Welcome to a new chapter in the journey towards a healthier and more conscious life. Within the framework of the inspiring MAU Talks, organized weekly by the Millennia Atlantic University School of Business in Doral, we had the privilege of hosting a special guest whose experience and knowledge in the field of nutrition and well-being are transforming lives. On this occasion, we delved into a topic that, although every day, is often misunderstood and underestimated: nutrition and its profound influence on our health and quality of life.
MAU Talks with Karim Zawady: Nutrition and Well-being: Keys to a Healthy Life
This week’s event, led by the distinguished Karim Zawady, an expert with an impressive career in sports nutrition and nutritional coaching, promised to be a revealing experience. Karim, with his international master’s degrees in Nutritional Coaching and Sports Nutrition from ELBS Business School in Madrid, Spain, and his training in Business Administration with a specialization in Commercial Business Management from the University of the North in Barranquilla, Colombia, brought a unique and holistic approach to the table. His experience ranges from roles in pharmaceutical companies to practicing as a Nutritional Coach and Business Speaker, giving him a diverse and enriching perspective on the subject.
In this talk, Karim set out to enlighten attendees on how nutrition is not just a matter of eating, but a fundamental pillar for a high degree of self-management, control, and personal empowerment. Through his presentation, participants acquired fundamental knowledge that will allow them to make more informed and wiser decisions regarding their dietary habits, positively impacting their metabolism and, therefore, their life.
The event’s agenda covered crucial topics such as raising awareness of the importance of proper nutrition, the pillars of health and well-being, the balance between macro and micronutrients, the importance of a balanced diet, the concept of the healthy plate, necessary supplementation, practical nutritional advice, and the demystification of common myths and errors. In addition, the topic of energy expenditure was explored, and a deep insight into what nutritional coaching entails was offered.
Join us on this fascinating journey through the teachings of Karim Zawady, where each concept and piece of advice becomes a powerful tool for improving not only our diet but our overall health and well-being.
Raising Awareness about Nutrition and Health
Karim Zawady, with an impressive background in Nutritional Coaching and Sports Nutrition, led us through a journey that began with the importance of raising awareness about our eating habits. He highlighted how proper nutrition is not just about what we eat, but also how our body absorbs and utilizes these nutrients.
Pillars of Health and Well-being
Zawady emphasized that nutrition is just one of the pillars of health and well-being. Other crucial aspects include hydration, physical activity, social interaction, and, surprisingly, sleep. Sleep plays a fundamental role in the body’s repair and regeneration, making it an essential component of a healthy lifestyle.
Macro and Micronutrients: The Foundation of Our Diet
A significant part of the talk focused on the importance of understanding macronutrients (proteins, carbohydrates, and fats) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). Zawady explained how each of these plays a unique role in maintaining health and well-being
Balanced Diet and the Healthy Plate
The idea of a balanced diet was another key topic. Zawady proposed the concept of the “Healthy Plate,” where half of the plate consists of vegetables and fruits, a quarter of protein, and the other quarter of complex carbohydrates. This approach helps ensure that all essential nutrients are consumed in the right proportions.
Supplementation: Necessary or Not?
Supplementation was another topic of debate. Zawady argued that while supplements can be useful, they should not replace a balanced diet. Suggestions like omega-3, vitamin D, and magnesium were discussed, especially in contexts where the diet may not provide enough of these nutrients.
Practical Nutritional Tips
Zawady shared several practical tips, such as the importance of chewing food well and preferring real food over processed ones. He also highlighted the need for adequate protein intake and the importance of avoiding industrialized and high-sugar foods.
Myths and Common Mistakes in Nutrition
One of the most interesting segments was the demystification of various nutritional myths. For example, Zawady clarified that not all carbohydrates are bad and that healthy fats are essential for the body. He also addressed the common misunderstanding about nuts and their impact on weight gain.
Energy Expenditure and Metabolism
Energy expenditure and metabolism were explained in detail, highlighting how our body uses the food we consume. Zawady explained that metabolism is not just about how many calories we burn, but also how our body processes and utilizes different types of food.
Nutritional Coaching: Beyond Diet
Finally, Zawady talked about nutritional coaching and how it differs from a traditional nutritional consultation. He emphasized the importance of empowerment, self-management, and support in the journey towards better health through nutrition.
Karim Zawady’s talk was a revelation on how proper nutrition can transform our lives. From understanding the fundamentals of a balanced diet to debunking common myths, this presentation was a reminder that nutrition is a crucial pillar of our health and well-being. As Zawady emphasized, it’s not just about what we eat, but how our body uses these nutrients to keep us healthy and active.
