Do you have questions about nutrition? Send them to comer@lavanguardia.es, our nutritionist Aitor Sánchez will answer all your questions.
Is it good to eat lettuce every day? I have read that it is bad for irritable colon and produces gases. (Carlos Sala Palomares, reader)
Hi Carlos,
It is important to remember that the guidelines that we share in the office are not applicable to specific pathologies, since there they would have to be adapted according to the treatment, the phase, the severity of each condition, or in this specific case that you mention about irritable bowel, to the individual tolerance, and even to the personal moment. For example, in the case of irritable colon, tolerance is highly dependent on the state of stress of each patient.
Going to the subject of lettuce itself, in the general population there is no problem for consuming lettuce daily, far from it. What's more, there are people who eat cookies, sugar, sausages or alcoholic beverages daily and we do not socially consider whether they are harmful. Paradoxically, it seems that lettuce cannot be consumed daily, nothing could be further from the truth.
You can eat lettuce, or any other vegetable every day, although of course it will always be advisable to vary the food in order to obtain a greater range of nutrients.
To consider what vegetables you can consume on a daily basis, I would recommend you go to a nutritionist so that, depending on your case, she can guide you.
Is regular beer much more fattening than non-alcoholic? (Yoli Garcia, reader)
Hello Yolanda, yes.
Alcoholic beer has a significantly higher amount than a "No" or "0.0" beer.
Although we should not attribute "gaining weight" or not to a few foods, it can be said that alcohol consumption is related to worse dietary habits, and also contributes by itself to increasing the caloric intake of the diet in a very uninteresting. It is what we know as "empty calories", foods that provide us with energy but practically no other associated nutrients.
"Without" beers still have energy due to the carbohydrates they contain, but this amount is less than that contained in conventional beers.
Therefore, alcohol by itself already provides enough calories that we should take into account, especially considering that we are talking about a drink and that it can contribute a large amount of energy without us being aware of it. This is because when we drink, the amount of energy we take in goes much more unnoticed, and barely satisfies us. That is why we can drink three or four beers during a meal practically without realizing it.
In a weight control diet we should restrict alcoholic beverages as much as possible. There may be room for an occasional cane, but always knowing that it does not provide anything of interest nutritionally.
