Aragon nutritionists ask for greater presence in public health
Visiting a public health nutritionist in Aragon is not an easy task. This is stated by the president of the Association of Dietitians of Zaragoza, Alba Santaliestra, who notes that This delay in the community compared to the rest of Spain is due to a “lack of specialists in health centres”. Santaliestra says that when switching to a new diet, patients have to resort to private services.
These are expenses that not everyone can afford, and for which “the vast majority go to social media or search on the Internet daily allowance who promote people who are not professionals”the nutritionist emphasizes. “Miracle diets” or dietary advice “are not for everyone,” says Santaliestra. Each person is different, and “what works wonders for some may be detrimental to the health of others,” he adds.
Seven out of ten diseases with a high mortality rate can be prevented by proper nutrition. This is confirmed by the president of the Association of Dietitians of Zaragoza, Alba Santaliestra, who assures that maintaining a healthy diet allows you to avoid cardiovascular problems (such as heart attacks or strokes), diabetes and some types of cancer related to diet (such as colon cancer). He ensures that nutrition and sport are the two fundamental pillars of health, both mental and physical. For this reason, Santaliestra believes that it is necessary to educate young people in both areas. “Just as schools teach the basic concepts of life, people should be informed about the benefits of exercise and proper nutrition,” insists the professional.
This “invasion” from which the profession suffers, according to the expert, they are also transferred to hospitals, “where “Most of them are doctors who have trained over time and on their own, but they don’t have a specialty, and that’s a problem.” He insists that food is a fundamental part of health and that it is “something we do every day, it is not a game, and what a person with a certain disease needs or does not need is something only experts know,” he concludes.