"I would not be surprised that the current food had to do with autoimmune allergies and diseases."

Silvia Rodríguez.He is 32 years old.Reside in Barcelona.Feeling Asturian, there he was born in Alicante much of his life, where he formed in nutrition.To Catalonia jumped to open its range of possibilities.

On the way he has made nursing and has specialized in diabetes.Such knowledge has led him to be currently Clinical Training Manager Europe in Senseonics.

Form professionals in the first implantable system to measure blood glucose.His philosophy of life focuses on "subjecting the mind to the heart, because without consonance there is no fullness."

From the phrase that inspires him is one of the 4 agreements, by Miguel Ruiz: "Honor your words; do not take anything personal; do not make assumptions and always do the maximum you can."

I thought you were born in Alicante but you did it in Asturias.

Yes. From Alicante he fell in love with his light and his coastline, it is a place that provides quality of life and people are open, which makes the arrival warm.Even so, there must be a very strong link with the roots because, although I left more than 20 years ago, I still flutter my stomach every time the floor ... the force of nature there is so brutal that it makes you takeDistance from insignificant problems.

For your training and experience in nutrition, do you think that feeding with organic products is mandatory to have good health or is it not so much?

Health is a concept too complex to depend only on a single factor.I do not think it is mandatory, but I consider that, if the priority guidelines for a healthy diet are covered, the ecological eating provides added value.In the short term, because it has been seen that they can contain more nutrients than non -ecological;And half-long because we save the intake of pesticides that has been seen can act as endocrine disruptors and relate to certain pathologies.That without taking into account the environmental impact that, although we do not feel so close, also builds our health.

Do you think you can delay aging?

We all come with a genetic code that predisposes us to circumstances, but how we live influences the greater or lesser expression of certain genes.Food is, of course, one of those influential factors.The association between Mediterranean diet has been suggested, rich in antioxidants, with the greatest longevity (not only for its cardioprotective effect).Anyway, do you weigh more diet than other components of lifestyle such as social and emotional life?We would have to ask Okinawa's old men if the secret of their life expectancy resides only in their diet ... I would say no.

I comment because there is a tough opposition against those considered "super -food" such as chia, spirulina, quinoa and Goji berries.Should we go to more food variety and stop fashion?

The problem of fashions is precisely that: that they are passengers.The food attitude must be more focused on lasting habits over time.There are no isolated "superfoods" but healthy dietary patterns.In Nutrition (and not only) my maxim is the "mediocritas aurea" of Aristotle: neither excess nor deficit.Do you remember when the blue fish, like sardines, was the son of the demon because he was rich in fat?Well, now we know that the type of fat is essential in the trial, and that the blue fish is a wonderful source of the beneficial Omega 3. But eye, that if we only eat blue fish (especially the big ones), we would exceed the permissible daily intake ofMercury, and maybe tomorrow we would discover something we don't know today.Therefore, a varied and balanced diet is the bestbet.
Another problem, beyond efficacy, is security.Many times, these "superfoods" come from countries where health control is more lax, and in some toxicity analysis it has been seen that they can be contaminated or adulterated.Going a little further and under the perspective of responsible consumption, sometimes these fashions pose problems in the place from which these foods come: you would have to take an eye on the doctoral thesis of my beloved architect Simona Cerri about soy monocultures inArgentina...

Aha.I sign it.Even if we ignore exotic foods and let's pull the traditional, do we trust the offer offered by supermarkets?

No resounding.Recently I read a great book: the omnivorous dilemma by Michael Pollan.The dilemma lies in the fact that the supposed virtue of being omnivorous has become a disadvantage in environments where, given the food supply, uninformed consumers are in danger of getting sick by eating.Like that raw.That is why the need to read, understand and know how to choose based on nutritional labels, especially as long as we do not have more protective policies of our health.On the other hand, the pressure of mass consumer demand is what can best force the food industry and supermarkets to do things better.We can demand that they do not sell us as integral a food based on flour refined to the one who has added saved.We can choose to buy Spanish legumes instead of North Americans, which in addition to having more conservative production legislation, need much less fuel to get here.We can choose to buy in bulk instead of 4 pears wrapped in plastic and inside another plastic tray.But of course, all this requires prior awareness.

The defenders of environmentalism oppose transgenic organisms, when there is no evidence that their cultivation and consumption generate health or environmental problems, according to the biochemist of Dènia JM Mulet.

I prefer to stay cautious about it.The fact that these problems have not been detected in the present does not exclude that in the future we do discover them.Personally, on the one hand it scares me and I do not consider it necessary.But, on the other hand, I think that the technique of splicing a cutting of one plant to another, so common in traditional agriculture, is still a genetic game, and nobody shouts in the sky.

110 Nobel Awards sent a letter to Greenpeace in which they demanded, for humanitarian reasons, that they stopped opposing the golden rice (a variety produced with genetic engineering, which is rich in vitamin A).

This makes me think of Maslow's pyramid about human needs.If you do not have the most basic covers, such as feeding, you cannot think or far in self -realization.For me the dilemma would be resolved in a matter of hierarchy of priorities, if it were not because I find it hard to believe that it is the best solution.We should ask ourselves if other more cautious and sustainable interventions have really been tested as a search for native foods that can provide the recommended quantities of vitamin A and food education to the population.If so, Avanti!But, frankly, being monsanto behind (the corporation that most attentive against food sovereignty) I have my reserves.

Returning to what is asked previously, do you consider ecologism as a movement with strong beliefs that lacks scientific evidence?

