Translator: Sophie Deram Reviewer: Leonardo Silva
Today I will talk about your children.
As a start, I would like you to remember your childhood.
I would like you to close your eyes for a few seconds
and think of your favorite dish,
your favorite childhood cake.
Now, you may open your eyes.
That was quick!
(Laughter)
But hopefully it was a good memory,
a memory of happiness,
of eating something you love.
My question is:
"Will our children of today
have such memories when they turn adults?"
I'd like to...
I mean, I want you to forget
everything that you know about nutrition.
Please.
Because I will tell you about new facts
not yet included in the manuals of nutrition in college,
not even in medical school.
And these new facts
totally changed my way of looking at nutrition.
And so I found them significant,
for we are on the wrong path.
I left research to become an activist.
A little over 20 years ago,
I moved to New York.
I was newly married,
newly graduated in food engineering,
and I was amazed
because there was a war there!
There was a war against fat.
Everything was "low fat, no fat, no cholesterol!"
Even sparkling water
would have "No cholesterol!” on it's label.
(Laughter)
This amazed me, but I questioned myself:
"Am I, a French woman,
totally wrong for eating Camembert,
for eating Foie Gras?
And also: "Were my great grandparents,
almost centenarians,
also totally wrong?"
I did not adhere to this war against fat.
First because I like to eat
and this fat-free food tasted like cardboard.
The industry did not yet know how to handle this "no fat" stuff.
And also I did not want to give up
my butter and my bread in the morning,
which are delicious and sacred,
despite the supposed danger!
Because I did question myself!
"Wow! It is dangerous, but important to me!"
(Laughter)
I lived in the United States for ten years.
I had my four children there
and then I moved to Brazil.
I realized that most people were uncomfortable with food,
and that eating was not a simple, easy thing,
but raised questions, with lots of information.
I decided to go back to studying.
My question was: "How can you eat perfectly?"
I've studied nutrition in France.
I've studied in Brazil.
I've read many books and scientific articles.
I've studied metabolism with the best endocrinologists,
as I was doing my Ph.D here at the University of Sao Paulo,
specializing in childhood obesity and genetics.
But I saw these children had many difficulties losing weight
and they wouldn't succeed, even with the greatest will in the world.
So, I questioned myself about behavior.
I kept doing research
and I studied eating disorder, in psychiatry,
with the best psychiatrists, psychologists
and nutritionists in the country.
Now I'm studying neuroscience of eating.
Wait!
Are you following?
The paradox today
is that we've never spoken this much about nutrition,
we've never spoken this much about dieting
and we've never had so many weight issues,
and so much uneasiness with food.
So let's try
to question our knowledge
and be humble and redefine our concepts.
Nutrition became “nutritionism”,
which looks like terrorism.
There's no food that will, by itself, have you lose weight,
or that will make you fat or that will cure cancer.
There's no good food or bad food.
I came to the conclusion that there is no "perfect eating."
Eating well is eating a little bit of everything
without guilt, without restriction, with pleasure,
listening to your feelings and your hunger.
So, all this information, which I gathered after so many years,
I will explain how I got there.
Actually, 20 minutes are not enough to explain so many years!
But I decided to explain
the two main new facts that have touched me.
The first one is the science of nutrigenomics,
which is a new science
and is the science of how food is talking to your genes.
Our DNA is unique.
It is stable.
It is fixed,
but it will express itself differently,
depending on your lifestyle and on the environment that you live in.
So, our DNA is not our destiny.
There are studies showing that teenagers
while having a strong predisposition to obesity,
did not develop it,
when having a healthy lifestyle.
So, this put in doubt this genetic information,
that one is destined to obesity anyway,
because mom and dad and everybody else is obese.
And so, actually, nutrigenomics
showed the power of real food,
this power of food that talks to your genes.
And Hippocrates, more than 2,000 years ago,
said: "Let your medicine be your food,
Let you food be your medicine."
These new facts raise new questions such as:
"What does 'eating real food' mean?”
"Eating real food", simply put,
is eating like your grandmother ate,
or your great grandmother, depending on your age.
Today, we are always running, we eat alone,
we eat highly processed products.
And this change is very recent,
it is very significant.
So, "eating real food"...
All this information shows
that we've been thinking about food as calories.
But calories do not mean quality.
For example, I will give the example of a soda
and a plate of salad with grated carrot and tomato.
Both of them have around 150 calories.
Do you think they talk to your body the same way?
Of course not!
The salad, carrot and tomato, will bring
thousands of bioactive compounds that will talk to your genes.
The soda will bring sugar.
A bomb in your body!
So, this information means that, in my practice,
I discourage the use of calories.
I encourage increasing the quality of the food you eat
and listening to your feelings, emotions
and hunger, satiety, urging to eat.
And my patients lose weight.
The second great discovery I love
is that it is our brain that controls everything.
It is not our stomach. It is our brain.
The brain not only controls feelings,
it controls our hunger.
It controls when we stop eating.
It controls our weight.
It is the master of our body.
And throughout our evolution,
those who survived were those who had fat.
So, still today, our brain associates fat with protection,
protection against a tough environment.
It can be a stressful environment because of psychological problems,
but also surgery or drugs,
and also the stress of not eating properly,
whether in quality or quantity.
We need to nourish well our body and our brain
and natural fat is very important.
Our brain is mainly made ​​of fat.
So, the industry had to reduce fat.
But, in order to make fat-free food tasteful,
what can you do? You put sugar.
