Doctor Sacha Sorrentino explains how the role of the nutritionist has changed over the years and why the idea that it is only useful if you want to lose weight must be debunked.
Go from the nutritionist not only for lose weight, but for feel better, physically and mentally: if once nutritionists and dieticians were the prerogative of those who wanted to quickly get rid of excess pounds, at any cost, today the approach is much more holistic and in the end “the slimming it is only a side effect of the well-being that is achieved by learning to eat properly “, clarifies a Official Active Dr. Sacha Sorrentino, nutritionist biologist.
Why go to the nutritionist –
The role of the nutritionist has changed a lot in recent years: “Once upon a time we went to the nutritionist or dietician just to lose kilos. In many cases, the professional did not even have the suitable instrumentation available for a complete classification of the patient, to detect the percentages of fat, muscle, lean, visceral and subcutaneous fat. What the patient was asking was to lose weight and do it quickly. Thus it was often resorted to lightning diets which had the only reference value calories of food. Weight loss was perhaps achieved, but with side effects that were anything but beneficial ”, remembers Dr. Sorrentino. In recent years, things have changed a lot: “Today we pay attention not only to the caloric concept but also to how it is foods, thanks to their molecules, they combine with each other and act on hormones that we produce and on our rhythms that depend on them. I am referring, for example, to the importance of cortisol e insulin and their effects on the rhythms of hunger-satiety e sleep-wake“.
Losing weight as a side effect of well-being achieved –
a healthy slimming it is not the one that only gives a minor value on the scale: “The failure of lightning diets it lies precisely in this: if I lose weight very quickly it means that I am going to lose fluids, lean mass and muscle mass. The goal, on the other hand, should not be to lose pounds in the shortest possible time, but to listen to your body and calibrate your own diet (intended as a daily diet) according to your needs ”, explains the nutritionist. “For example, if you always feel tired, if you sleep badly, if you have difficulty concentrating this can be linked to some errors or imbalances in nutrition: we are probably following a diet that is too restrictive, which does not take into account our needs and ours lifestyle. And if they introduce themselves too few calories compared to those that are consumed our body activates the production of cortisol, the so-called hormone of stress, which leads our body to lose lean mass. There fat mass instead it is maintained because the signal that reaches our organism is an alarm, as if we were facing a period of famine. The primary role of the nutritionist must not be to lose weight, but to sensitize patients on the importance of a healthy and balanced diet: choosing the best foods and combining them correctly improves the quality of life bowel health (on which the production of 95% of serotonin, the so-called good mood hormone), the sleep quality. In the end, weight loss is only a side effect of the newfound well-being “.
A team work: the figures with which the nutritionist collaborates –
Precisely because the work of the nutritionist is all-round, in many cases you may find yourself having to collaborate with other figures: “The nutritionist must be part of a network of professionals. He can find himself collaborating with gynecologists, since many women suffer from endometriosis or polycystic ovary and they need an ad hoc power supply. Frequent are also i dermatological problems who need a specific diet. There is also a close connection with l’endocrinologo, especially in the presence of dysfunctions related to thyroid or to the production of insulin and cortisol. Finally, regarding the problems of osteo-articular inflammation, from arthritis to osteoporosis, the nutritionist can work alongside the orthopedist. The sports discourse should not be neglected. Training is fundamental in a path of food education and lifestyle: for this reason it can be useful for there to be a dialogue between nutritionist and personal trainer ”, adds Sorrentino.
Nutritionist and Eating Disorders –
A particularly delicate matter concerns patients who suffer from eating disorders, from the anorexia at the bulimia up to binge eating or binge eating disorder: “In these cases the nutritionist supports the work of the psychologist. Unfortunately, the cases of DCA are more and more numerous, also due to the increasingly widespread ‘carbofobia‘: everything that is protein is seen as healthy, everything that is carbohydrate is demonized. And an unbalanced diet can lead to falling into eating disorders. Finding balance is essential. For this reason, the main role of the nutritionist, in fact, is not to lose weight, but to provide his patient with the tools of a healthy dietary education that lead him to eat better, to rediscover the benefits of seasonal foods, in particular fruit and vegetables, and to match them correctly. The slimming, thus, it will come naturally and will be lasting ”, concludes Sorrentino.
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