We are what we eat

The Royal Academy presents the new “Guide to healthy eating” promoted by the academicians Javier Aranceta and Lluís Serra Majem

The Royal European Academy of Doctors-Barcelona 1914 (RAED) held on June 20 in the Auditorium of Catalan labor National Work Promotion the presentation of the “Guía de la alimentación saludable para atención primaria y colectivos ciudadanos” (Guide to healthy eating for primary care and citizen groups). The session was attended by Lluís Serra Majem, full academician of the RAED and president of the Spanish Academy of Nutrition and Food Sciences; Javier Aranceta, full academician of the RAED, president of the Scientific Committee of the Spanish Society of Community Nutrition and president of the Royal Academy of Medicine of the Basque Country; José Ramón Calvo, full academician and president of the Institute of International Cooperation of the RAED, and Maria Àngels Calvo, full academician and vice-president of the RAED and at the same time full academician of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Catalonia, of the Royal Academy of Pharmacy of Catalonia, the Academy of Veterinary Sciences of Catalonia and the Royal Academy of Doctors of Spain. She introduced the speakers and served as moderator of the participatory debate with which the session concluded.

Each of the three speakers made a complete explanation of their area of ​​work. Aranceta, also, introduced the content of each of the 16 chapters that make up the work. Prepared by the Spanish Society of Community Nutrition in collaboration with the leading scientific societies in primary care, this new “Guide to healthy eating” aims to bring health professionals, as well as the general public, closer the qualities and benefits of a healthy diet and habits. The work, as highlighted by its authors, is made to support the care and nutritional education work carried out by different health professionals. Its technical contents are based on scientific evidence and have been developed and evaluated by nutrition and health professionals.

The contents of the guide and the alimentary recommendations made respect the current alimentary model of the Spanish population. The aim of these recommendations is to help them to better organize themselves. The guide in no case aims to prohibit, censor, put on a diet, position food in good and bad. “On the contrary, it aims to be a possible aid, an assumable guide, a sustainable resource”, point out its promoters. Within the methodological framework of community nutrition, the aim is to advise on improving nutrition in all its aspects: responsible choice, purchase, preparation, cooking, conservation, safety, interpretation of nutritional labeling or sustainability, among others.