NUTRICIONISMO: Uma abordagem que ignora a complexidade dos alimentos

Abstract

Food composition labels and tables are the two main tools that can be accessed to estimate the nutritional content of a particular food or diet in clinical practice. For this reason, food composition tables have been created and updated by several countries over the years, becoming increasingly regionalized and with a greater number of nutrients analyzed by reliable methods. But even though the evolution of the tables and the struggle for the constant improvement of the information contained on the labels are real, some researchers believe that their data remains insufficient in view of the advancement of the analytical techniques available and the complexity of the composition of the food. In addition, many studies that consider nutrients in isolation have been applied in clinical practice and used by the food industry to launch numerous low-quality products. The main reflection, of a practical nature, of this context is that many nutritional behaviors - performed by professionals or not - have been adopted today, based on a very limited knowledge about the real composition of food and the effects that they cause. Numerous restrictions are made all the time based on reducing food to some of its most well-known nutrients, acclaimed or rejected by research that treats them in isolation. The Food Guide for the Brazilian Population warns more and more incisively about this type of conduct since its first edition, in 2006. In the latest version, in 2014, it also includes comments on recent research that prove the greater efficiency of dietary patterns on the health of the population and the lack of conclusive results regarding the use of isolated nutrients as a basis for clinical practice. To exemplify the facts exposed, here I use some results from my master's thesis, which show an important difference in relation to the elementary composition of rice flour and white wheat flour - ingredients that have received a lot of prominence in recent times due to the condemnation of gluten by a portion of the population and health professionals.