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Professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the University of Navarra and expert in the Mediterranean diet and world-renowned researcher, he has just published 'What do you eat?'
Which is a greater threat to health, covid or obesity? You ask this question in your new book 'What Do You Eat?'.
The greatest threat to long-term public health is obesity, because we have been experiencing rampant growth for three decades. For Covid, there are already phase 3 vaccine trials, and within a year and a half or two years there will be a more or less effective vaccine on the market. Obesity is not going to be solved and is responsible for four million deaths a year. In Spain we can be close to 70% of adults who are obese or overweight.
He also argues that the coronavirus evolves worse depending on diet and that it influences the mortality of young people.
When there is obesity, even in young people, there will be greater mortality due to coronavirus infection. It is a clear risk factor for poor outcomes once the infection develops. In addition, there are more and more scientific lines that agree that vitamin D can reduce the risk of contagion or worsen it. The cheapest vitamin D supplement is to put your face and forearms in the sun for 10 or 15 minutes every day. Fatty fish, mushrooms, mushrooms... if they are placed in the sun before cooking, they are also very enriched in vitamin D.
You are critical of large food companies, why?
Not with all of them, with the ones that sell junk food and drinks. I believe that they have done a disastrous job of lobbying politically and pressuring so that sugary drinks are not regulated and taxes are not imposed. And they have done a job, which seems even more perverse to me, of having scientists who are the voice of their master and who are in line with commercial interests instead of those of public health.
He is a great defender of the Mediterranean diet, but without screens involved?
When we talk about the traditional Mediterranean diet, it is that of our grandparents. We ate as a family, without even watching television and talking. Conviviality is part of this diet and a way to fight against cell phone addiction.
Are there foods that should be prohibited or limited due to the damage they cause to health?
As much as prohibiting would not be appropriate, it would be a bit dictatorial. The Government should give nudges by subsidizing healthy products and taxing and making unhealthy products more expensive. Unless there is very demonstrable toxicity, they should not be prohibited.
What is done wrong in Spain so that there are high rates of overweight, even in children?
We have a General Health Law of 1986 that gave rise to an excellent system in acute treatment, hospitals, medical specialists, and Primary Care, but it was not developed in terms of public health actions. The Government should have been much braver and more determined when it came to stopping certain food industries. Nutritionists are also lacking in health centers.
In the book he exposes 10 big lies and the coffee is not that bad. Up to how many cups?
I would recommend three or four cups a day. It has been proven that, although caffeine is addictive, it has other antioxidant and anti-inflammatory substances that are interesting for preventive medicine, and that it helps reduce diabetes.
What three foods are obligatory in the Mediterranean diet?
Always have fruit as dessert, vegetables at least twice a day, one of them in a salad, and cook everything with extra virgin olive oil. To eliminate, hamburgers, sausages and sugary drinks.
It is more expensive to eat healthy.
We have calculated that one euro more per day and that is where the Government would have to intervene, subsidizing healthy foods and taxing unhealthy foods.
