In this interview, Christian Petten, nutritionist, talks to us about the nutrivorous diet .
You will discover the disadvantages of food industrialization but above all, the benefits of traditional food.
But also, what is a superfood and the omega-3/omega-6 imbalance .
Our diet has evolved over generations and we do not prepare our food in the same way as our ancestors .
The diet of our ancestors contained between 2 and 20 times more nutrients than our modern diet.
How deficiencies or imbalances could cause health problems in humans and how to avoid them.
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Transcription :
5 sentences that define your vision in your work
- Tailored to each individual
- Customer goal oriented
- Advise rather than restrict
- Offer flexibility
- Rely both on modern science, but also on ancestral traditions
What are the 3 main principles of the Nutrivore diet?
Select foods with high nutritional value.
We will try to combine them in order to cover all the needs of the organization.
We will prepare and cook in such a way as to increase the nutritional value of food and limit toxins such as anti-nutrients and this kind of molecules.
The era of transition between traditional and industrial has allowed some scholars to measure the impact of processed foods. Can you tell us more ?
So in the 1930s, 1930s, a renowned dentist and researcher in the United States by the name of Weston Price, undertook trips all over the world.
To go and study populations who were still isolated from logistical routes and therefore from modern food, which in fact allowed him to compare the food of these peoples, which was still traditional and ancestral, with the modern food which was already very widespread. in the western world which already contained a lot:
- white sugars
- white flour
- vegetable oils
- canned food
He was thus able to compare the effects of modern food and ancestral diets as well as the nutritional richness of the two diets.
He traveled to 14 countries over 10 years. He notably came to Valais in the Lötschental. He went elsewhere in Switzerland, he went to the four corners of the world:
- in Africa
- among the Eskimos
- in Oceania
- etc.
He was actually able to bring out the commonalities of all these traditional diets.
What he was able to determine after these 10 years of study is that the diet of our ancestors was significantly richer in nutrients than modern diets.
It contained between 2 and 20 times more nutrients depending on the vitamins or minerals that we take in question.
What he was able to see by studying these peoples was that the chronic diseases that were already prevalent in the 1930s, such as osteoporosis or fertility problems, were almost absent among the populations who still ate with a traditional food.
What is a superfood? Can you list some of them for us?
For me, a superfood is a food that will fill deficiencies that are common in today's working population.
It is also a food which must not in return bring harmful molecules.
These are foods that should be easily consumed.
For example, we have bone broth which has been quite forgotten for a few decades and which was in fact a staple of the diet of our ancestors which provides collagen and various glycosaminoglycans which are essential for health. especially intestinal, but also articular.
What is the way of cooking, preparing food, that is the most neglected today?
It is probably our way of cooking and preparing cereals and legumes. You should know that our ancestors did not consume cereals and legumes as we consume them today.
It means simply by throwing rice in a pot, cooking it and consuming it directly.
Our ancestors prepared these foods in the traditional way either by fermenting them, or by soaking them in advance in an acidic or salty medium, or by making them germinate. Why was he doing this?
Because they had realized that it greatly increased the digestibility. It increased the nutritional value.
So they didn't know how to measure it precisely as we do today. But today, we have studies that show that:
- soaking
- fermentation
- sprouting
Increases the content of available vitamins and minerals and reduces the anti-nutrient content of this type of food, therefore: cereals, legumes mainly, but others too.
In addition to 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?
So these consequences are many and varied. Eventually, they can affect all body systems.
The effects in an individual are obviously related to his genetics and his epigenetics, this means that the reactions can be different from one person to another and according to the imbalances that are caused.
The body will not be able to function optimally if there are significant deficiencies or imbalances between two minerals or two vitamins that should be within a certain physiological range.
What is it going to do in a fairly concrete way?
It will cause or increase chronic diseases or various ailments whose source is difficult to identify.
A typical example of the consequences of an imbalance is the imbalance between omega-3 and omega-6 which are polyunsaturated fatty acids.
This particular imbalance causes in any case, the main effect, chronic inflammation.
Omega-6 are rather pro-inflammatory, omega-3 anti-inflammatory, you should know that in the body, we need both.
We also need inflammation, but when we have a big imbalance between these molecules, the inflammation tends to go into freewheel, to be out of control.
It creates precisely what is called chronic inflammation which can affect the joints, the intestine, the ovaries in women, which can affect a lot of parts of the body and create long-term problems.
