by Bogdan Munteanu

In the last years, there are more and more people pretending to be “specialists“ who can teach us healthy eating. How should we define a nutritionist? What gives authority to his opinions?

In Romania there are doctors  specialized in diabetes, nutrition and metabolic diseases, therefore, obviously, they are entitled to speak about this. There are also physicians who have studied nutrition in various universities accredited in other countries. There are also the nutrition and diets university graduates who studied within the medical schools – Cluj, Iași and Târgu Mureș. They study for three years, without being actual doctors, afterwards they can study 1-2 years for the master`s degree. All these professionals are qualified to speak about nutrition.

Unfortunately, the Labour Ministry has accredited a lot of nutrition courses that take place during the weekend or online. These courses are not even taught by doctors or specialists. Anyone who has graduated such a course has the right to establish such a practice.

How can someone be sure that he is approaching a competent specialist?

They should think through whether they want to put their lives in the hands of someone who gives advice online and has no responsibility whatsoever! Whenever we read an opinion, we must check the person behind it. Maybe he is a political science, or economy, or philology graduate.

Our profession is well separated, but it was confiscated by people who only say that are nutritionists. I can say now that I am Marylin Monroe. People should see I am not who I say I am, despite the fact that I am blonde. People should be able to make the difference and increase their level of criticism; they should stop listening to impostors.

Can you give an example of such an imposture?

Holistic and integrative nutrition is very trendy now. It`s about the graduates of a so-called institute from United States, that is not recognized by the American authorities. The courses are online and the only spectacular thing is the tax – almost 5,000 dollars. After having paid this money, people start making the return on investment, practicing a profession they don’t really master. They don’t know anatomy, physiology, they don’t understand the body’s biochemistry.

This is exactly the danger – the fact that people who don’t know much about these matters have transformed food in some sort of “god.” There are a lot of theories, all strange and bizarre, about foods that heal, kill, intoxicate or save. It is clear that these people don’t master medical terminology.

It is not acceptable to make a confusion between waste andtoxin, nor to consider that a certain food is able to kill you. All foods kill, even water. Acute water intoxication can get people killed. Likewise, there is a lot of nonsense talk about alkalinity and acidity, as if someone could actually change heir body’s pH, without getting gravely ill.

What can we do to avoid falling in the trap of these invalid theories?

First and foremost, we must pay attention to those articles that are everywhere the same: newspapers, magazines, and websites. They are copied one after the other, either due to lack of knowledge, lack of journalistic professionalism or ignorance.

I remember having a terrible laugh when I read an article explaining that polenta is more valuable than a handful of medicines. There was no truthful or serious phrase in that article. Hydrocarbonates were considered the same as carbohydrates; it was discussing the B vitamins group contained in polenta, while the excess of polenta – which is poor in vitamin PP (B3) – causes a disease known as pellagra.

If people read such an article 20 times, they end up imagining that it is true. In fact, someone writes something stupid, and it propagates. Which doesn’t mean it becomes validated. More recently, there is a trend of making a statement and posting several links to support it. But, if the author is not a specialist, he cannot know whether those sources are correct or they are just another stupid copycat idea.

People must read where there is quality medical information. For example, there are medical centers whose websites present certain medical analyses. Patients should at least look there and check certain information. Certainly, nobody wants to read medical books. But, people shouldn’t support things they don’t master just because the language is very militant and the terms seem convincing. “The China Study” is a very good example in this sense…

I was just about to ask about this book written about Colin T. Campbell. Also, what is your opinion on veganism, an intensely promoted trend lately?

I don’t need to state only my opinion. The human being is omnivore. Period –regardless of what some people say or believe! In Leipzig there is a research institute that has mapped all the bone proteins discovered in all the archaeological sites around the world. Technically speaking, this is a simple task. No bone discovered showed that those people were vegetarians, or that they didn’t consume animal proteins.