We encourage you to follow Karim Zawady on his social media for more tips and insights on nutrition and health. His experience and practical approach could be the catalyst you need to start your own journey towards a healthier lifestyle.
Instagram: @karimzawady
Facebook: karim.zawady
WhatsApp: +57 310 6320431
And remember, nutrition is not just a part of life; it’s the foundation upon which a healthy and fulfilling life is built. Start your journey to better health today!
Transcript
Thank you very much, Jairo. Thanks to Millennia Atlantic University for the invitation, and welcome everyone. Today, we are experiencing a revolution in nutrition, well-being, and health. Here I have two concepts to bring up: one is the concept of ‘life span’ or life expectancy, and the other is ‘health span’, which refers to life expectancy or longevity not so much in years, but in terms of quality of life and health for the individual.
Nutrition is framed within what are the pillars of health and well-being. Here we have hydration, which is generally very underestimated and is very important; of course, physical activity, exercise; we have social activity, the blue zones that are the longest-lived in the world and where we find the largest number of centenarians.
And yes, I would say that the most important, or one of the most important, is definitely sleep, rest, and repair, because during sleep many processes occur in the body such as ossification, regeneration, repair, which are supremely important. It is necessary to differentiate the concept of nutrition from that of feeding, and when we talk about nutrition we do not only refer to what we eat, but to what we absorb and assimilate. This is also very closely linked to the concept of metabolism, which ultimately is how what we eat or ingest is transformed into energy, movement, and activity. In fact, most people who suffer from obesity are generally overfed, but poorly nourished. Regarding nutrients, we have macronutrients and micronutrients. The macros are the three big ones: proteins, carbohydrates, and fats; and micronutrients, which are vitamins and minerals.
From the point of view of the function they fulfill, they are divided into energy-providing, where the main energy substrate of the body is carbohydrate and, secondly, fat as fuel or energy reserve source. There are the plastics or structural ones that, as their name indicates, are those that build structure throughout the body, and here is the protein. And the regulators, which facilitate biochemical functions throughout the body, are vitamins and minerals, all necessary. The assimilation of nutrients or absorption mainly occurs in the small intestine, through a digestive process that begins, mind you, from chewing. It goes through a matter of stomach pH, stomach acid, digestive enzymes, etc., and here hydration intervenes, which, as I told you, is extremely important in the digestive process.
To have optimal intestinal health, I must avoid disruptors that damage or produce adverse conditions in the intestine. What are these disruptors? To mention a few: stress, cow’s milk, lack of sleep, the toxicity to which we are exposed, and of course, refined flours, sweets, sugars, poor eating habits, little physical activity, and sedentary lifestyle.
All this deteriorates the state of the intestinal wall and makes our nutrient absorption not optimal. We already know proteins, which are meats of animal and vegetable origin. In general terms, we can say that animal proteins are of better quality than vegetable ones, why? Because they have a more complete amino acid profile.
Amino acids are divided into essential and non-essential. The word “essential” indicates that the body does not synthesize them and, therefore, they must come from the diet. For example, the egg, which at one time was very demonized because of the issue of fats, is the protein of the best quality that exists, with a complete amino acid profile. As for carbohydrates, they are the main source of energy for the body and participate in interactions in the metabolism of both proteins and fats. Here I must mention fiber, a carbohydrate with important functions at the intestinal level, such as softening and increasing the volume of stools, generating satiety, improving postprandial glucose peaks, decreasing cholesterol absorption, and in people who suffer from colon cancer, it is generally associated with low-fiber diets. Therefore, fiber is supremely necessary.
But there is an important consideration with carbohydrates: excess can lead to fat accumulation in the body. There are simple, fast-absorbing ones, and complex, slow-absorbing ones. Digestible complex carbohydrates, such as starches, cereals, and tubers (potatoes, cassava, etc.), have the ability to transform into energy and be stored in the body as energy reserves.
Non-digestible carbohydrates, mainly fiber, do not have the capacity to produce energy. Why? Because the fiber we eat is actually digested by our microbiota or the microorganisms that live in symbiosis with us in the intestine. Finally, fats or lipids are another important component of our diet.
During the 90s, fats were considered public enemy number one, and the food industry began to remove all “Fat Free” products, all skimmed foods. But what happens when we skim a food? The palatability of the food, which is given by the fat, is lost. So, the industry began to replace the fat in foods with simple carbohydrates, and that’s where the epidemic began in the 90s, with an increase in diabetes statistics and even neurodegenerative diseases.
