In this interview, nutritionist Christian Petten talks aboutnutrivore diet.
You'll discover the disadvantages of food industrialization but above all, the benefits of traditional food.
But also, what is a superfood and the imbalance omega-3 / omega-6 imbalance.
Our diets have evolved over the generations, and we don't prepare our food in the same way as our ancestors. ancestors.
Our ancestors' diets contained between 2 and 20 times more nutrients than our current diet modern diet.
How do deficiencies deficiencies or imbalances lead to problems with health problems and how to avoid them.
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Transcription :
5 phrases that define your vision in your work
- Adapted to each individual
- Focused on the customer's objective
- Advise rather than restrict
- Offering flexibility
- Drawing on both modern science and ancestral traditions
What are the 3 main principles of the Nutrivore diet?
Select foods with high nutritional value.
We try to combine them to cover all the body's needs.
We'll prepare and cook food in a way that increases its nutritional value and limits toxins such as anti-nutrients and molecules of this kind.
The era of transition from traditional to industrial has enabled a few scholars to measure the impact of processed foods. Can you tell us more?
Back in the 30s and 30s, a renowned American dentist and researcher by the name of Weston Price undertook a series of trips around the world.
This enabled him to compare the diet of these peoples, which was still traditional and ancestral, with the modern diet that was already widespread in the Western world, which already contained a lot of processed foods:
- white sugars
- white flours
- vegetable oils
- canned foods
This enabled him to compare the effects of modern and traditional diets, and the nutritional richness of both.
He visited 14 countries over a 10-year period. He visited the Lötschental region of the Valais. He's been to other parts of Switzerland, he's been to the four corners of the world:
- Africa
- among the Eskimos
- in Oceania
- etc.
In fact, he was able to highlight the common features of all these traditional diets.
What he was able to determine after 10 years of study was that our ancestors' diets were significantly richer in nutrients than modern diets.
It contained between 2 and 20 times more nutrients, depending on the vitamins or minerals in question.
What he was able to see by studying these peoples was that chronic illnesses that were already widespread in the 30s, such as osteoporosis or fertility problems, were virtually absent in populations that still ate a traditional diet.
What are superfoods? Can you list a few for us?
For me, a superfood is a food that fills the gaps that are common in today's working population.
It's also a food that doesn't have to contain any harmful molecules.
These are foods that should be easy to consume.
For example, we have bone broth, which has been forgotten for some decades and which was in fact a staple food in our ancestors' diets, providing collagen and various glycosaminoglycans that are essential to intestinal and joint health.
What is the most neglected way of cooking and preparing food today?
It's probably the way we cook and prepare cereals and legumes. Our ancestors didn't eat cereals and pulses in the way we do today.
That means simply throwing rice in a pan, cooking it and eating it straight away.
Our ancestors prepared these foods in the traditional way, either by fermenting them, soaking them in advance in an acidic or salty medium, or sprouting them. Why did they do this?
Because they realized that it greatly increased digestibility. It increased their nutritional value.
But they didn't know how to measure it precisely, as we do today. But today, studies show that :
- soaking
- fermentation
- germination
Increases the vitamin and mineral content and reduces the anti-nutrient content of this type of food, i.e. mainly cereals and legumes, but also others.
As well as having lost nutrients in the modern diet, we have also caused imbalances in the proportions of certain molecules. What are the medium- and long-term consequences?
These consequences are many and varied. Ultimately, they can affect every system in the body.
The effects on an individual are obviously relative to his or her genetics and epigenetics, which means that reactions can be different from one person to the next, depending on the imbalances that are caused.
The body will not be able to function optimally if there are deficiencies or major imbalances between two minerals or two vitamins that should be within a certain physiological range.
What does this mean in practical terms?
It's going to cause or increase chronic illnesses or other ailments, the source of which is hard to pinpoint.
A typical example of the consequences of an imbalance is the imbalance between omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids.
The main effect of this imbalance is chronic inflammation.
Omega-6s tend to be pro-inflammatory, while omega-3s are anti-inflammatory, and the body needs both.
We also need inflammation, but when there's a major imbalance between these molecules, inflammation tends to freewheel out of control.
This creates what's known as chronic inflammation, which can affect the joints, the intestines, the ovaries in women, and can affect many parts of the body, creating long-term problems.