Then, they had to put a lot of sugar in it.
And we liked it. Why?
Because our brain loves sugar.
Sugar activates a reward receptor in our brain,
the same receptor that is activated by cocaine.
This is a very interesting and very recent fact.
So, when you eat a lot of sugar,
you actually gradually eat more,
because it gives you a smaller reward.
The more you eat it, the more you need it.
It is a dynamic of addiction.
But is sugar a drug? Question.
There is controversy.
There are some extremists -- sorry -- who say yes.
I do not. I think sugar is food.
But it is an addictive food.
So, we have to be careful about what we eat.
This information brought
much questioning in the science of nutrition.
But one of the biggest causes of stress to the brain... Guess what it is.
Doing restrictive dieting. Yes ma'am!
A restrictive diet is a diet where you take out food groups,
or you reduce quantity and go hungry.
This stress to the brain is a very significant stress,
which brings an adaptation that, actually,
is a change of the expression of genes in the brain.
The brain will adapt and will do anything to increase your appetite,
to make you become obsessed with food,
to have you look for more food.
That is why 95% of restrictive diets do not work.
They work in the short term because, of course, they cause a huge stress.
But then, our body does anything, anything to increase your hunger.
So, be careful with our young kids, who are still growing!
For them, the stress is even greater.
In Hospital das Clínicas, the Eating Disorder Department,
almost all patients developed the disease after a restrictive diet.
Another interesting factor.
The question is: does dieting make you put on weight?
A very interesting study, in 2001, showed that it does.
How did they do it?
Because we always hear things like: "You are genetically thin.
I am genetically fat."
They took homozygous twins. I mean monozygotic,
which means: with exactly the same genetics.
And they asked only one question:
"Have you being dieting and how many times?"
Then they compared the twins.
It is interesting that the twin who did more dieting was heavier.
And the more dieting, the heavier she or he was.
So, the author finally concluded:
"Dieting is probably a factor of the obesity epidemic."
So, do not diet!
That's why I'm here today!
(Laughter)
But I'm not done yet!
Now I want you to remember the first experience
you had today about your childhood,
and think about our children, your children.
Now think how difficult it is today for a child to be nourished,
because that child is hearing a lot of contradictory information.
Also, almost in every house
there's a person on a diet, a person who thinks that she or he is fat,
a person who is following some treatment.
So, all this information is very stressful.
It is very difficult to understand how it works.
I would like to tell the example of a boy,
who was overweight and came to my practice.
His parents were very concerned, of course!
They did not want their son gaining weight
and were doing everything perfectly.
They told me: "Sophie, he's been on a perfect diet.
He eats vegetables. He eats grilled chicken.
No fat, no cake."
I heard it as: "No pleasure."
Then this boy was going through a lot of stress,
due to his parents’ separation.
I talked to him and asked:
"What did you eat for lunch today?"
He looked at me and said:
"Protein and carbohydrate."
(Laughter)
A 10-year-old boy!
I do not know about you guys, but I was shocked and saddened.
This boy was not enjoying his food. He was analyzing it.
After that, of course, we talked about feelings.
I asked: "What do you like to eat?"
Then, he brightened up. "What is your favorite food?"
His parents were amazed,
because there was no restrictive diet in my prescription.
There was a cornmeal cake for his afternoon snack.
I was lucky that his parents followed my advice!
(Laughter)
But that boy had not eaten his favorite cake in a year!
When I worked with that boy in my practice,
I just talked about feelings, and what helped most was when I said:
"When you are sad, you do not need to eat. You can cry instead."
This boy has lost weight.
So, we have to be careful about what we're doing with our children!
Because of our fearing the obesity epidemic,
sometimes we do the opposite,
but that is not necessarily a good attitude.
And also beware of this “nutritionism”,
gluten-free, lactose-free, glucose-free,
no carbohydrates, no, no ...
It is stressful even for an adult!
Imagine for a child who does not have references!
Because these children have never had a relaxed moment with food.
So, it is also important to know
that I come across children who are afraid of being hungry,
afraid of gaining weight, afraid of being hungry.
And to me, being hungry is natural. It is healthy.
I remember when my children were growing up
and they would tell me: "Mom I'm hungry!"
I would always say: "Good, you're healthy!"
Problem Solved! And then you take care of your child.
So, how do you take care of your child?
You develop routines.
You give your child quality food,
but without terrorism and respecting when she or he is hungry.
Because a child is born with a balanced feeling of hunger,
with a regulated hunger,
and you have to let your child be the owner of that hunger.
Without terrorism.
I think that food should be celebrated,
not presented as a potential hazard.
Now, I will get into the pleasure of eating,
as I am always being asked this question:
"But what do French people do to be skinny?"
"What is the secret of French children who eat everything?"
In fact, if I needed to summarize it in one word,
I would say "pleasure".
The French gastronomic meal
is now in UNESCO World Intangible Heritage List,
since in 2010.
But it was not because of the fancy recipes.
No. It was the French custom of sitting at the table,
of sharing food,
of enjoying food, of celebrating food,
and respecting everybody’s feelings of hunger and satiety,
without terrorism, without removing fat,
without fear of sugar.
So, let's think about it today
and let's try to protect our children
from a very difficult life of fighting against the scale,
always being at war with food.
And let's teach them to celebrate life,
celebrate food,
and have confidence in their bodies,
so that they're able to do other things than analyzing protein and carbohydrate.
So, let's celebrate food
and "Bon appétit!"
(Applause)