When a person says, without knowing it, that a certain food is bad or that an eating habit is wrong, they are committing nutritional terrorism. The term is trending right now, especially on social media.
Today, August 31st, Nutritionist's Day, we spoke to professionals in the field - the best suited to define whether food is suitable or not for the patient - to understand how nutritional terrorism occurs, its consequences and how fight it.
Who graduated from Nutrition course works to promote, maintain and restore health through nutrition. He is the only professional qualified to prescribe diets and nutritional guidelines based on the individuality of each patient.
Pamella Diniz, specialist in clinical and sports nutrition and master in health care and assessment, explains that people should See a nutritionist whenever you have a pathology or need to improve your diet for some purpose definitive.
The nutritionist, according to the professional, should be sought out in situations such as the search for weight loss, desire to undergo dietary re-education, discovery of allergies or intolerances food, etc.
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What is nutritional terrorism?
Nutritional terrorism is a term used to describe the categorization of foods solely by their nutritional function and caloric quantity, as detailed in this article a master in Biological Sciences from the University of São Paulo, Heloisa Fernandes Flores.
Bruna and Carol Alcarde, the “NutriGêmeas Alcarde”, behavioral and sports nutritionists, explain that nutritional terrorism is a term used in the context of behavioral nutrition to describe a pattern of negative and alarmist communication in relation to food and food.
"Nutritional terrorism may include misleading, exaggerated or distorted information about the effects of foods on health, often with the aim of causing fear, anxiety or guilt in people regarding their food choices"
NutriGêmeas Alcarde
Nutritionist specialist in phytotherapy Juliana Salles comments that nutritional terrorism also includes reducing a food to its composition and function, cutting abruptly or inserting something several times into the diet and also following crazy methods or the famous “diets fashion.”
The professional remembers that, although the term nutritional terrorism was created in the 2000s, it has existed for longer. She highlights that, nowadays, those largely responsible for this dissemination of information are social networks, but in the past, nutritional terrorism was widely seen in magazines.
"It is worth reinforcing that nutritional terrorism is something that varies according to the standards and opinions of a society, to sometimes interpreting a study in a radical way or there are also many who make speeches without much scientific basis (fake news)", he highlights.
Fernanda Camargo Ramos, from the area of functional nutrition and phytotherapy, warns that nutritional terrorism occurs more specifically when myths and lies are disseminated on social media outlets as absolute truth, causing unwanted behavioral changes in these individuals.
"The person who receives the (wrong) information about nutritional terrorism and trusts this individual has just restrictive way, removing this food, without any context and may have some problems throughout this journey"
Fernanda Camargo Ramos
Nutritional terrorism can lead uninformed people to develop eating disorders, such as bulimia, anorexia nervosa and binge eating.
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Examples of nutritional terrorism
Professional Fernanda exemplifies a situation in which nutritional terrorism occurs:
"A person cannot eat gluten, due to some non-celiac gluten sensitivity, but this is her individuality and not that of most people. However, this same individual is an opinion leader, or acts in some capacity that allows him to have an audience, and he begins declaring that gluten inflames, makes you fat, that with gluten in the diet it is not possible to be healthy and lose weight and so on", says professional.
When scanning the internet, especially social media, you will find several other examples of phrases that signal nutritional terrorism, which most of the time are unfounded, such as as:
You cannot eat carbohydrates, as they make you fat;
Gluten and lactose must be removed to lose weight;
You shouldn't eat too much at night;
Only dark chocolate should be eaten;
Sugar is poison;
Bread makes you fat;
Eating cake causes illness.
How to combat nutritional terrorism?
Clinical and sports nutrition specialist Pamella Diniz emphasizes that, to combat nutritional terrorism, people should always acquire information from serious and ethical professionals.
Bruna and Carol Alcarde, the “NutriGêmeas Alcarde”, behavioral and sports nutritionists, reveal that being informed is very important to treat nutritional terrorism.
"The way to combat 'nutritional terrorism' is by educating people with nutritional information in a lighthearted way, always providing true, evidence-based nutritional information. It's crucial to remember that no one should feel bad about eating. We all deserve a healthy relationship with food."
NutriGêmeas Alcarde
Fernanda Ramos agrees, detailing that she is dedicated to unraveling food myths, using updated literature to debunk supposed correlations that lack foundations. Furthermore, she shares practical examples that actually confirm the myth of these claims.
"I believe that informed education is the key to resisting misleading information, such as nutritional terrorism, and adopting more conscious, evidence-based food choices," she highlights.
Finally, phytotherapy specialist Juliana Salles highlights that it is very important for people to look for professionals specialized in the subject, in this case, nutritionists.
"Today, there are many coaches and people from other professions who want to play a role that does not belong to them. Looking for a nutritionist, whether to receive assistance or to consult your doubts by checking their professional profiles on social networks, is essential"
Juliana Salles
Tips for dealing with nutritional terrorism
The nutritionists listed tips so that people don't fall into the traps of nutritional terrorism. Check out:
Seek correct and truthful information from nutritionists, who are truly qualified to do so;
Be sure to follow professionals who are based on science, choose your influences carefully, do not believe in partial and sensationalist news regarding a food;
What determines whether or not you can eat something are your complaints, presence of diseases/disorders/intolerances or goals;
Understand that many of these rules and tips that appear on the internet are radical and even false information. The difference between medicine and poison is the dose!
Always consider your individuality; Observe yourself, notice what is good for you and what is not good for you;
Always be self-critical;
Remember that no food in itself is a good or bad guy, it depends on the current context in which that person is inserted, including body and mind;
Love yourself, above all, just as you are, always seek the best from your version and not from any guy on the internet.
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By Silvia Tancredi
Journalist
