Healthy Choices for 2021; How the Pandemic Has Affected People’s Diet and Exercise Plans
“Eating modern ultra-processed foods in excess will increase your risk of modern diseases. Eat real foods, the ones your great-great-great-grandparents ate.”
What are the biggest challenges when it comes to healthy choices when working from home?
It’s more about the quality of the food than calories or anything else. The key for weight loss, really, is to eat foods that have a complex food matrix instead of processed foods – for example, the difference between an apple and something processed like apple sauce. And if you process it even more it’s apple juice, and if you process that apple even more, it’s an apple pie. Stick with the apple and you’ll be able to lose weight.
People say they are stress eating and binging more. How can they combat that?
It’s not necessarily the amount of food you’re eating but the quality. Simply avoid bringing the unhealthy and processed foods into your home and only stock your kitchen with healthy, unprocessed choices.
Due to COVID, people might not want to go to gyms, what can they do instead?
It depends on your level of fitness; however, the first thing is to just move your body every day. Never underestimate the power of a walk! There are many apps and videos online that cater to many different levels of fitness for body weight exercises, Pilates, yoga and so much more.
What’s your most important advice for getting and staying healthy in 2021?
Eat the foods that your great-great-great-grandparents ate. If you avoid the “fake” foods, you won’t see the health problems that are increasing nowadays, like metabolic syndrome and diabetes. And, of course, always check with your physician before making any major changes to your diet or exercise program.
Juan Carlos Torres-Urrutia, M.D., is a graduate of the UCC School of Medicine in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. He is board-certified in internal medicine and moved to Florida in 2006 to practice medicine. Dr. Torres-Urrutia is fluent in English and Spanish and welcomes you to his new location at 5741 Bee Ridge Road in Sarasota.
About Dr. Torres-Urrutia
- B.A. Existential Psychology
- Doctor of Medicine
- Internal Medicine Residency
- Chief Medical Resident
Contact
Millennium Physician Group
5741 Bee Ridge Road, Suite 250, Sarasota, FL 34233
(941) 552-8808
millenniumphysician.com
