There are many factors that influence the relationship we develop with food throughout our lives. Already in the womb we begin to come into contact with the food that our mother eats and that comes to us through the amniotic fluid. Once the boy or girl is born, the family, social and cultural environment will be responsible for determining what the boy or girl will eat and how he or she will interact with the food. This is what Mapi Herrero Jiménez (Zaragoza, 41 years old), a nutritionist specializing in infant nutrition and IBCLC – certified lactation consultant or specialist in the clinical management of breastfeeding, tells us. In “I Invite You to Eat” (EEE Literaria), published in October 2022, Herrero covers infant nutrition from the fetus through the first years of life with detailed information.
Herrero does not forget that the cultural level of the family and its purchasing power are the two most limiting factors when it comes to whether a child eats healthily or not: “So to cushion what we cannot control, we are left with this Might.” . of information”.
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QUESTIONS. Do families eat worse than they think?
ANSWER. When we ask, most people think they eat well. I always ask her what “good food” means to her and the answer is usually about variety. If we go deeper, the flaws become visible. For example, if we focus on the nutrition part, we continue to consume more animal protein than we should and fewer vegetables than we need. It also happens that we tend to eat in a hurry, to be attached to something (television, cell phone, newspapers…) and to be separated from food. In addition, it is often the case that people do not have a good relationship with food. We feel good when we eat what we’ve been told is good, and we feel bad when we eat what we’ve been told is bad. This duality in eating leads many people to feel guilty, anxious, or fearful of certain foods, especially those with non-normative bodies.
Q What depends on whether a healthy diet can be established or not?
R. There are many factors that influence how and what we eat, including zip code. The cultural level of the family and purchasing power are the two most limiting factors when it comes to whether a child eats healthily or not. On the one hand, because marketing aimed at children is so vile that without a critical basis it is very difficult not to fall into the networks of advertising which, as you know, does not think about nutrients but about economic benefits. On the other hand, because the current price of the shopping basket is an important condition for many families, which makes access to healthier food very difficult.
Q In the book he explains that healthy eating is learned in the womb. Why so early?
R. Especially because the amniotic fluid takes on the taste of what the mother eats, which is why we sit at the table with our baby since pregnancy. This is how you get to know the flavors of our culture, our family. Think of the uterus as a “training ground”: the baby receives information about its mother’s body so that it can prepare and adapt for survival at birth. This is the so-called fetal programming.
Q In addition to her work as a nutritionist, she is a certified lactation consultant. Should mothers prepare for breastfeeding before the baby is born?
R. The woman’s body is perfectly prepared for breastfeeding and coordinated with that of the baby. I think they’ve been talking for 40 weeks! But breastfeeding is not only a physiological problem but also a cultural one, and in this sense the wisdom of breastfeeding has been lost. When the baby is born, health support for learning to breastfeed can sometimes be improved or is still based on outdated recommendations. So if the mother was not informed beforehand, she may have problems from the first minute. We know that this is closely related to discontinuation of breastfeeding and a negative experience.
Q Organizations, professionals and mothers insist that breastfeeding goes far beyond nutrition. You insist on that too. What does breastfeeding do for the baby or child other than food intake?
R. Breast milk is the only food adapted to the needs of each baby. Every mother produces the amount and type of milk her baby needs at all times. In fact, the actual composition of breast milk is still a mystery, as it changes from woman to woman, breast to breast, and even during the same feeding. But in addition to this nutritional part, the breast has an emotional function: it is home, bonding, peace and security. The baby has been in the mother’s body for nine months and the breast is the place closest to where it lived until birth.
Q What is the connection between emotional health and nutrition throughout life?
R. Our emotions influence the type, quality and quantity of food we eat. From a young age, we are told that there are emotions that are “good” and others that are not so good. Therefore, we grow up thinking that being sad, stressed, angry, or frustrated is not good and that they are emotions that need to be “good.” turned off”. We have found that there are foods high in sugar and/or fat that can temporarily “turn off” these emotions, which is why many people use them as a means of emotional coping. Even in childhood, we use this resource in children, when they show behaviors that are unpleasant to us. For example, when we give a child a candy to comfort him, we are showing him that these foods calm him down, and this will be repeated in his adult life.
Q You can establish a healthy diet at home, be aware of it, but then you have to look at reality… How do you find balance here?
R. For families with a high awareness of healthy eating, this is a big problem, but we cannot isolate children in a bubble and it is positive to put them into perspective and think that the habits at home will prevail in the future if they are healthy are. A healthy diet not only means eating nutritious things, but also having a good relationship with food. Here we must try to avoid the duality of good and bad foods. Nothing creates more desire than a ban. That’s why I advise families to work on daily habits at home.
Q Girls and boys who are pickier about food sometimes seem to run out of ideas. How to organize family dinners when the choice of accepted foods is very limited?
R. It is important to assess whether the food the child eats is sufficient to obtain all the nutrients it needs. It would be interesting if we knew the reason for the rejection as it is usually a property of the food. Once the rejection makes sense, many changes can be made to the food so that it is easier for the child to explore this range while being able to expand the preparations at home.
Q Speaking of which, it often happens that as long as they eat “something,” they end up being fed unhealthy foods. What do you think?
R. We eat to nourish ourselves, not just to satisfy hunger. This means we want to get the parts from food that our bodies need to repair themselves, stay alive and, in the case of children, grow and develop. If we give the child products that do not provide nutrients (which we call unhealthy), we may take away his hunger, but we are not doing him any favors and are making the situation worse.
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