In a meeting held in Laguardia, Spain, and entitled “the methodology of food surveys, the typification of physical activity and healthy lifestyles” the experts have delved into what is the best way to develop nutritional and dietary recommendations valid . In it, 35 experts in the field have shown that physical activity and energy balance should be key in the development of new guidelines and dietary surveys in the coming years.
“Maintaining a varied and balanced diet, together with the practice of rewarding physical activity, will be the keys to the new dietary guidelines for 2015” explains Dr. Javier Aranceta, from the University of Navarra. And it is that current lifestyle, in all its aspects (diet, physical activity, way of socializing, etc.) must be very present in the studies of the future. At this level, Aranceta himself has commented that “physical activity and energy balance will become more important in the new diet guidelines and also in population studies.”
It is not surprising that, with the evolution of our habits, these factors are also taken into account. In the words of Dr. Gregorio Varela-Moreiras, president of the Spanish Nutrition Foundation (FEN) “despite having reduced the intake of calories in our diet, we are not capable of having a balanced energy balance , since due to our style of inactive life, our energy expenditure is much lower than desirable ”. Hence, not only diet is important, but exercise has become a key point in the prevention of many health problems.
As Lluis Serra-Majem, Professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the University of Las Palmas explains, “the Mediterranean lifestyle, considered in all its aspects –food, physical activity, socialization- as an optimal behavioral model for the lifestyle, is considered the best system in prevention, and probably also in the treatment of overweight and obesity and excessive sedentary lifestyle ”.
The event has been organized by the Spanish Society of Community Nutrition (SENC) in collaboration with the Foundation for Nutritional Research (FIN) and the Spanish Foundation for Nutrition (FEN) and has had the development of more than 30 presentations on this thematic over two full days.
