energy and harmony, naturally

Dietetics refers to rules to be followed for a balanced diet: composition of meals, quantities and caloric values. On the other hand, nutrition covers all the metabolisms involved in the assimilation of food and allowing our body to maintain a good health. Dietetics prescribes, whereas nutrition analyses, interprets and explains. They complement each other.

Dietetics often tends to rely on standard diets designed to achieve a very specific result. However they rarely take into account the very particular features of a patient’s state. For instance, slimming diets can easily be found and bought by anyone who wants to loose weight, without any concern about what precisely caused them to be overweight.

Consequently, it is advisable to look for advice with a nutritionist as well as medical advice.

One of the main drawbacks of modern dietetic and nutritional approaches is to classify people in general statistical categories (obese, anorexic, bulimic, etc.) and to attribute one common effect to each product. For example : sugar makes you fat, yogurts are good for digestion, you must eat oranges for C-vitamins, etc. Nothing could be more deceptive : the same product may have very different effects on different people. Some people may gain weight if they eat sugar, but others will be constipated, others will become diabetic, others will be excited and then tired, others wil get a headache, etc.

It is essential to look at each individual as a unique being, and to adapt dietetic advice to nutritional analysis results. New diets will then be specifically suited to the person’s eating habits and needs and to her /his life habits in general.

When individual characteristics, preferences, tastes, desires and objectives are taken into account, it is quite possible to progressively change eating behaviours on a permanent basis.

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