Not at all.True environmentalism has a holistic vision of food and health that already has some scientific evidence in some of its positions, and I am convinced that there will be more and more.The ecology of which I speak is in the line of following a healthy diet, respectful of theEnvironment and even with the people involved in that process.Why are there more and more allergies and autoimmune diseases?I would not be surprised at all that the current food had something to do: the food model has changed much more in much less time than our genes as a species.By the way, another indispensable book is the obese monkey of José Enrique Campillo Álvarez.

Diseases related to type 2 diabetes are linked to the abuse of ingesting animal protein and high carbohydrate consumption.

The risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes can be non -modifiable (they would be the ballots that have touched each one for the raffle: genetics, age, sex, ethnicity, gestational diabetes) or modifiable (which we can prevent or treat): thesedentary lifestyle, excessive consumption of added sugars, abuse of saturated fats, overweight and obesity, hypertension, etc.There is scientific evidence that even the intestinal microbioma (the microorganisms that inhabit our intestine and their genes) is related to diabetes and many more things ... It is an exciting world, by the way!

Therefore, is diabetes multifactorial?

Yes it is.There are several types of diabetes, but the most common are type 1 and type 2. Type 2, as we have said before, has various risk factors, many modifiable.As for type 1, however, there are many more unknowns, but often it is usually of autoimmune origin and in fact it is not unusual that it is associated with others of the same type, such as celiacism.

According to Harvard and American Heart Association studies, stop having coffee and not consuming gluten increases the possibilities of having type 2 diabetes.

Yes. It was a joy!Coffee contains antioxidants and bioactive components that reduce insulin resistance and systemic inflammation, and also applies to decaffeados.Eye, in the study they evaluated the consumption of less than 5 cups a day.Regarding gluten, the problem does not seem to be so much to leave gluten itself as what we eat when we leave gluten.Many of the "gluten -free" foods that have been prosecuted to eliminate it from their natural matrix, is that they usually have a less healthy composition to make it acceptable to the senses (less fiber and micronutrients, more saturated fats, more sugar, etc..).

And fasting to eat fruit and vegetables once a week to clean the digestive system How do you see it?

We return to the controversy of the fashions ... The wise men already said: it is not cleaner is more clean but the one that least dirty.Ideally, I insist, is to have healthy long -term habits.That said, fasting is a practical practice to many cultures since yesteryear.It seems that some types of fasting (it can be total or partial and continuous or intermittent) have shown certain metabolic benefits and weight reduction.Anyway, more studies are missing.Something that is recommended and more conciliatory with real life is dinner soon and thus leave a few hours of digestive rest before breakfast.

Nutritionist consultations double after holiday periods due to aesthetic issues.Now, there are patients suffering from pathologies and need to receive dietary treatments to deal with their illness as the case of diabetes.

Certainly there are generalized motivation peaks in relation to the moment, and it shows in the consultations, even when the reason for consultation is for health and no longer because of aesthetics.September and January are months of initiation, of the beginning, of changes, of good purposes.May and June are, however, pure months of the famous and tired "Operation Bikini".

What is therapeutic accompaniment?

It is the help relationship between the professional and the patient.Of the term seIt says that the path is typical of the person, and this is interesting because he flees from the classic paternalism of clinicians.The person chooses how and where, he is responsible for his health, and we must help him in that process as a guide.Each of those agents (medicine, education and psychology) must participate from the optics of therapeutic accompaniment.

Okay.In the case of psychology, what kind of therapies are carried out?

I suppose that it depends on the professional and the patient, but for what I learned from the great Iñaki Lorente (psychologist specializing in diabetes in Navarra) and Gemma Peralta (she in Catalonia), and of some of the people with diabetes that I have met, this isA fundamental pillar in the treatment of pathology.Yes, I could recommend a technique that, without being a psychologist, has always been very useful in consultation: the motivational interview.

And empower patients?I think you educate how insulin, feed, do sports ...

That's how it is.Think that people with diabetes who need insulin spend the day making decisions: every time you eat, what do you do sports, if you get too excited or stress, whether you drink or not, if you travel, even if you have sex ... whenYou integrate and almost automate those decisions, thanks to learning, education and technology, it is when you feel free (or at least freer).The educator's work (and what the wonderful associations of diabetics and patient groups do) is precisely to help the patient to be able to manage that day to day with diabetes.

Now the trend is to wear sensors that indicate the glucose indices, instead of clicking to get blood.

The advantage of the sensors, in addition to saving punctures, is that it provides a lot of information that serves to better adjust the treatment and know your own diabetes.The near future, thanks to this possibility of collecting continuous glucose measurements, is the artificial pancreas: an automated system formed by a sensor and a microinfusora or insulin pump that will administer the necessary insulin based on the blood glucose data that you receiveof the sensor.In fact, there are already groups of expert patients who use these systems in "do it yourself" mode by hacking sensors and insulin pumps, under the philosophy of We Are Not Waiting.It is amazing, the truth.

Has there been a change from public health, especially in patient quality care?

The truth is that, that for my work I visit hospitals throughout Spain, I feel that the care load has increased (I suppose in part from the famous cuts) and I perceive that the problem is not so much the quality of care (in general, we countwith great and involved professionals), as of lack of time and resources.

What aspects of diabetes management, towards the patient, could be improved?

Sometimes professionals continue to sin of paternalists or unleashed, imposing our way of doing or seeing things ... that does not work well because it does not promote change from within the person.Another improvable aspect would be to motivate the patient who has left in self -care or who does not know where to start, and not let him get lost on the way.

*Collaboration of Julia Nuño, Alicante Professor of Humanities in public centers in Barcelona.