The Day of healthy diet and excess food refusal is celebrated in Russia starting from June 2 of 2011. It reminds us that we should have a conscious approach to eating in order to be healthy and beautiful. But in the modern pace of life with office hours, overloaded schedule and constant stress, food often becomes not just a source of energy but a cult. Senior expert of SUSU’s Research and Development Center of Sport Science, Professor Tatiana Vladimirovna Popova told us how to find a right approach to food.
— What is healthy nutrition?
— Our organism is an open system which needs consuming necessary substances. We should daily restore such elements as fats, proteins, carbons, vitamins, and minerals which provide us with energy for all processes. Balanced nutrition lies in the fact that we should intake as many substances as we consume, without overeating.
— What is the result of overeating?
— One of the principles of sustainable existence is the fact that organism can store the products of digested food, fat included. It was vital at the early stages of humankind development, but there is no such necessity in the modern world. When a baby overeats, he can refuse food by regurgitating. But adults lose their protective instincts. This causes fat deposition and weight increase; there is additional load to joints, the heart, and vessels. Mental health gets affected as well, because everybody wants to be healthy and look good.
— How and how much one should eat?
— Three-time meals had become traditional in ancient time among different nations. This is connected with the fact that organism consumes a certain amount of energy every 4-5 hours, which is physiologically correct. You need to eat as much as the organism needs at a time, i.e. approximately the amount that can be placed on a small plate. People can feel hungry between these meals as well, especially those who was overfed as a child. In this case, a healthy snack consisting of a piece of dark chocolate or a spoonful of nuts is allowable.
— Does this amount change depending on age?
— These regulations are provided by age-related dietology. Growing organism has a positive balance; it consumes more energy because it is needed for growth and development. The situation gets reversed at the old age, when digestion of nutrition products is slowing down; it is for this reason that many long-livers become skinnier. One should also consider physical activity and general state of health when formulating a diet.
— What influence do diets have on the state of human body?
— All fashionable diets as a rule are useless; they propose refusing some products or a rapid reduction of their consumption, which leads to unfavorable changes in human body and to stress. Specialists in the sphere of nutrition understand that this doesn’t lead to a positive effect. This affects a person from the position of psychophysilology. Effect from a diet lasts 1-2 months, then the weight comes back again. Any stress is a stick with two ends: sometimes it leads to a good result, but sometimes it causes diseases which might lead to death. People often see food as a reward, a way to relax or communicate, but food should be considered as the source of substances and energy necessary for our existence.
— How can psychophysiological self-regulation help with the issues of staying slim?
— Psychophysiological self-regulation allows influencing one’s own physical state and health with the use of brain. I teach methods and exercises that help maintaining emotional balance and keep mental resources intact. Unfortunately, neither schools nor institutes are teaching how to do that. Why have the cases of aggressive behavior in educational institutions become more frequent? Because there is no balance between the processes of excitement and relaxation; they must interchange, but stress among students often accumulates, many people start to comfort eat. In such cases, it is recommendable to use psychoregulation. One can both lose weight and restore nutrition balance using the brain.
— What research in the sphere of nutrition and psychoregulation are you working on now?
— Our Research and Development Center of Sport Science does not just carry out research on problems of sports; we also perform development of technology for health improvement. At the present time we are carrying out a joint research with Le Panse Academy French Academy of Sport. Its Director, Doctor of Physiology Benedict Le Pans is a weightlifting athlete, champion of France with a record of lifting 425 kg; she herself happened to cut weight extremely fast. This year we signed a memorandum on scientific cooperation which inclines creation of nutrition system using the means for psychoregulation. She studied operation of internal secretion glands and determined the daily rhythm of their activity. The system of nutrition, elaborated by our colleague, lies in three-time meals with two snacks, taking into consideration daily activity of certain hormones. At that, Benedict recommends eating certain products at a certain time in a certain amount. Nevertheless, it doesn’t include elimination of any products. This is how our work is going to be done: Benedict will study the influence of her nutrition regime on people, and I, in turn, will be researching the use of psychophysiological self-regulation in the course of using this system.
— How will research on the joint project be carried out?
— Now we and researchers of the Center are studying experimental groups of people who want to lose weight by the method proposed by Benedict Le Pans or, according to her words, “restore nutrition balance”. We carry out examination of psychophysiological state of organism and provide individual recommendations based on Benedict’s works on nutrition with prescribed ration. Twice a week I hold classes on psychoregulation and provide consulting of participants. In four week, we are going to carry out repeated psychophysiological examination of participants and publish the results. We offer visiting Le Panse Academy of Sport for studying psychoregulation, and invite Benedict Le Pans to SUSU for delivering lectures on healthy nutrition. In September we are going to recruit the main group for those who wish to reduce weight and restore the nutrition balance. All examinations and classes for participants are free of charge. We invite all who wants to develop the individual correct regime of nutrition, and maintain the optimal body weight during the entire life. Correct nutrition is the main rule of healthy lifestyle.