Panettone: why should we not count calories or fall into equivalences?

December begins and with it, the news about how many breads with jam and butter is equal to a slice of panettone. The amount of calories that a whole panettone has or how much oil and sugar in grams we find in this sweet bread also begin to abound. The occasional headline -even- how much exercise to do to “burn” calories (they don’t burn, they oxidize, but that’s another story).

To be honest and with shame I must admit that -a few years ago- I also thought that making notes on equivalences and restrictions would help the reader, since these journalistic notes seek to convince Peruvians to eat healthier, especially now that it is so important . But, we forget that the concept of health is global, not only physical but also psychological; and that the restriction generates more desire to eat what we like so much.

This note is not intended to replace a nutritional consultation, if you, dear reader, have a disease, remember that the last word rests with your doctor or head nutritionist, and that everything in nutrition depends on and is personalized.

Now let’s continue.

Guilt and compensatory actions

Eating should not generate guilt. Eating is a natural act and it has no moral connotation, therefore, it should not generate guilt. However, society often places very difficult stereotypes on us that lead us to think that health is synonymous with the weight we see on the scale.

The nutritionist Jimena Jara explains that “food should not be a channel to drown out emotions that we do not know how to manage.” “If one day we eat too much, it is advisable to resume our daily eating habits and lifestyle the next day, such as regular exercise. We must learn to be somewhat flexible with ourselves and with our meals to avoid feeling guilty“, Add.

Guilt “will create an imbalance in your body, not only psychological due to ‘guilt’, but it can also become a bad habit and end up creating hormonal imbalances, drastic weight gains, unhealthy ‘miracle diets’ practices, and even muscle injuries due to excessive exercise effort”, he adds.

For Alessandra Crovetto, guilt and compensation behaviors can trigger mental health problems such as eating disorders.

“It gives me great joy to see how health professionals are already focusing on seeing that we are more than a number on the scale and that health is more than a weight and height formula. As a mother I feel that we cannot raise in the same way that they raised us because it is not the same world, they raised us full of restrictions in terms of food and that is why we have, I think, that thought that a party is coming and the time begins. binge and then I make up for it by starving myself or as they say: closing my mouth and full exercise. No, that’s not how it isCrovetto says.

the calories

Adriana Carulla, Wong’s nutritionist, explains that healthy eating “is about balance and not prohibitions or feelings of guilt.” “Our body, in addition to needing calories (which are energy), needs nutrients such as protein, healthy fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants,” she says.

For her part, the health coach Alessandra Crovetto assures that “we should not count calories at Christmas or on any date, we must relearn to eat, quality and not quantity.”

“There is an obsession with the empty calorie. That is, a lot of food but that does not have calories. That costs us a high price. Foods full of sweeteners, very harmful, ”he adds.

Recommendations for Christmas Eve

These nutritional tips are to avoid waking up the next day with indigestion or an upset stomach. Karen Quiroz, director of the Nutrition and Food Techniques Career at Le Cordon Bleu University, explains that we can “eat healthy without having to leave the tradition”.

“Something important to avoid at Christmas dinner is mixing food and excessive consumption of ice cream, carbonated drinks, sauces, as they are associated with digestive problems. Something that is vital is to accompany each dish with a generous portion of salad”, he adds.

The specialist explains that there is a simple strategy to follow to eat balanced and delicious. “A simple tool to apply is to divide our dish into these portions: half should have a salad, a fourth should have a protein (animal or vegetable) and the other quarter should have a carbohydrate or garnish.”Quiroz says.

For her part, Jimena Jara Rodriguez, head of the Nutrition area – Suiza Lab, recommends avoiding eating fast. “Chew well and thus you will avoid eating more and you will help the stomach to process the food much faster”, indicates.

For Jara it is important to learn to listen to our body. It is very common, because we are taught from childhood to eat everything on the plate, to continue eating even if we are no longer hungry.

“When you feel satisfied, stop eating, even if you still have to finish the plate. It is important to listen to your body when you already feel satisfied so you avoid eating more”, he comments. It is necessary to understand that although Christmas dinner is delicious, if it is left over – which is very likely to happen – you can eat it the next day for lunch.

“Drinking a hot infusion such as anise, chamomile, lemon verbena, among others, after dinner always helps improve digestion.”Jara says.

Build lasting healthy habits

The nutrition specialist Mónica Bamonde indicates that there are several methods and that the ideal is to try “which is the one that works best for us so that consuming a healthy and adequate diet so that it is a habit, is part of our life”.

“We can implement a shopping list for when we go to the market or supermarket or bodega, based on this list, create a food plan schedule to follow, learn new recipes with seasonal ingredients, have healthy snacks on hand, create alarms on our cell phone to drink water and sun, count 7000 steps a day and always divide our meals or dishes into 3 parts (25% protein, 50% vegetables and 25% whole carbohydrates or tuberssays Bamonde.

Adriana Carulla, who runs Wong’s Vive Sano program, firmly believes that “theThe best way to achieve healthy and lasting habits is by analyzing the lifestyle you have today to see what needs to be changed”.

“For example: if you skip meals due to overwork and then come home very hungry to overindulge in unnutritious food, or if you hardly ever include vegetables in your diet or do not do any physical activity”, he adds.

The specialist reveals that for the changes to be progressive and sustainable over time, they must start with one thing at a time. “If you choose to increase vegetables in your diet, then work on that, include a minimum of two servings of vegetables at lunch and two at dinner, look for recipes based on vegetables, make a shopping list, etc. , and that action is repeated for several days until it can be done automatically and becomes part of the habits. Once you have controlled that action, just and only recently, you start working on another, without leaving the previous one, and that is how lasting habits are generated.”, ends Carulla.