy as long as it is taken more than four times a day. is.

There are parents who feed what they think is good.

They give their children a pre-made juice with the best of intentions, they think it's healthy but it's full of sugars.

In addition,

we have in childhood obesity: denial by parents.

That 'look how well he eats me'.

There are cases in which there is a serious problem of acceptance of obesity by parents, who reject treatment. Will we know in the future which foods are good or bad according to our DNA? Yes, we can already know, although we are starting.

We are not only what we eat but we eat as we are.

Until years ago it was believed that DNA was immutable, it could not be touched.

Well no.

It turns out that

It can change a little, there can be a mutation and it can determine a disease or not.

And those same nutrients benefit us in one way or another.

We can change the species with nutrition.

And vice versa, of course, according to your DNA, you should eat more this than that.

Precision nutrition is the future. Does the design of cities affect childhood obesity? Of course.

.

At the beginning of the course, I show my nutrition students a photo of a gym with an escalator at its entrance.

Changing diets is easy, people accept it;

on the other hand, moving costs a lot. Another contradiction: more obesity but more nutritional literature than ever Because there is a lot of quackery.

Many bloggers do not know what they are talking about, they lack knowledge.

There are few experts.

.

There are many taboos and myths, such as that the vitamin escapes from the orange, that it is better to eat the fruit at the beginning than at the end... what nonsense.

Do you know how many hours food spends in the stomach?

Two three hours, everything is mixed. In the future, will we keep the variety in the diet or take a pill? That would be very boring, that is from the science fiction movies of the 60s. people were hungry.

They had a lot of food but only four things, and they got tired.

It's like if they tell you to only eat cheese, the first day you swell up eating cheese and the third day you're tired.

And that there are infinity cheeses, De Gaulle said that France is a very difficult country to govern because it has 600 different cheeses.

The variety is very important.

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