For the brain, the consumption of good fats, healthy fats, is extremely important. Fats break down into fatty acids and there are those of plant and animal origin. In the case of plants, they are found in seeds, in fruits such as olives and avocados, in nuts like walnuts, almonds, pistachios, cashews, etc. In the case of animals, we find fats in all kinds of meats, especially in blue fish, such as salmon, dairy, eggs, etc. The main function of fat is energetic, as fuel.
But here also comes the first consideration to take into account with fats: they are hypercaloric. What does this mean? For every gram of protein and for every gram of carbohydrate we get four kilocalories, but for every gram of fat, we get nine kilocalories. So, they are more than double the calories we are ingesting. All cell membranes have a layer coated with fat or cholesterol.
So, if the consumption of fats is not important, 60% of the brain is fat. Coating, protection of organs, protection of the skin, and nutrient absorption. Fat-soluble vitamins, as their name indicates, are not absorbed in the absence of fat and hormone synthesis. This is extremely important. Fats are the raw material of the body for the manufacture of all hormones.
Be careful with those types of fats. We have saturated fats, generally solid at room temperature, such as butter, margarine, coconut. But saturated fats themselves are not bad or negative, but they should be consumed in moderation. Why? Because if I also consume too much saturated fat, I will have problems or epidemics later. Saturated fats include monounsaturated fats, where the number one fat par excellence is olive oil, right, our liquid gold.
Then we have polyunsaturated fats, which consist of omega three or six fatty acids. Omega threes are essential and are found in some seeds, such as chia, in most nuts, fish oil like salmon, sardines, krill, anchovies, etc. And Omega sixes, whose main source is vegetable oils. I can’t say they are bad, what is bad is having an imbalance in the consumption of omega three or six. Omega sixes or vegetable oils are pro-inflammatory, while omega threes are anti-inflammatory. So, having an imbalance, we will present inflammation and disease. Finally, trans fats, these should be avoided at all costs and are present in many ultra-processed products.
Trans fats have a very negative and harmful hydrogenation process for the body, and their consumption presents cardiovascular risks, diabetes, and other diseases. All vitamins fulfill a function in the body and are absolutely necessary. If I have to point out which vitamin commonly presents a deficiency, it is definitely vitamin D, which I would say is the mother of all vitamins due to the series of extremely important functions it fulfills in the body and, paradoxically, is the one that is most deficient in people.
Vitamins are divided into water-soluble and fat-soluble. Water-soluble ones are C and all of the B complex. As their name indicates, they are soluble in water and, consequently, their excess is easily eliminated through urine, which does not happen with fat-soluble ones, such as A, D, E, and K, which need a fat source to be absorbed. Therefore, their elimination is not so easy and it is said that their use in excess could be toxic, although these cases are extremely rare. With our Western diet, minerals, like vitamins, are all necessary, fulfill many functions, and it is also common to find deficiencies, for example, in iron, magnesium, and copper, due to our poor diet. Therefore, it is important to highlight that micronutrients are supremely essential in the body.
This talk began by saying that hydration is very underestimated. Water plays a crucial role as a chemical reactant, it is indispensable for digestion, for the absorption and metabolism of nutrients, their transport through the circulatory system to all organs and places in the body, elimination of toxins through sweating and urine, and prevention of constipation.
The best quality water is the one found in nature, in the seas, the one that springs from springs. That’s why I always recommend water systems that try to imitate that form of the spring, where there is a filter and some stones that mineralize the water, and thus we drink what we call mineral water.
Regarding the concept of a balanced diet, I don’t like to use the word “diet” because I am against people believing that nutrition is about dieting. It’s not about dieting, it’s about learning to eat well. What variables are important in that diet? First, that it is varied. Secondly, adherence is extremely important. What does adherence mean? That you are able to maintain and sustain a diet over time. Here there are two concepts when we talk about diet: one has to do with quantity and the other with quality. In terms of quantity, there comes a concept that is the energy balance, which is nothing more than the calories we ingest versus the calories we spend.
But beyond quantity, there is the issue of quality. Also, and watch out for this, satiety, that is, what sustains satiety throughout the day, does not depend on quantity, but on nutritional density. So, if your meals are densely nutritious, you will be able to sustain satiety for a longer time during the day, thanks to the correct balance of macronutrients.
I always talk about this too: there is a balance. It is very important that you learn to balance your plates. Now let’s look at the concept of the ideal plate, what a healthy plate should look like. Half of the plate should be vegetables and fruits, mostly vegetables, a quarter of the plate of protein, and the other quarter of carbohydrates, starches, or cereals, different from the vegetables that are also carbohydrates.
