Edgar Barrionuevo: "There are more problems due to excesses with food than due to deficiencies"

• Archive.

  Read more interviews of the 'Contra' of EL MUNDO

Barcelona, ​​1980. Nutritionist specialized in advanced food science and therapeutic fasting.

In

(Grijalbo) he uncovers the benefits of this practice and how to do it safely and effectively.

They have always insisted that you have to eat five times a day. Isn't it? It's not that it is or it isn't. We have inherited that dogma that you have to eat very frequently and constantly, and it really does not have much scientific or evolutionary basis, because our ancestors have never eaten five meals a day. It is in recent generations that the epidemics of obesity, diabetes and degenerative problems at the cardiovascular and nervous levels have skyrocketed, and that coincides with the fact that we have begun to overindulge with food. Nowadays there are more problems due to excesses with food than due to deficiencies. And that's for eating five times a day? I'm not saying that a person can't be healthy eating five times a day, far from it. But this excess intake, together with the type of food we consume -many of which are ultra-processed-,It is causing us not to carry out those digestive and metabolic rest breaks that our ancestors did, who did not have all those metabolic and degenerative diseases that are so frequent today. All this is also backed by science, which in recent years has brought to light the benefits of resting from meals, letting more time pass between them, applying periods of caloric restriction in which many physiological processes are launched such as internal recycling, the brake on aging or oxidation. Fasting, well thought out and within a certain context, is a very powerful tool to give all that to our body. I read in your book that in the 1970s the number of daily meals around the world was close to two, while in 2006 it was close to six. That is to say,that the number of intakes almost tripled in just 30 years... We eat too much, and many times also with foods that generate great physiological stress. Because we have never been exposed to the amount of sugars, saturated fats and artificial foods that we are exposed to today. All this is taking its toll on us, although we are not very aware of it. But you take a walk through a modern and developed city and it seems that the norm is that there is overweight and that we have to be taking some medication to control our metabolic health. A study published in 2019 by the magazine 'The Lancet' ensures that the Diets and poor nutrition already kill more people each year than tobacco... That's right. The consumption of all those silent killers that I was referring to means that, in the long term,The body's capabilities for good health are greatly diminished. But, in addition, it is necessary to differentiate what is good conventional health from good functional health, because the belief has been inserted in us that not having a disease is already being healthy. But there are many people who are not ill due to polypharmacy and whose quality of life is very low. If what we want is functional health, to be full of vitality, we must change something in our habits. What happens if there are no good digestive breaks? Well, our liver becomes fatter, we store more and more adipose tissue that has a great inflammatory capacity, we collapse our intestinal system, we generate an imbalance in our microbiota... And when you add these factors,a context that is very pro-illness and very pro-decrease in quality of life is being generated. Today we know that simply by resting, by fasting, by extending the hours between intake and intake, with only 12, 13 or 14 hours passing from the last intake of one day to the first of the following day, we would be giving the body that breath of air to be able to restore, repair, regenerate and optimize your organs and that when you eat you are in a much more efficient state of nutrient absorption. Because at the moment modern human beings do not stop eating, but we are malnourished. How can it be? Well, because the body is not capable of absorbing food well because it is collapsed. And we know that fasting can go a long way to sort it out.What is the thrifty gene? Are we victims of it? The thrifty gene theory tells us that we come from an ancestor that managed to survive and that our species remained on earth through genetic adaptations. And a very important genetic adaptation was to become thrifty beings, which made us capable of storing reserves to be able to use them at times when there is no excess food, which was usual before. But the current human being, in two or three generations, has found himself in a world of immediate access to food and overfed, but with a gene that has been designed to be thrifty. We are going against what we are genetically designed for and our genes begin to express themselves confused and begin to get sick.The thrifty gene manifests itself in metabolic adaptations. Insulin resistance is one of them, and resistance to leptin, which is the satiety hormone, is another. If genetically we already have a certain resistance to these hormones to be able to make reserves, when you live in a world of food overabundance, your genes save, and save and save more reserves, and this leads to reserves collapsing and obesity being the epidemic most widespread in the modern world. Let's say you fast for 12 hours, from 8:00 p.m. to 8:00 the next morning. What happens? Well, you begin to reset your biological rhythm, you begin to give your digestive system a break to repair itself. The digestive system gets inflamed every time we eat, and if we eat too often, there's a lot more inflammation,much more collapse. A 12-hour fast gives you an important break. But we've always been told that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Is it another false myth? It is another of those dogmas that we have inherited. Breakfast, as the word itself indicates, is breaking the fast. In all languages ​​it is like this: breakfast in English,

, literally means to break the fast. Our ancestors, when they woke up in the morning in their cave or cabin, had neither a fridge, nor a toaster, nor 20 bakeries around their block. They got up and began to move: they went to gather, to fish, to try to hunt something... And today we know that two out of three times they returned empty-handed. And here we are. Physically and genetically we are fully prepared for fasting. The question is whether we are mentally prepared... It says that fasting is beneficial, but also throughout history depriving someone of food has been used as a weapon of torture, right? That is the negative context to which many detractors turn to criticize the fast. But it is like a scalpel: one person can use it to save your life and another to attack you.Everything must be put in context, and the psychological part is also key. A person who is imprisoned, deprived of their liberty and food, is in a situation of stress in which a whole series of mechanisms that are activated when fasting is done in the right context cannot be set in motion. That is where the key is. A person who, for whatever reason, experiences a situation of anxiety or anguish, perhaps it is better to wait until they are calmer to fast, because otherwise it can generate more stress. Fasting should be learned from professionals. It is a tool that has a lot of power, and it is worth being taught to do it in an orderly manner and to incorporate it into your life in the correct way.At the end of this month we are going to do a six-day challenge where we teach the participants what fasting is, we give them

, we make a plan for them to learn how to do a short two-day fast... It's about helping people find their health. Is fasting in fashion? There are more and more celebrities who sign up to fast... Human beings have practiced fasting since its origins, it is something ancient that many oriental and traditional medicines have incorporated for a long time because they already knew its benefits, all religions contemplate it. But it is true that in recent years science has been very interested in fasting. Reviewing scientific studies when writing the book, I have seen that in the last three years they have multiplied by 10. And on a scientific level, the great improvements that fasting can bring to many people have been seen. This has generated a

, has made people start practicing it and can give the feeling that it is a fashion.

But is not.

In our clinic, for example, we have been doing fasting retreats since 2008.

And 15 years ago, when you talked about fasting, many people looked at you as if you were from a sect.

Conforms to The Trust Project criteria

Know more

• Final Interview

• nutrition

• Science and Health

The final interviewSaúl Craviotto: "When the head or the body tell you 'enough' you have to be brave and accept it"

NutritionA research indicates that the keto diet could be less effective in women

Health Pharmacies increase their orders before the 'boom' for antigen tests

See links of interest

• Last News

• Work calendar 2022

• Home THE WORLD today

• Master data new narratives

• What

• Check Christmas Lottery 2021

• Check Child's Lottery

• Borussia Dortmund - Sport-Club Freiburg

• Real Madrid - Bitci Baskonia

• Brighton and Hove Albion - Crystal Palace

• Manchester City-Chelsea

• Sampdoria - Turin