Our nutritionist, Dr. Margarida Pimentel, has answered some of the most frequently asked questions about good eating habits.
She also gives you steps on how to eat healthily with tricks you can implement all year round, starting at Christmas.
What are the 3 biggest dietary mistakes and how can you avoid them?
In my clinical practice, I come across some common issues among the people who come to see me.
Among the main mistakes I highlight is the lack of a daily meal routine with set times and meal planning.
A structured weekly meal plan avoids resorting to fast food and skipping meals due to lack of time.
Ideally, I suggest drawing up a weekly menu and buying the necessary ingredients in advance.
Another common mistake is poor hydration throughout the day.
Daily water consumption is recommended and depends on the individual’s gender and age group.
Placing a bottle of water on the desk or preparing flavored water without added sugar can be useful strategies for improving hydration levels throughout the day.
Lastly, I’d like to highlight the lack of soup consumption, especially in adulthood.
According to the recommendations of the Directorate-General for Health, the main meals (lunch and dinner) should consist of vegetable soup, preferably at the beginning of the meal and respecting the seasonality of the vegetables.
How much food should we ideally eat in order to meet our nutritional needs and control our weight?
Nutritional needs depend on several factors, including the individual’s gender and level of physical activity.
It is therefore possible for the nutritionist to calculate calorie, macro and micronutrient needs, taking into account all the factors surrounding the individual and their lifestyle, and to convert these needs into food over the course of the various meals of the day.
As such, there is no standard value that applies to the entire population.
There’s a lot of talk about intermittent fasting.
What are the health benefits?
Intermittent fasting emerged in 2019 as a new trend that would bring several advantages, including weight control, increased insulin sensitivity, an anti-inflammatory effect and increased longevity, restricting food consumption to a window of time that can vary according to the model chosen.
It is not considered a diet, because it doesn’t tell us what food to eat, but rather a dietary pattern where a time restriction is applied.
However, due to the lack of robustness and fragility of the studies conducted in experimental models, it is not possible to prove the alleged advantages of this dietary pattern.
Is mealtime important or should we eat when we’re hungry?
Yes, maintaining a regular eating pattern in terms of the frequency and approximate times of meals helps with weight control and avoids spikes in hunger/gluttony, which most of the time lead us to seek food uncritically.
A good eating routine is therefore recommended, with around 5 to 6 meals a day, ideally no more than 3.5 hours apart.
In turn, an irregular meal pattern seems to be associated with poorer metabolic health and weight gain.
At Christmas time, how can we enjoy eating healthily?
Since Christmas is a time of abundant food and social and family interaction, there is a greater propensity to consume more food.
Therefore, there are some strategies to take into account, namely:
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Always shop after meals and take an organized list of what you’re going to buy with you;
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Restrict cooking and eating to just one room in the house;
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Don’t make the kitchen/table your playground at the end of meals;
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Don’t do other activities while you eat, this prevents you from paying attention to the amount of food you eat;
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Don’t put platters on the table, serve the appropriate portions on a small, shallow plate or as indicated by your nutritionist;
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Eat slowly, cut food into small pieces and chew them well;
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Take the opportunity to stay active this Christmas, get up regularly and do other tasks;
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Throughout the day, drink water and keep to your usual meal routine without skipping meals.
As with any area of science, Nutrition is not watertight or governed by absolute truths, so moderation will always be the key word at Christmas and on any other day of the year.