And I teach the hand method: the palm of your hand represents your salad, both palms of your hand. One palm of your hand is the protein and the carbohydrate can be the palm of your hand, the fist, or it may not be present, but that will depend on the state of each person.
A person who has diabetes or insulin resistance should restrict this type of carbohydrates. So, it all depends on the state of each one. That’s what it looks like in practice. And when I talk about balancing plates, it’s not just if you make three main meals, if you’re going to have a snack, it also has to be balanced.
Now we look at the issue of consumption and the combinations we must make, because you can never consume carbohydrates alone. The issue of supplementation is complementary, but not the main thing. I enter the topic of supplementation, because if I consume supplements but eat poorly, I can take all the supplements in the world, but that will not have a greater impact.
The important thing is the diet in general, like omega three, vitamin D, magnesium, which are supplements that most of the population should consume. These below are more for sports. There we have, for example, protein, creatine, which if I have to say the supplement with the most scientific evidence, is creatine.
Creatine has a brutal effect on muscle mass building and even other cognitive effects have been tested. Caffeine is extremely important in athletes. Why? Because caffeine increases sports performance between 10 to 15%. And there are other types of supplements that have more to do with increasing nitric oxide, which dilates the arteries and helps blood flow reach the muscles and enhance your training, your physical activity.
Magnesium is involved in more than 300 processes in the body. It is fundamental, not only in the fixation of calcium in the bones and at the muscular level of muscle relaxation, but in many more processes. Nutritional tips: digestion begins with chewing. It is extremely important to chew each solid bite between 18 to 24 times. There is a digestive enzyme in saliva. Always prefer real food over processed or ultra-processed food. It is important to consume the complete protein requirement. And this I constantly encounter in the people I advise: they do not eat enough protein. When you are low in your protein intake, you start to have a macronutrient imbalance. So, that imbalance you are going to supplement with a carbohydrate.
It is important to avoid the consumption of industrial bakery and processed meats. Processed meats have a couple of problems: the main preservative of processed meat is sodium, which is high in these products and can lead to fluid retention and swelling. Second, they contain nitrites and nitrates which, according to some studies, may be associated with cancer. But it is their excessive consumption that is problematic. I’m not recommending that you never eat ham, but if you do it every day, you’re in trouble; you can’t do it daily. Sweets, sugars, fried snacks, ice cream, wheat, and gluten are inflammatory and can cause intolerances. Corn is a bit controversial, but nowadays it is very nutritionally weakened and high in fructose.
Regarding dairy, I make a parenthesis. I always differentiate between cow’s milk and products like cheese and yogurt. Cheese and yogurt have a fermentation process that makes them more tolerable, and the not-so-good part of milk, like casein or lactose, has another composition in these products. Alcohol, although it is a carbohydrate, provides seven calories per gram, being hypercaloric. In addition, it generates toxicity in the liver and its metabolism is complex, as the liver converts it into fat.
An important trick if you’re going to eat a carbohydrate is to never eat it alone. In the United States, they call it a “Naked Carb.” You should always accompany it with a protein source and a fat source to mitigate the impact on blood glucose and the subsequent secretion of insulin that has to process that glucose.
Another important issue is the order in which you eat. First, prefer your salad, a source of fiber, then proteins, fats, and finally the carbohydrate. Many people make the mistake of breaking the fast with fruit, which is a grave error. Green tea is excellent. I never tire of talking about its benefits, and here matcha is the champion. Matcha, which is the ground leaf in powder form, is one of the best antioxidants in nature, if not the best. It’s high in fiber and creates a greater feeling of fullness.
Tea has caffeine, in smaller amounts than coffee, but contains compounds like L-theanine and catechins, which are calming and mitigate the effect of caffeine. I use green tea a lot for people who have anxiety about eating. The trick of resistant starch consists of taking a type of carbohydrate, subjecting it to a thermal shock, and turning it into resistant starch. For example, I make rice and instead of eating it immediately, I put it in the fridge for 24 hours. The next day I heat it, and that rice, biochemically in my body, will have a completely different effect because the thermal shock chemically altered it.
The process is slower, I’m making it more complex. In other words, apple cider vinegar helps a lot in improving stomach pH, therefore, it aids in digestion. It also modulates blood sugar spikes after meals. I always say that when you’re going to eat, to nourish yourself, it’s a sacred moment. Stay away from negative news, screens, don’t have discussions with your partner or your children, try to be calm, relaxed, and enjoy the moment.
