Winter diet: essential fruits and vegetables in the pantry to lose weight and avoid colds, endocrinologist's word
How to get off sugar; Marta García-Orea, the pastry chef who succeeds with her 'without' recipes, gives the keys: "You should not eat sweets on an empty stomach"
Why has this method to lose weight gone viral?
They are satiating, easy
to digest
and help fight against fluid retention; Therefore, they are presented as the best ally when you need to lose weight quickly, especially those couple of kilos that refuse to disappear after a few weeks of
excesses
. Furthermore, thanks to their ingredients, they boast of being full of the essential vitamins and minerals for maintaining a healthy diet. What is better than a
smoothie
of spinach, turmeric, chia
seeds
, raspberries and almonds that, in addition to taking away hunger, provides us with a good portion of fiber and
antioxidants
?
Well, it seems that many things, as nutrition and dietetics
experts warn
based on the most recent research. "What if the foods that have been sold to us as healthy were actually harmful to our health?" asks
Sally K. Norton,
a graduate in Nutritional Sciences from Cornell University and a master's degree in Public Health from Cornell University. North Carolina. Also author of the book
'Toxic Superfoods'
(Alienta editorial), the expert warns about the trend of resorting to smoothies and some shakes as a method to
lose weight
. "Actor Liam Hemsworth publicly blamed spinach smoothies for an episode of kidney stones he suffered in 2019 that required surgery. At 29, he had to miss a movie premiere and a gala dinner because of it," says Sally
. K. Norton.
"Every morning I had five handfuls of
spinach
and then almond milk, almond butter and also some vegan proteins in a
smoothie
. And I thought that was super healthy. So I had to reconsider what I was putting in my body," he said then. the actor, according to the nutritionist in her book, which points to the culprits: "Many of our most popular foods, such as potatoes, peanuts and even the current favorite '
superfoods
', such as spinach, naturally contain huge amounts of unknown
toxins
(but known for a long time) known as oxalates. They are toxic and consuming them in excess is harmful to health.
In his opinion, it is extremely easy to eat
too much
oxalates
. "The amount that humans can consume without harmful effect is surprisingly low, between 150 and 200 mg a day, according to kidney specialists." The
spinach
smoothies that
Liam Hemsworth
drank in the morning, a priori super healthy, registered more than 1,000 mg, says the expert.
Is it good to drink smoothies to lose weight?
Beyond the generous portion of oxalates that we provide to our body in the form of a
smoothie
, there are other reasons to doubt the benefits of smoothies when it comes to losing weight. When we take them to replace a meal "we are accustoming our body to drinking liquid instead of solid, so we can later have heavier digestion," says
Sandra Moñino,
dietician and nutritionist expert in
anti-inflammatory diet.
Smoothies, she points out, also "can inflame our body because they promote malnutrition since it will never be the same as feeding us from solids."
Sandra Moñino, dietitian and nutritionist specialized in anti-inflammatory nutrition.
It is what we are prepared for 'from the factory', the experts explain. Taking food in the form of
liquids
"really goes against our digestive system since the first phase of digestion begins with chewing, because it has to do with
satiety
, saliva secretion and other important factors for our digestive process. and nutrient absorption," say
Alejandro Cánovas
and
Laura Gallardo, nutritionists and managers of the personalized
diet
service
at the select five-star Royal Hideaway Sancti Petri.
Along the same lines, Sandra Moñino insists that it is "much better to take whole foods, that we can chew and
digest
and tolerate in the most natural way possible." And she emphasizes one of the worst consequences of
replacing meals
with shakes with the aim of losing weight: the rebound effect. "Our body gets used to drinking all liquid, not having to make any effort and eating very little. That is, it makes a
metabolic adaptation
to that, and then, when we give it what we were drinking before, or even a diet with which "We are supposed to be losing weight, the opposite effect occurs: we gain weight and we don't move forward, we stay
stagnant
."
Which can cause a good diet, even prescribed by a professional, not to work. "This rebound effect causes intestinal
inflammation
and this implies less capacity to mobilize the fat found in the body," says the nutritionist. Beyond weight, Moñino insists on the harmful effects of inflammation: "It weakens our
immune system
and makes us much more likely to get sick. It also unbalances our
microbiota
, which has an impact on our entire body, including bone health. , skin and psychological".
A shake, more calories
Cánovas and Gallardo highlight that a smoothie "can contain double or triple the kcal of the same foods without
grinding
. Furthermore, if we only include fruit without
pulp
in the smoothie we greatly increase sugar intake in a very short period of time." It is a fact supported by the latest studies from
Harvard University
, which affirm that a juice, no matter how natural it is, provides the same amount of sugar as a soft drink.
"The same thing happens with
smoothies
," explains Sandra Moñino, "when squeezing or crushing the fruit our body values it as if it were sugar, which causes blood
glucose
spikes that cannot be balanced because we lack
fiber
. In addition , when drinking the smoothie we ingest a high amount of that food at once. That is, when you eat an
orange
your body has time to assimilate, because you do it little by little; on the other hand, if in a smoothie you consume it perfectly in two
gulps
, and It is something that our body finds difficult to assimilate, it does not have the capacity to balance the glucose peaks that it can generate."
In addition to shakes that are
meal
replacements , "because our body is prepared to receive real foods and
digest
completely," says the nutritionist, Moñino rejects those that "include
sugar
, sweeteners and vegetable fats. They are not beneficial for our body." .
Does a smoothie work to lose weight?
Even so, it is undeniable that weight
is lost with shakes
, "but not because of the shake itself, but because of the calorie restriction," Cánovas and Gallardo correct. "If your
energy
expenditure is around 2,500 kcal and you drink two shakes a day that provide you with 1,000 kcal,
you will obviously lose weight
," they say. "The normal thing when we restrict so much and eat liquid shakes during the first weeks is to lose weight," adds Sandra Moñino, "but how long do we maintain that? How long can we eat shakes? In the long run it will harm our health. health and there will be this
rebound effect
that nutritionists are always talking about.
When the goal is to lose weight, "instead of drinking a shake, what we should do is eat an
anti-inflammatory
, complete, nutritious, satiating diet that adds value to our health," says
Moñino
, forcefully rejecting "miracle diets." and the restrictive ones that force us to go hungry. Furthermore, if they are boring they cannot be followed over time. The important thing is to establish a healthy
habit
of life that we maintain forever, that nourishes us, pleases us and satisfies us."
The nutritionist only recommends
protein shakes
for those who "seek to increase their muscle mass or their sports performance when they do not meet the essential requirements through normal eating," never with the aim of
losing weight
or following a low-calorie diet, "because they are not need; in this case it is better to take real foods rich in protein.
And if we ever decide on a
smoothie
"that is not for losing weight," nutritionists Alejandro Cánovas and Laura Gallardo insist, it is best to "not blend, strain or squeeze the
fruit
you are going to introduce and add some seeds,
fruits dry or
whole
grains
(oats, rye, barley...) to improve the nutritional profile and reduce the speed of absorption".
Articles Marisa del Bosque