We eat every day and, even so, many doubts continue to arise around food. How many eggs are too manyif coconut oil deserves its fame, if sweeteners are a safe alternative or if training on an empty stomach really helps you burn more fat. These are questions that are repeated in conversations, social networks and headlines, often accompanied by forceful answers that do not always leave room for nuances.
In the last episode of the first season of ‘Science and apart‘, which you can see on our YouTube channel and listen also on Spotify and iVooxÁngela Blanco chats with Maria Blancosports nutritionist, to calmly and contextually address some of the most widespread ideas about nutrition, habits and performance.
Food, habits and many certainties that are not so certain
The conversation starts with a question that forces us to go beyond personal tastes. If you had to choose a single food that is complete from a nutritional point of view, the specialist does not hesitate to point out a very specific one: “The egg is a very complete food. It has almost all the vitamins, it has minerals, it has a complete aminogram, that is, the protein we need, it has all the amino acids, and if it were missing something it would be vitamin C, it would lack fiber, it would lack other things… but well, the egg is the most complete food that I would choose.”
After valuing the egg as food, the conversation enters one of the most repeated doubts. Is there really a clear limit to its consumption? María Blanco’s response is based on scientific evidence and avoids alarmism: “In scientific evidence, the daily egg, one to three eggs, is totally healthy. Because then we could restrict or avoid other types of foods that can harm us much more than the egg.”
The episode also focuses on how certain reputations are built around what we eat. When asked by our colleague about foods with a reputation for being healthy, María Blanco points directly to one of the most popular in recent years: “Coconut oil. Because we have a very rich oil, which is olive oil. and that we have a very good origin because we are here and it is first-hand. And it (coconut oil) is like with a lot of propaganda.”
The conversation also stops at one of the most used sugar substitutes. When talking about saccharin, María Blanco avoids simplifications and focuses attention on another less visible aspect: “There may be changes when using not only saccharin, but also sweeteners, in the microbiota that we have inside our intestine, and that can affect other areas.”
To understand why this possible impact matters, the interviewee stops to explain what we are talking about when we mention the microbiota: “The microbiota or the microbiome is the set of bacteria that are living with us in our intestine.” And it adds a key nuance about internal balance: when these bacteria are no longer in a situation of eubiosis and dysbiosis occurs, effects that go beyond the digestive system can appear.
The conversation ends by delving into some of the most discussed habits. From the appeal of ultra-processed foods to the debate on fasting and exercising on an empty stomach, María Blanco insists that the body does not work with instantaneous mechanisms: “There is no turn onthere is no switch, which is directly ‘well now I change this liver thing and start burning the fat from the adipocytes.'”
We address all of this in more depth in ‘Science and Apart’, which closes its first season with a very interesting episode. A conversation designed to better understand how we eat and to put context to doubts that have been on the table for some time, with the help of our interviewee.
Images | Xataka
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