Why? Because the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the calm one, should be dominating for you to digest properly. We, being diurnal beings and hormonally controlled by the sun, should try to have dinner very early. With night light, we shouldn’t eat. We are not designed to eat at night. Regarding intermittent fasting and feeding windows, I’m always asked about this and they are fashionable.
And I always say: there are many people who have lost weight by doing intermittent fasting. But I ask: Do you start at the end or the beginning? Intermittent fasting is a very valuable tool, but it’s not where you should start in a healthy lifestyle. The first thing you have to do before fasting is learn to eat well.
Intermittent fasting consists of having a shorter feeding window to ingest your daily requirements, because if you start skipping meals, what you do is create a caloric deficit. And that caloric deficit will lead you to lose weight, but be careful, will you lose fat or muscle mass?
People generally execute it poorly and you have to be careful. The anxiety curve increases throughout the day, that’s why we tend to make more mistakes in the mid-afternoon or at dinner. It’s more common to make mistakes then than before. What happens? Breakfast predisposes how the rest of your day will be. If you have a bad breakfast, unbalanced, with an excess of carbohydrates and little protein, that will determine the rest of your day in terms of cravings and anxiety.
Be careful with breakfast. One should not tend to consume liquid calories. The liquid you should drink is water. Myths or mistakes: be careful with light or whole foods. You have to be very careful with this because the industry sometimes deceives us, and there may be products that are light or zero and actually contain caloric sweeteners.
Yes, but it turns out they can damage the microbiota or affect you in some way. Therefore, you have to be very cautious. When you see something labeled as Light or Zero, be skeptical and check. The myth that nuts are fattening. Remember I told you that all fats are hypercaloric. It’s a general consideration about fat. So, what you have to be careful about is not to exceed the dose of nuts.
Indeed, a handful or 28-30 grams, which is an individual portion, is more than enough. Is it necessary to take multivitamin supplements to be healthy or stay healthy? If we eat well, it wouldn’t be necessary. Carbohydrates are fattening, but what kind of carbohydrates are you eating? Carbohydrates are the main source of energy for the human body, but there are carbohydrates like vegetables, which are also carbohydrates.
Vegetables are carbohydrates, as are bread, refined flours, cookies, and sweets. So, what carbohydrates are you eating? It is said that you should have five meals a day to speed up metabolism. This is a typical belief of nutritionists from many years ago and is totally reevaluated. Be careful with cardio versus strength. This is also a typical myth. People think they will lose weight by doing cardio every day.
Here I have to explain how carbohydrate metabolism works. Every time we consume carbohydrates, a part is spent as daily energy, but the body has three deposits: hepatic glycogen and muscle glycogen, which come from glucose, that is, we store glucose as an energy reserve source in the liver and muscles, and fat.
When these two deposits are full, the body begins to accumulate fat. If I have a larger muscle mass, I have a greater capacity to store glucose in the muscle. Muscle consumes a lot of glucose. You should have a combination of strength with cardio, where your priority should always be the construction and maintenance of muscle mass.
That is what will lead you to have a quality of life. Cardio is a very good complement and also has many benefits at the cardiac, pulmonary, and brain levels. Cardio is wonderful, but let’s use it as a complement to the issue of muscle mass. With restrictive diets or low adherence, there is a rebound effect. Remember I talked to you about adherence: it’s no use giving a person a plan and telling them that if they are not able to sustain it over time, don’t start it, because it’s not about dieting for 1-3 months and then suffering the rebound effect. You have to learn that this is a healthy and sustainable lifestyle over time.
When you generate that caloric deficit, and it is mainly due to decreasing your intake rather than increasing your expenditure, you will lose pounds, but most likely they are pounds of muscle mass. Yes, you lose fat, but you also affect muscle mass, and that is not optimal for your metabolism. And that’s when I see people who are doing intermittent fasting but are creating an excessive caloric deficit and are happy because they are losing pounds, but they are slowly turning off their metabolism. That is not the way in the medium or long term.
Done. Energy expenditure consists of a series of variables, among which is basal metabolism, which are the calories you burn at rest. And how do I raise my basal metabolism? By changing your body composition, changing fat for muscle. Muscle at rest burns three times more calories than fat. Body mass index and weight as the only indicator is not a good idea. It’s a myopic view today; we have to look at body composition. Here I have the typical example of two people who are the same height and weight, but one has more fat and the other more muscle. Body mass index is an indicator of obesity, but it’s just a relationship between your height and your weight.
So, are those two people with the same body mass index equally healthy? No. What does nutritional coaching consist of and what are the differences with a traditional nutritional consultation? The coach has three components: empowerment, self-management, and accompaniment. The coach accompanies and motivates. Well, that’s what I wanted to tell you.