Do you have questions about nutrition? Send them to comer@lavanguardia.es, our nutritionist Aitor Sánchez will answer all your questions.
Good evening, Aitor Sánchez. I would like to know if, being on a diet and going to bars a lot, is it advisable to drink bitter? Or is a 0% beer better? Thank you very much and greetings. (Jurdana Botejara, reader)
Hello Jurdana,
Between these two options, it would be preferable and healthier to drink non-alcoholic beer or the 0.0 version. Bitter is still a sugary soft drink despite the bitter taste it has, its situation is very similar to that of tonic water, as we recently talked about in the office (we leave you the link here).
Of course, you can have either option whenever you feel like it, but if you are going to do it regularly it is better to prioritize the one that has the least amount of sugar. Likewise, if your frequency when visiting bars is even higher and you do it practically daily, you could also consider other options such as sparkling water or even infusions, with or without ice, depending on how you prefer. If you order them with a slice of lemon, they are a very worthy option.
I would also recommend that if you go to bars for a long time (several hours) and perhaps consume several drinks, that you can order the one you most want and then later switch to water in the following rounds of drinking. Among all these solutions, try to apply the one with which you are most comfortable and to which you think it will be easier for you to adhere.
Hello, I have been reading about antinutrients in 100% cocoa and I would like to know if cocoa inhibits calcium absorption and, if so, if it inhibits it all. Thank you. (Moisés Sánchez, reader)
Hello Moses,
It is true that some substances that we can find in cocoa can partially inhibit the absorption of some minerals such as calcium or iron, but they do not do so in such significant quantities as to have to alert the population about it.
It is worth recommending that people who, for example, have absorptive problems, such as iron deficiency anemia, separate their iron supplement from drinks such as coffee, tea, or milk with cocoa. The most normal guideline is usually to take the supplement on an empty stomach, and delay these products until a couple of hours later, so as not to make them coincide in the intestine.
Unless you have a deficiency of these minerals, we shouldn't worry too much about it. The contribution of cocoa in a high percentage continues to be much greater due to the substitution it makes for sugary alternatives.
Also used to clarify that these effects on malabsorption are not only attributable to 100% cocoa, but to any type of cocoa, what happens is that the concentration of these absorption inhibitors is in relation to the percentage of cocoa that any product has. . The positive news is that there is also a much higher concentration of all those positive substances that we find in cocoa such as polyphenols and other antioxidant substances. That is why it remains the best option within this family of products.
