"Let your food be your medicine". This formula attributed to Hippocrates, tutelary figure of medicine, has been used to all sauces, including those of the most absurd diets. But its success cannot be denied because it reaffirms a popular belief: you have to eat well to be in shape. And it is not the nutritional surveys repeated for several decades that will contradict this impression.
In 2017, during the third edition of the vast Inca study (national individual study of food consumption), the National Food Safety Agency (ANSES) concluded that "the role of food in increasing or the prevention of certain diseases such as cancer , obesity or cardiovascular diseases is now scientifically established ”.
Too much salt, sugar and fat; too many ultra-processed foods; not enough fiber, fruits and vegetables ... The diagnosis is made: in our countries, it is no longer undernourishment, but the imbalance of food that kills. It's not enough to eat, you have to eat everything. Last April, an international study published in the journal The Lancet estimated the number of deaths worldwide at 11 million attributable to a poor diet. That is to say one in five premature deaths… more than tobacco, which causes 8 million deaths each year.
Eating balanced is not necessarily a notion that is taken for granted. Is the food balance the same for Chinese and Italian? For the adolescent and the old man? For the athlete and the diabetic? The cardiologist advises to balance his diet with more fatty fish. The gastroenterologist recalls the interest of fibers, and the pediatrician that of dairy products. Finally, the geriatrician checks that the elderly person consumes enough protein ... However, there are no contradictions between these specialists because in the end , the personalized advice from each doctor to his patient is part of a nutritional plan. general which sets the conditions for a balanced diet in terms of public health.
And in fact, the national health nutrition program (PNNS) was able to make people smile in 2001 with its invitations to eat five fruits and vegetables, but it had a positive effect. “In 2016, the Esteban study showed that there had been, over ten years, a halt in the progression of obesity and overweight in adults and children alike, in France. Public health campaigns have participated in it, ”notes Dr Chantal Julia, doctor, teacher-researcher at AP-HP and at Paris-XIII University.