What is a healthy, balanced diet today?

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Extract from the article: The term « balanced diet » is as much about what we eat as how we eat it. It's about covering your body's nutritional needs with a healthy, varied diet, but also ensuring that your body has enough energy throughout the day. Beware of red meat, salt,

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The term « balanced diet » is as much about what we eat as how we eat it. It's about covering your body's nutritional needs with a healthy, varied diet, but also ensuring that your body has enough energy throughout the day. Beware of red meat, salt, sugar, alcohol and fat. At a time when dietary condemnations are pouring in, what remains of nutritional balance?

Hippocrates, the tutelary figure of medicine, said: «Let your food be your medicine». This attributed formula has been put to every use, on every plate and even in our dietary lifestyles. Its success reaffirms a popular belief: eat well to stay fit. And repeated nutritional surveys and studies will not contradict this assertion.

During the 2nd edition of the Marché du Bien-être et de la Santé au Togo (MaBEST) in 2018, Santé-Education highlighted the role of diet in increasing or preventing certain diseases such as cancer, obesity or cardiovascular disease. A survey carried out during the event showed that only 15.6% of people eat the full 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day, and 42.4% take part in physical exercise and sport twice a week.  The three fruits most eaten by Togolese are oranges, bananas and pineapples.In terms of fruit consumption per day, only 28% of respondents eat 1 piece of fruit per day and 40.6% eat 2 pieces of fruit per day.The vegetables most eaten are gboma, adémé and gnato.

Junk food kills

Too much salt, sugar and fat; too many ultra-processed foods; not enough fibre, fruit and vegetables.The diagnosis is in: in Togo, it's no longer undernourishment but unbalanced eating that's killing people.It's not enough to eat, you have to eat everything.

An international study published in The Lancet has put the number of deaths worldwide attributable to poor diet at 11 million. That's one in five premature deaths, more than tobacco, which causes 8 million deaths every year.

Eating a healthy, balanced diet is not necessarily a self-evident concept.Is a balanced diet the same for Togolese as for Ghanaians or Beninese? For teenagers and the elderly?For sportsmen and women and diabetics?The cardiologist advises a balanced diet with more oily fish. The gastroenterologist reminds us of the importance of fibre, and the paediatrician of dairy products. Finally, the geriatrician checks that the elderly person is eating enough protein... However, there are no contradictions between these specialists, because in the final analysis, the personalised advice given by each doctor to his or her patient forms part of a general nutritional framework that sets out the conditions for a balanced diet in terms of public health.

Eat more legumes.Increase the proportion of wholemeal starchy foods, such as wholemeal bread or rice.Add nuts, which are rich in omega-3s and have cardiovascular benefits.Limit or avoid consumption of cold meats and meats. A variety of fruit and vegetables remain among the recommendations made by doctors, as does the call to further reduce the amount of sugar and salt.

 

Don't calculate everything

Nutritional balance should not be seen strictly in terms of a balance between inputs and outputs, consumption and expenditure of nutrients, but as an overall plan for a diet conducive to good health.A functional vision of diet, limited to calculating intakes of this or that nutrient or vitamin, cannot be integrated into daily life in the long term, and on the other hand risks encouraging orthorexia, an obsession with food control.Specialists should always stress the importance of exercise in the fight against a sedentary lifestyle.

Eating a healthy, balanced diet is not about filling out a balance sheet, but neither is it about demonising certain foods and banishing them forever.Rather, it's about valuing good products and encouraging variety.  Finally, eating a balanced diet now also means eating ethically, as the environment and health are inextricably linked.  Public health researchers, doctors and nutritionists are recommending seasonal produce, and even organic produce, and limiting the use of pesticides.

Abel OZIH

Article validated by Mathieu Tobossi, Specialist in Food Hygiene and Quality (Lomé)