When we already know how the new coronavirus is spread, how important it is to wash our hands properly with soap and water and that we must stay at home to avoid the spread of COVID-19 and the consequent saturation of hospitals and health centers, now, in the quarantine we wonder if we are doing well with our purchases at the supermarket.
To continue doing things well and eating as healthy as possible, we have asked Beatriz Robles, food technologist and dietitian-nutritionist for advice.
“In this situation there are two factors. For one thing, we are going to be in a more stressful situation . Anxiety, stress may appear, boredom may appear … which is normal in these cases of confinement ”. These factors can lead us to “emotional eating” , to eat trying to alleviate that anxiety and discomfort that we have. On the other hand, we are going to have reduced nutritional and energy requirements because our activity, that of most of the people, is going to be less. We must base our diet on foods of plant origin ”.
In view of the lower caloric expenditure that we are going to have in general, Robles recommends now more than ever not to have unhealthy foods at home , not to buy them. It may sound very obvious but there are those who these days in the supermarket carried a cart full of these types of products. “We don’t have to eliminate absolutely everything. If there is some food that we like very much, that we eat it for pleasure, for example dark chocolate with a high percentage of cocoa , we can have a tablet, but do not buy 40 tablets and have them at home because we are going to eat them in one sitting ”. A rational consumption of dark chocolate these days of confinement would be an ounce a day. “Now more than ever the concept of occasional consumption has to make sense.”
Juan Llorca , chef in charge of Valencia Montessori School, published on his Instagram account a video aimed at parents but applicable to the entire population that wants to maintain a healthy diet: “If you have unhealthy foods at home: cookies, cereals, pastries, chocolates, Sugary yogurts… they will make them want to eat them more (the children), they will eat more because they are at home longer ”. “ What we should have is a lot of fruit . When they are hungry, you always have to offer them fruit ”.
For the nutritionist Roberto Vidal , better known as The Nutritional Coach , “the products must meet two premises: that they are long-lasting and of high nutritional value”
Next, we give you a series of recommendations to carry a healthy diet in quarantine and beyond!
