Food can be our most effective medicine if chosen correctly and according to each person's needs, and our most feared poison if consumed indiscriminately without considering its origin, cultivation or farming methods, how it is stored, prepared, and brought to the table.
Consuming unprocessed, varied, local foods, minimally treated with non-intensive cultivation/farming methods, allows us to obtain nutrients (macro and micro) and antioxidant molecules that enable us to function optimally, protect us from infections, and feel full of energy.
A nutritious diet (in the true sense of the word) can help prevent lifestyle-related diseases such as overweight, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, sleep apnea, hypertension, but also better manage inflammatory and/or immune pathologies, those affecting the endocrine-metabolic system (such as thyroid disorders, hormonal imbalances), neurological conditions, and oncological diseases.
Conscious choices should lead us to choose anti-inflammatory foods and combinations most of the time.
What does this mean?
1) Include foods rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants such as seasonal vegetables and fruit every day.
2) Ensure a good intake of fiber every day.
3) Alternate raw foods with foods prepared using gentle cooking methods that preserve nutritional content (steaming, stir-frying, en papillote).
4) Limit added sugars, whether white sugar, cane sugar, coconut sugar, syrups, malts, honey... they are still sugars.
5) Limit refined flours, preferring whole grains, vegetables, legumes, and tubers.
6) Balance meals well so they are not just carbohydrate-based. It is preferable to combine them with fiber and/or protein and/or good fats.
7) Prefer monounsaturated fats (extra virgin olive oil and avocado) and polyunsaturated fats (wild-caught fish, especially sardines, anchovies, mackerel, hake, walnuts, and oilseeds) and also include animal fats from sustainable sources (mountain butter, egg yolk).
8) Eliminate refined, hydrogenated, oxidized vegetable fats, often found in baked goods, sweet and savory snacks, or poor-quality oils.
9) Be conscious, informed consumers, aware of the tricks of the food industry that encourage purchases ("palm oil-free", "gluten-free", "lactose-free", "0% fat", "low calorie", "buy 2 pay 1"...).
This allows us to achieve good glycemic balance and thus insulin balance, an hormone which, when produced in excess, is pro-inflammatory.
Chronic inflammation, which does not resolve (unlike acute inflammation which is vital and self-limiting), can trigger major imbalances and damage cellular structures, especially membranes.
Every cell has a plasma membrane of a lipid nature, made of phospholipids, cholesterol, and proteins.
The balance between saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fats is crucial for membrane health, to maintain their fluidity, to allow the exchange of nutrients and micronutrients, for correct communication between cells and between cells and hormones.
Essential fatty acids, omega 3 and omega 6, must be obtained through diet.
It is very easy to meet omega 6 requirements (unfortunately these come from oils widely used in the food industry), but less so for omega 3 (wild-caught fish cooked at low temperatures, flax seeds, chia, hemp, walnuts, meat and eggs from extensive farming). An imbalance shifted towards omega 6 is pro-inflammatory.
Polyunsaturated fats (including omegas) are particularly unstable and sensitive to light, heat, and oxygen, so they oxidize easily.
Saturated fats are the most stable; the short-chain ones found, for example, in good quality butter and extra virgin coconut oil, are suitable for cooking and are more resistant to heat.
They are a good source of energy for cells and nourishment for intestinal cells.
Monounsaturated fats combine the positive properties of the previous ones: good temperature stability, anti-inflammatory, and protective against cardiovascular diseases.
Extra virgin olive oil is the King of monounsaturated fats, and we should be proud of it in Italy; everyone envies us.
But do you know another source of monounsaturated fats? AVOCADO!!!
A fruit that differs from others due to its very low sugar content (in line with point 4) and its richness in fats, predominantly monounsaturated (points 6 and 7).
It has an excellent content of soluble and insoluble fiber (point 2), is very rich in minerals and vitamins such as potassium and magnesium, phosphorus, manganese, vitamins A, C, E, K (point 1).
Excellent digestive support, rich in antioxidants such as lutein, zeaxanthin, and glutathione, vitamin E and A, it provides B vitamins, particularly biotin and folate (point 1).
It contains essential amino acids and contributes to collagen formation (points 1 and 6).
For many years, avocado has also been grown in Italy, so why not get to know it better and learn how to bring it to the table? It is very versatile and in line with an anti-inflammatory and preventive diet.
Sweet or savory?
● In a salad with fresh spinach, eggs, orange, avocado, and pine nuts
● Mashed on a slice of toast with raspberries and chopped dark chocolate
● Simple, sliced and sprinkled with lemon and salt flakes
● In a sweet mousse with mango, vanilla, and macadamia nuts
Dr. Ilaria Bertini
I work as a freelance dietitian, dealing with dietetics and nutrition in clinical, therapeutic, and research settings. I am convinced that well-being depends on a series of modifiable factors, part of each person's lifestyle. We are the ones who choose what to eat, how and how much to exercise, how to detoxify, how to treat ourselves, when to say stop, how to "make a day go"... and it is these daily choices that allow us to feel good even in the presence of unfavorable genetics, advancing age, our gender, and ethnicity. WE ARE WHAT WE EAT. My mission is to understand how to help you express the best of yourselves to achieve health and physical fitness with a natural, whole, unrefined or unprocessed diet, rich in precious nutrients combined in a personalized way to your needs. I see clients in Verona at Via Leonardo da Vinci 26.