“We must not consider nutritional balance from the strict angle of a balance between inputs and outputs, consumption and expenditure of nutrients, but as a global food project favorable to health, explains Dr Julia. A functional vision of food, limited to calculations of intake of a particular nutrient or vitamin, cannot be integrated in the long term into daily life, and it risks on the other hand promoting orthorexia , an obsession with food control which we know the perverse effects ... "
It is for this reason that the advice of the PNNS must be understood on the week rather than the day to day, even less meal by meal. And that they also insist on the importance of the exercise to fight against sedentary lifestyle.
Eating balanced is not filling up a balance sheet, but it is not demonizing certain foods and banishing them forever. Rather, it is about promoting good products and promoting variety. This is the objective of Nutri-Score , the nutritional labeling launched by Public Health France in 2016. Its logos, which indicate the nutritional value of a food product based on a classification from A to E on a colored banner from green to red, are intended to guide consumers' choice. Ultra-processed products labeled E are not prohibited, but brought to the attention of the customer, who can thus limit consumption.
"In addition, all the processed products of the same category, pizzas or industrial cookies, for example, do not all end up with the same E on a red background", notes Anne-Juliette Serry, head of the nutrition and activity unit. physical at Public Health France. "Cookies that are less fat, for example, or less rich in hidden salts have a C rather than an E". And the consumer is immediately located without having to consult the nutritional information always written in lowercase characters. “Indirectly, the Nutri-Score is also designed to encourage manufacturers to improve their recipes and take their products out of red,” confirms Anne-Juliette Serry.
Finally, eating a balanced diet now also means eating ethically, the environment and health being inextricably linked. The public health researchers who are developing the PNNS therefore assume that they now also want to influence the improvement of foodstuffs by recommending short circuits, seasonal products, even organic, and by limiting pesticides.