Nutrition in sedentary times: Interview with Lydia Wilkens

On average, Germans sit for over nine hours per working day. This comes from the current report German health insurance out. When people move less, it can affect their health. Nutrition also plays a role. What is the best way to eat during periods of sedentary life?

The Eimsbüttel News talked about this with Lydia Wilkens. She is a qualified ecotrophologist and focuses primarily on workplace health promotion, child nutrition and nutritional therapy.

Home office and Corona have led to different behavioral patterns

Eimsbütteler Nachrichten: How have people’s eating and exercise habits changed in recent years?

Lydia Wilkens: Basically, people move less. Many people have office jobs and sit in front of the PC. You are forced to exercise mainly in your free time. Of course, this also influences my diet because the recommendations may be different if I no longer exercise much.

When it comes to Corona or working from home, the behavioral patterns are different. While some people managed to do more exercise during the pandemic, there were others who were at home more, sat a lot and were no longer able to go to the gym.

Is there a forecast as to how this might continue?

It’s a pair of scissors: There are many sports people who are very health-conscious. But there is also the other side, i.e. people who don’t get enough exercise because of their jobs. And there are many children who spend a lot of time on their cell phones or playing games on their PCs. It’s not about not doing it, but the relationship is no longer good.

The numbers of obesity and diet-related illnesses are increasing. Unfortunately, this is a development that has been going on for decades.

“Modern nutritional advice should not be about bans”

What influence does this have on health?

The high weight is a symptom. Other things are wrong because the body receives too much energy or distributes it incorrectly. If we talk about the main nutrients, i.e. carbohydrates, proteins, fats, then carbohydrates are the filling supplements, for example bread, rice or potatoes, which are burned primarily through exercise.

If I don’t exercise much, I don’t need the amounts that were previously recommended. And just as our fingerprint is individual, so is our metabolism.

This means that I always have to look at who is sitting in front of me, how much they are moving and how their diet fits. Pure body weight doesn’t tell me whether it’s muscle or fat. It is crucial for us to look into the body. We measure and see how much fat and muscle mass there is and where it is located. We check the fat mass to see whether it is predominantly located in the subcutaneous fatty tissue, where it is less of a health problem, or around the organs or in the organs. There it has bad effects – including fatty liver or high cholesterol.

With the right diet we can achieve a lot.

However, there are also many who eat very restrictively and deny themselves things. This quickly brings us into the realm of eating disorders. We don’t want that. Modern nutritional advice should not be about prohibitions – unless there are medical reasons.

If ready-made food, then combine

How do the availability of ready-to-eat foods and delivery services affect our diet?

The more natural the food, the higher the vitamin and mineral content. Especially when it comes to high quality, such as organic products. When it comes to finished products, we often speak of heavily processed products. They have a lot of problematic additives to preserve the food or to enhance its taste.

What advice do you have for people who often rely on ready-made foods?

For example, there is the option of “mealprep”, i.e. preparing food yourself. In our advice we don’t say that you should constantly stand in the kitchen for two and a half hours. That’s not realistic.

But there are also very good ready-made foods – although it is often better to combine finished parts than to eat a complete product. For example, a frozen pizza, I can eat it and not get sick straight away. But if I do this several times a week, it is not of high quality. It is then better to take a ready-made dough and cover it yourself. That’s a few more steps, but it also means I can make more decisions.

“There is no one right diet for everyone”

How can we integrate more exercise into our everyday lives?

You can use routes that you take anyway – for example the way to work. Is there a way to do at least part of it by bike or on foot?

Otherwise, this is a very individual topic. As with nutrition, it’s important to find what’s right for you. There’s no point in signing up for a gym even if you don’t feel like it.

It’s best to find something you enjoy. This also includes the question of whether you do it alone or with a partner and whether you motivate each other.

It is important to find out and reflect on this. When things don’t work, you shouldn’t necessarily hold on to them.

Track calories with apps?

There is so much information out there about nutrition and diets. How can you find the right one for you and what should you pay attention to if you want to find out more about nutrition?

This is difficult as a layperson. You should make sure that they are high-quality sources of information and see what suits you and what you can really implement. There is no one right diet for everyone. We try to present the whole thing in a striking way, for example with the plate model. You can try to fill half with fruit or vegetables, preferably with a focus on vegetables. There are also protein-rich foods that fill you up and maintain your muscles.

We also have high-quality oils and fats, and sometimes luxuries include fast food or sweets.

When it comes to fast food and sweets, bans actually make no sense. It’s important to enjoy and appreciate these things. This means that most people don’t need a huge amount of it.

This also includes carbohydrates. And the more I move, the larger I can make this area.

What anyone can try is keeping a log for three days or a week and writing everything down. That would be an opportunity to see where you stand.

And someone who has no sense of portion size also has the option of tracking it via apps. But that’s not something I would generally recommend. When it comes to nutritional advice, we don’t work with counting calories and nutrients.

Assessment of vegan nutrition

What do nutritional supplements do?

I wouldn’t just take them because I have some feeling. If you are worried about not being well cared for, I would recommend going to the doctor and having a blood test done. In this way, you can determine on a diagnostic basis what may be missing.

Afterwards, it makes sense to look for natural-based supplements. If what’s missing is in foods that I don’t currently eat, I can adjust that first. If there are nutrients that are already in your diet, it may make sense to supplement.

More and more people are reducing their consumption of animal products and becoming vegetarian or vegan. What impact does this have on health?

This is very individual. If someone eats very large amounts of animal products and perhaps not of particularly good quality, it makes sense to reduce it. But you can eat healthy in all three ways: meat, vegetarian and vegan.

Basically, a vegan diet requires a lot of know-how and also larger amounts of food in order to absorb all the nutrients. This is often underestimated. You have to think a lot about the topic in order to plan your meals in such a way that you take good care of yourself.

However, there are often too many animal foods on the plate and the proportion of vegetables is too low, so a shift definitely makes sense.

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