With a direct channel with followers on social networks, nutritionist Isabella Lacerda (@isabellacerda_nutri on Instagram) answers the most diverse types of questions about food, habits, fads and the like. She uses good humor and even sarcasm to talk to those who seek her out to ask questions and so, in a year, the professional went from 500 to 1 million followers, counting the Instagram and Tik Tok audiences.
Focusing on balance and in a sarcastic way, Isabella at the same time guides on how having a healthy diet can be possible – sometimes, without so much sacrifice.
In an interview with CNN the nutritionist talks about quality of life, supplements, physical activity and the creation of a habit in the search for a healthy lifestyle.
CNN: How did the idea of talking about eating with humor come about?
Isabella Lacerda: When we talk among nutritionists, we use technical terms that make a lot of sense to us. But for people who don’t understand it so well, it’s vague and difficult to assimilate. During college, I was very frustrated with fake news and influencers who spoke absurd things and I started to think about what would be the best way to pass on to people what I know with and without technical terms, but in a way that also captures their attention. .
That’s when the idea came up with humor, with this Nutri Sarcastic way of trying to teach people who have other easier, simpler ways that hurt less than these practices that we see out there.
CNN: Do you fight the idea that some foods are “villains”?
IL: Yes every day. I get countless messages asking about specific isolated foods. It is very frustrating to see this, because if you eat everything in adequate amounts for you and your hunger there is no reason for a granola to be inflammatory or for a butter to be unhealthy, for example.
Eating 100 grams of rice for lunch and dinner and bread in the morning will not make you fat. What has always fattened the world population was excess. It’s all about quality behind it, but there’s a logic behind it: you gain weight when you eat more than you expend, and you lose weight when you eat less than you expend.
CNN: What are the top mistakes people make when it comes to nutrition?
IL: In the matter of weight loss, it is to cut everything at once. A person to lose weight decides to cut out sweets, soda, snacks, etc. When restricting candy consumption for a week, for example, the first thing people will think about is the desire to eat candy.
What annoys me about these diets is that they don’t change habits, they only change the surface. Of course the person will have a relapse because they cut out everything that gave them pleasure. When we think about weight loss, cutting everything at once only works for 5% of people, for 95% it is a rebound or accordion effect, in addition to a bad relationship with food, given that you have the way of eating everything, but in the right amounts and times.
Regarding mass gain, anyone who starts working out at the gym thinks they need supplements, such as Whey, creatine, beta-alanine, arginine, without having any idea what they’re taking. For mass gain, it may be interesting to use supplements, but it varies from case to case. I have several patients in the office for mass gain and they don’t have any supplements for them because they don’t need it.
CNN: Can the indiscriminate use of supplements be harmful?
IL: The need for each person varies from case to case. For example: I have a patient who just started weight training. There’s no reason to indicate creatine, since she didn’t even get into the habit of working out. For this patient, when we calculated the food plan based on energy expenditure, we realized that it is possible to enter a caloric surplus without the need for supplements. She was already hitting her daily protein, carb, and fat goals. Another patient, in training for more than six months, with a very accelerated metabolism, needs supplementation. There is a need to include a hypercaloric and a creatine since his training is much heavier. We realized that in order to reach the caloric amount he needs, an extra one is needed.
About the risks of indiscriminate use, it depends on the type of supplement. Whey is 100% safe, for example. Creatine too, but there are people who take 20 grams a day, thinking that the more the better, and the daily dose is 3 to 5g a day. Excess creatine, coupled with a lack of water intake, can put a strain on the kidneys, which is a danger.
There is also the consumption of thermogenics and caffeine pills at the same time, both of which have caffeine, leading to anxiety attacks, shakiness and fainting mid-workout due to unnecessary over-supplementation. Anabolic steroids are the same danger, but if I make the alert harshly, it goes in one ear and out the other. When I talk about it with a little more grace, the person becomes fond of the speech and follows the lead more than if I were ‘fighting’.
CNN: In addition to the health risks, can taking supplements without guidance also be wasteful?
IL: Yup. A good example of this is BCAA. People say I hate BCAA (laughs). But we already get everything that is inside BCAA in other supplements or purely with food. Everything your body has in excess, it sends straight out, considering micro and macro nutrients.
We also have the consumption of high doses of multivitamins, which lead to excess vitamin E, A or B, which also has its harm. You have to be very careful with supplementation, anything you take without a professional’s supervision can be dangerous not only on the financial issue – there are people spending money for nothing on things that have no functionality, in addition to the health side.
CNN: How is it possible to talk to children and adolescents to awaken a better relationship with food?
IL: An education about food in schools would be very interesting. You could approach this topic with children and adolescents in the best possible way, explaining that all food groups have to be part of your life, if you don’t have any allergies or specific beliefs. It’s all part, in the right amounts.
Parents also play an important role in determining the diet of children and adolescents. The food introduction defines the diet of children for many years. I’ve lost count of how many patients show up at the office over 50 years old and with childlike taste – the first thing they say is that, during childhood, the mother or father never encouraged the consumption of vegetables.
In addition, it is important to think about the country’s socioeconomic situation and that not all families have the possibility of having this at the table.
CNN: The Ministry of Health warns of the increase in the consumption of ultra-processed foods, such as trying to replace foods that may be cheaper or more practical with healthier options?
IL: The effort of opening the fridge and the whole process of cooking and washing the dishes seems very tiring, especially at night. With the pandemic, we had a delivery boom, who no longer likes to cook always order food to deliver. If you take a morning, like a Saturday, you can plan and prepare meals that can be eaten during the week. When night comes, you are exhausted and want something quick, you already have that soup ready in the fridge or a ‘fit’ lunch box.
By defining a weekly dinner, lunch and breakfast plan, which can be done on a Saturday or Sunday morning, it is possible to change the habit of ordering delivery or eating ultra-processed foods for healthier options.
CNN: How important is it to create a food habit and how can diets interfere with it?
IL: Why I dislike diets so much: they were never meant to be maintained, but to end the relationship with food. Who will live on the egg diet for the rest of their lives? What person will live on the moon, soup, liquid or low carb diet for the rest of their lives? Thinking about people’s practical lives, it’s not real or sustainable.
When someone promises to lose 10 kilos in a month, there’s that feeling, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to solve my problem in a month, instead of the nutritionist saying I’m going to solve my problem in a year – I’m going to one month’.
But it’s such a difficult month. People suffer from diet. These are lost moments with friends, with family, because you can’t go out to eat, you have to take a lunch box, it’s not pleasant, it’s not tasty. But the ‘reward’ of being ten pounds lighter is enough to make people fall into traps. If you were given a year to gradually remove the excess of some foods, include others with that 80% to 20% lifestyle, you would see that it is much easier to maintain: you create the habit, you get the taste, you see the result and keep.
Source: CNN Brasil
