Today, we have more knowledge about nutrition and greater access to food than ever before. Yet, at the same time, we also face unprecedented gaps in our understanding of food and suffer the devastating consequences of poor dietary habits.
Our grandparents possessed a wealth of knowledge about food and cooking that surpassed what we have today, even though it wasn't based on scientific or academic research.
In today's world, we are bombarded with a constant stream of conflicting advice about nutrition and healthy living. With the rise of social media, these messages go viral, often without any scientific backing. This never-ending cycle of misinformation can make it difficult to separate fact from fiction and lead to confusion about what constitutes a healthy lifestyle.
Our grandparents used to prepare their daily menus with only a limited variety of ingredients, typically around a hundred or so. Today, we have access to a vast and overwhelming array of food options, with over 50,000 choices available.
In this context, it's important to be aware of the food industry's interests in improving its bottom line by increasing sales of their products.
However, many of these products have a clearly negative nutritional profile.
This creates an interesting paradox: the food industry will try to promote many of its products using health as a leverage point (one of the strongest drivers to guide purchases) to consumers who have neither the resources, nor often the desire, to educate themselves in nutrition to understand a scenario in which they are forced to make dozens of daily nutritional decisions for themselves or for their children.
Luckily for us, the solution is much simpler than it seems and mainly consists of "un-complicating" the problem.
Healthy eating goes beyond simple calories, nutrients and even ingredients. It depends mainly on the categories of foods you choose to consume.
That's why our app's algorithm considers three elements to assign you a grade:
- The food category based on the World Health Organization nutrient profile. Depending on the category and the nutritional profile, the WHO indicates whether the product is likely to be part of a healthy diet or not.
- The degree of processing according to the international NOVA classification. Ultra-processed food products are penalized based on scientific literature.
- The most advanced labeling systems that have been in operation for years in various countries and whose implementation has not been prevented by the major lobbies of the food industry. These labeling system focuses on warning of negative elements present in food.
WHAT GOCOCO CONSIDERS HEALTHY EATING TO BE
At GoCoCo, our primary goal is to empower you with knowledge and independence so that you can make informed decisions about your nutrition without relying on our app. It's worth noting that nutritionists in Europe and the USA typically don't rely on these types of applications.
1. The first step to know if you are making a good or bad choice is to ask yourself if your grandmother would recognize what you’re eating as food. In other words, choose "real" food, either of vegetable or animal origin, and discard ultra-processed food products.
2. Include more fresh vegetables in your daily routine (fruits, vegetables and greens). A good tip is to make 50% of your food consumption vegetables.
3. Cook what you eat. By unlearning to cook, we have also unlearned to make good choices. In addition, and based on the previous point, keep in mind that if real food is abundant in your case, you will have to cook it. Ultra-processed food products are heated or eaten directly; real food is cooked.
4. Some people think that healthy eating tastes bland, but that's because we have forgotten how healthy food tastes due to constant exposure to ultra-processed products. Luckily, with all the tasty recipes we offer, everyone can rediscover the pleasure of healthy food.
The dose makes the poison, try to eat healthy as much as possible, enjoy it, and when it's not healthy... Enjoy it too!
Quick tip! 80/20 is a good target to have in mind when trying to achieve a healthy balance.
In short, more real food, less ultra-processed products and .... enjoy!