“Stop food dictatorships!” – The Express

We, doctors, nutritionists, chefs, scientists, users… take up our pen today to stand against these recommendations which would push some of our fellow citizens to switch towards radical observance of certain “diets”, without any understanding. risks they can take. We would like to recall here the verified, scientific and essential information on food in a context where fake news floods the networks.

Medical reasons, including obesity, may justify changing your diet. In France, 1 in 2 people are overweight and 1 in 6 are obese. If undoubtedly 10% of cases of obesity are of genetic origin, the vast majority is linked to conditions and lifestyles including poor diet.

Since 2021, in France, obesity has been considered a chronic disease but does not benefit from 100% coverage in the context of a long-term condition (ALD). This recognition in ALD could allow the patients concerned to benefit, even before the occurrence of complications (cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, high blood pressure and many cancers), from adapted medical care and real therapeutic education.

Other situations justifying a specific diet include food intolerances and certain allergies. Intolerance to lactose and some dairy products affects around 30% of the population in France. Furthermore, many people suffer from digestive pain when ingesting gluten, particularly present in wheat and products that contain it. The exclusion of lactose and gluten must, however, be medically supervised, as they can lead to deficiencies.

Finally, advances in basic research seem to show that the ketogenic diet, by reducing foods containing carbohydrates, could, for certain patients living with cancer (between 6 and 10% of them), constitute a relevant option as a supplement. usual treatments.

A healthy diet essentially involves, like Mediterranean diets, fresh, varied and unprocessed products: vegetables, fruits, unrefined cereal products (containing fiber and vitamins), legumes, fish and, more moderately, dairy products. and meats. It’s good for your health, because it’s a way of doing without the additives that most processed foods contain (preservatives, colorings, texturing agents, etc.). It’s good for the wallet, for equal quality, unprocessed products being less expensive than those which are. And finally, it’s good for the planet (less intensive agriculture, less packaging, local and seasonal products, etc.).

We call for rediscovering the pleasure of cooking these selected products, of taking the time to taste them together, sitting around a table. Because good assimilation also depends on good digestion and therefore on the way of ingesting food.

Remember that the four pillars of our diet are iron, calcium, phytonutrients (fruits and vegetables) and essential fatty acids. However, not all foods are the same: to meet our iron needs, certain foods can be rich in poorly assimilable iron (spinach, cooked dried vegetables) while others contain significant quantities of it that are easily assimilated (meat, fish or liver). ) ; the same for calcium, 150 ml of cow’s milk (180 mg of calcium) equivalent to 600 grams of dried vegetables. Therefore, those following a vegan or vegetarian diet must be extremely vigilant. The risks linked to deficiencies in iron, calcium or even vitamin B12 (present only in products of animal origin) are well documented (anemia and fatigue, osteoporosis and skeletal fragility, neurological disorders, etc.). The consequences of these deficiencies are major in children.

There is an urgent need to disseminate reliable information on diet, particularly to the most disadvantaged populations who suffer the most from nutritional disorders. This must concern school canteens (habits are formed from childhood), businesses, nursing homes, and all community places bringing together people, whatever their socio-economic background. In this regard, we can only welcome the Nutri-Score which is a useful tool to guide consumers in their food choices. But we must go further. We know, for example, the ravages of overly sweet sodas; there would be a simple public health message to hammer home everywhere: everything that is not water is food!

With a measured posture, we are convinced that it is possible to find an “ecumenical” mode of eating which allows us to combine hedonism and benefits for our health and for our planet. According to Katerina S. Stylianou, a dietetics researcher at the University of Michigan, replacing just 10% of daily calories from meat (including beef and cured meats) with fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes and certain seafood, we could thus obtain substantial improvements in health (48 minutes of life saved/person/day) and a 33% reduction in the food carbon footprint.

If we must break away from the typically Western diet which is leading humanity to overweight and obesity and ruining our planet, we must not switch, without reflection or caution, to diets of exclusion which exposes one to serious deficiencies.

By contributors to the white paper of the Foundation of the Academy of Medicine, “Food today and tomorrow”: Professor Catherine Buffet* (former Head of the Hepato-gastroenterology department at the Kremlin-Bicêtre hospital), Professor Gabriel Perlemuter* (head of the Hepato-gastroenterology and nutrition department at the Antoine Béclère hospital, University of Paris- Saclay), Olivier Roellinger (starred chef), Professor Richard Villet* (visceral surgeon, secretary general of the Foundation of the Academy of Medicine), Professor Judith Aron-Wisnewsky (nutritionist doctor at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital), Professor Antoine Bioy (teacher researcher (Paris 8) and scientific manager AMCA), Olivier Bohuon (president of the Foundation of the Academy of Medicine), Dr Marie-Christine Boutron-Ruault (internist doctor, hepato-gastroenterologist, nutritionist at the Institute Mutualiste Montsouris), Anne Buisson (director of AFA Crohn RCH France), Isabelle Bretegnier (dietician-trainer, president of SCIC Nourrir l’Avenir), Professor Florence Campeotto (pediatrician gastroenterologist at Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital ), Danielle Castellotti (president of the Sandrine Castellotti Foundation), Professor Bernard Charpentier* (honorary president of the National Academy of Medicine- honorary president of the European Federation of Academies of Medicine (FEAM)), Camille Corman (founder of 1Food1Me, The Frenchman of Personalized Nutrition), Dr Odile Cotelle (general practitioner and consultant at Antoine-Béclère Hospital), Hugues Ducoin (founder of the Restaurant-Traiteur apéti), Dr Jacques Fricker (nutritionist, AIHP. Ph.D., MD), Dr Frédéric Fumeron (epidemiologist-geneticist, emeritus lecturer), Carole Galissant (director of Food Transition and Nutrition Sodexo France), Professor Olivier Goulet (head of the Gastroenterology-Hepatology-Nutrition department of the Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital), Brigitte Jolivet (president of AFDIAG – French Association of Gluten Intolerants), Anne-Sophie Joly (president of the National Collective of Obese Associations), Pr Georgia Malamut (gastroenterologist and hepatologist of Cochin hospital), Professor Jean-Pierre Michel* (professor emeritus at the Faculty of Medicine of Geneva), Jean-Louis Peyraud (project manager at the INRAE ​​Agriculture Scientific Department), Dr Didier Rémond (doctor in nutrition and physiology ), Professor Nadine Vivier (honorary president of the French Academy of Agriculture).

*Member of the National Academy of Medicine