Without a shadow of a doubt, thenutrition is a powerful prevention weapon. An indispensable tool to deal in the best way not only with daily commitments, but with life in general. The eating habits are among the major determinants of health and in most countries in the world part of the population suffers from one or more problems related to malnutrition. In Italy the spread of unhealthy eating habits has caused an increase in the rates of overweight for almost 60 percent of the population, a third of whom suffer from obesity. These problems are associated illnesses such as cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes and some forms of cancer. What makes our choices at the table less virtuous are partly some major social and economic changes, such as trends towards globalisation and to theurbanizationbut also the loss of culture And food tradition. What makes the situation worse is sedentary lifestyle, which progressively increases with age and ends up affecting more than one in three adults. (Source AIRC Foundation)
Another factor to take into consideration regarding risk factors is the type: men and women are not equal in illness, neither for physiological reasons nor for the role they play within society. Professor Hellas Cena, a doctor specialized in Food Sciences, head of the Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition Laboratory of the University of Pavia and Maugeri and member of the SoLongevity scientific committee, will delve deeper into the topic. A woman’s life is marked by specific events that affect her needs to preserve her health, such as menarchewhich marks the entry into the reproductive age, pregnancy, breastfeeding and menopausewhich marks the beginning of the post-reproductive age and projects women into a new hormonal, social and psychological condition.
In order to best face every single period in life it is necessary to aim first of all at prevention, the best tool available to aspire to a long healthy lifereducing modifiable risk factors as much as possible and delaying the development of non-communicable diseases, such as chronic-degenerative ones, which particularly affect women in the peri- and post-menopausal age, when they are no longer protected by the so-called hormonal umbrella represented by estrogens, whose levels decrease rapidly with menopause. “It is never too late for prevention. But the sooner we start, the better. A long and healthy life is built by taking care of yourself as soon as possible, if possible before the damage of age and the inevitable risk factors to which each of us can be exposed begins to occur. Ideally, therefore, women should start taking care of themselves in childhoodand particular attention should be paid during the periconceptional period – the time between the moment they plan a pregnancy and the eventual pregnancy – thinking not only of their own well-being, but also of that of the fetus and the adult it will become , breaking that transgenerational transmission at the basis of the increase we are observing in chronic-degenerative diseases”, explains Dr. Hellas Cena.
Differentiated nutrition with a view to prevention
Since childhood, males and females have different phenotypic characteristics and risk factors: the femalesfor issues related to reproduction, have a greater fat mass than males and different nutritional needs. Furthermore, at an advanced age, in peri- and post-menopause, they risk osteoporosis due to hormonal changes. Early and targeted prevention through a healthy lifestyle, which also includes a balanced diet suited to one’s needs, timely physical activity, stress control, regular sleep and abstention from smoking or other abuseit is important to delay the natural aging process which occurs in the female organism earlier than it occurs in the male one.
Nutrition must be differentiated already with the arrival of menarche, which determines a significant increase in the need for iron, then with the arrival of the fertile age in which the macro and micronutrient needs of the woman pregnancy and breastfeeding increase significantly and finally to counteract the physiological decline of aging, in the menopausal age. The energy intake must be paid as much attention as the intake of refined carbohydrates and simple to counteract insulin resistance, such as that of noble proteins important to prevent the loss of lean mass, and that of lipids, which must be qualitatively chosen for their protective function and not harmful to the organism, without forgetting to vitamins, minerals and antioxidants present in large quantities in products of plant origin.
The role of gender nutrition in the presence of a pathology
Two contexts can be distinguished: the dietetics in a preventive sense and nutrition clinic or medical-nutritional therapy, which must be personalized depending on the patient and the pathological condition or risk factors. There diet therapy it is a primary treatment in the case of allergic pathologies (such as the systemic nickel allergy that affects many women) e autoimmune (such as celiac disease), as well as nutritional deficiencies due to reduced intake of certain nutrients (as in the case of a shortage of vitamin B12 in those who have a selective diet towards products of animal origin without appropriate integration), of enzyme deficiencies (as in the case of lactose intolerance), or as an adjuvant treatment in the majority of non-communicable or chronic degenerative pathologies, starting from excess weight and metabolic syndrome which often affects women of perimenopausal age, up to metabolic pathologies such as diabetes type II and cardiovascular diseases.
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