Whoever has minimal knowledge of the digestive tube anatomy cannot doubt the fact that the human is omnivore. We cannot compare the human digestive system with an herbivore animal that has two or four stomachs. The human has a type of digestion and a certain enzymatic baggage that must digest animal proteins as well, breaking some links between the protein chains. This is the reason why pancreatic enzymes exist.

Going back to the “China Study”, I like comparing it with this sophism: All cats die. Socrates died. Therefore, Socrates was a cat. This is the idea behind “The China Study” – a proof on how we can prove anything about everything.

Can a nutritionist define a healthy person?

We cannot define this, because health is not just the absence of sickness, it is also wellness and comfort and the maximum functionality of an individual. From the point of view of nutrition, we cannot assess the health of an individualwithout doing some tests and dosages. But not all nutrients can be dosed.

It is important that people eat a bit of everything, as various as possible. It is wrong to eat only fast-food, only sweets or a lot of sweets even if, from the calories point of view, these foods meet the daily ratio. We need to do more than just put on weight.

The human must eat according to a certain order, and the meals must have a certain number calories. This is what we say: in the morning – alone, at lunch – with friends, in the evening – with the enemies. We are talking calories here, not volumes. Food must look good, taste good and must be eaten while paying attention to the chewing. The focus must be on the eating process, not on the TV, tablet or laptop. This is a toxic way of eating.

What is correct eating?

First of all, being full has a gastric side, the stomach must be filled and the food must have a certain composition. But there is also a cerebral component. In order to inform our brain while eating, we must look at the food and chew it. If we focus on something else, then we end up eating more than we need. Thr same happens if we don’t chew. We end up eating more than we need and after 15-20 minutes we fell bloated and sick. People must understand that they are like machines that need fuel, and the fuel must be put in gradually. Eating once a day, in the evening, is as absurd as trying to put gas into the tank at the end of the trip, not before departure. Of course, a car would not move, while the human organism has certain mechanisms that can replace the lack of fuel. But it is not healthy to use these mechanisms very often.

The habit of eating in the evening everything that we didn’t eat during the day is very harmful for the organism. The human must eat depending on the efforts they are about to make and the outdoor temperature. If it is cold and we are about to spend the day on the ski slope, then it is ok to eat fatty food. But, if we get into a warm car, we go to the office, we come back home, sit in the armchair, no contact with the cold, no physical effort – then the food should be less caloric, less fatty.

All human history is showing us that this way of eating, according to temperature and effort, is the right way.

Are there foods that heal or help us regain youth?

Let’s be clear on that: there is no bowel god, we don’t get eternal life by eating certain foods. Anyone using a bit of a judgement can see that every 15 years we get a food trend. Now everyone is about to talk about aloe vera as a healing plant. It happened before and I saw bowels punctured because people drank homemade aloe juice, hoping to become younger.

When aloe gets out of the picture, some seaweed will appear. Then the seaweed goes away, and forest fruits will kick in. These are just waves, coming and going. Every once in a while, someone discovers a so-called secret and shares it with the world. The secrets go public as breaking news, launched by people who have no qualification and just want to draw some attention on themselves. But eating cucumbers won’t take anyone to nirvana…

Can we find out what is truly healthy, beyond the marketing tricks?

People can choose the information they read. At the beginning of the internet, a lot of nonsense spread out and I believe that doctors didn’t notice the danger and didn’t oppose it. In the waiting room, patients discuss many things. When they get into the doctor’s office, they ask and we explain whether the story they just heard is true or not, and people believe us. But our job is not to unveil the nonsense anddebunk every idiocy, instead of consulting patients and prescribing tretments.

Sometimes patients say “Why isn’t the doctor explaining to me?” I egive explanations to them to the extent they can understand, in a non-medical language. If we get into details concerning enzymatic systems, anatomy, we are not going anywhere. People are not able to follow your expalantion anymore. There must be a communication between doctor and patient, but the patient must understand that this is not the role of a medical consultation.

Is it hard to have the desired weight? How can it be obtained and preserved?

It is certainly is possible. Look at the TV news from the 1970- 1975s! You will not see any overweight people. It is not just because people didn’t have food to eat, but also because they didn’t have so many cars, they walked a lot, they were doing sports and exercise. Today, just a few are doing sports and eating in a balanced way. Somehow, the modern man wants to break all rules, and be good looking and slim at the same time. If we want health, we must eat properly, do sport, be in contact with the outdoor. There is no other way.

If we ate before exercising and the diet was complete, there is no need to eat earlier than five hours. People end up using food as reward, sadness cure or therapy – especially when it comes to chocolate. This is not right. People must understand that if they eat more than they consume, putting weight is a natural consequence.

Is there an ideal menu that can be recommended to everyone?

There isn`t such a thing. People must eat depending on the efforts they make. Let`s take two men for example of 1.r80 m, 80 kilograms, each having the same age. One is an IT professional, sitting all day at the computer. The other one is a tool-making turner. Do you think they can have the same diet? No, there can be no ideal menu. I recommend people half of every meal, at breakfast, lunch and dinner, should be made up of vegetables. The other half is split between proteins and carbs, paying attention to fat and future activities. If we walk, in the snow, we can eat some chocolate before leaving, but not upon arrival at our destination.

Food must be varied, good looking and tasty. If it is this way, at a certain point, we say “I would eat something good…” This means that the food we ate was monotonous, ugly, and without nutrients. We ate just because we were hungry and we wanted to fill the stomach. Eating should be a delight for everyone.

People don’t understand that living a chaotic lives cannot be balanced with miraculous foods. Nobody cooks anymore; everyone thinks that making a soup is just like having a PhD. We must become more responsible with ourselves, check the source of our food and cook it.

Therefore, a healthy diet is linked to cooking? It is very trendy now to make smoothies, putting all ingredients into a blender…

These smoothies are not miraculous either. In addition to that, speaking of fruits, they can get people fatter; because the smoothies are excessive carbs made out of banana, two apples, two oranges… They have more carbs than a loaf of bread. And, if we don’t exercise, what do we do with all that glucose? Any rational individual would realize that, without putting all those fruits and vegetable in the blender, he would never be able to eat them by chewing. So, in fact, it all comes down to laziness.

What is the most dangerous food myth that you would like to bust?

The most dangerous thing is that all these “gurus” threaten people that they will die in awful torments if they fail to follow their advice. I am fighting with this fear for some time now, and I am speaking against it… Many patients, in particular those with oncologic illnesses, rush to see these “gurus” and listen to them blindly. As if they were punished for eatingeverything during their lives and now they got cancer and certain foods can heal them.

This is one of the most terrible lies in the online environment:  that all forms of cancer are strictly caused by eating and can be cured with a vegetal diet, free of animal proteins. Cancers have multiple factors and causes. DNA alterations represent a main cause for any form of cancer. We cannot reduce such a complicated process to “it was the steak or the sausages that caused it.”

Do you think that a healthy diet could be imposed by legislative measures? Some people demand restrictions on fast-foods, others are fighting sugar…

No. No restriction whatsoever will do anything. It is a good idea not to install a vending machine in schools, for example. However, education will provide results, not restrictions. Schools that offered nutrition classes had very good results.

But, parents must also pay attention! I see it is very trendy to have all sort of speakers conferencing about healthy food and positive thinking. This is manipulation. Or people are taught how to be successful. As if, by ourselves we cannot become successful. We are being told that we are stupid, fat, almost dying and someone must come to teach us the secret of life. Usually it is the Maria Magdalena model, someone saying: “I was also like you, on the edge, but I have found the way and now, unselfishly, I would like to share it with you!”

People can be educated through medical conferences. Interdictions don’t take us anywhere. Starting with tomorrow, we can burn all tobacco fields, but the blackmarket will explode. This is how the human kind functions at the moment.