Karolina Puchała-Mielczarek talks in the interview about what a visit with her looks like and what she focuses on when working with a client. We will also learn how to develop healthy habits and how the pandemic affected our eating. Unfortunately, as Dawid Kołodziej, president of the Psychopedagogical Society, says in the interview, the government does not introduce preventive programs related to awareness of healthy eating. We have to take care of ourselves.

Contact

We invite you to psycho-dietetic consultations at 733 379 538 – meetings are conducted by Karolina Puchała-Mielczarek, a certified psycho-dietetic specialist. Also visit the website: psychopedagog.org

Transcript of the conversation with Karolina Puchała-Mielczarek, MA, and Dawid Kołodziej, MA

Grażyna Hanaf: – Good morning, everyone. Today we will talk about how to lose weight sensibly. With us are Karolina Puchała-Mielczarek, a psycho-dietitian, and Dawid Kołodziej, head of the Psychopedagogical Society. I wanted to show a photograph and ask: how many kilograms less?

Dawid Kołodziej (DK): – I can proudly say: 35 kilograms less.

– That is impressive. Judging by the dates, it took a year and a half. Did it take that long to reach such good shape in a healthy way?

– (DK) I do not think this is my final form yet, although I am already very close. I am still a little short of the ideal BMI.

– Do you have a target that you are working toward? So my question is: did you lose weight thanks to visits to the psycho-dietitian’s practice?

– (DK) Yes, Karolina deserves a great deal of credit—very much so. First, she diagnosed a certain disorder in me that was keeping me at that weight, one I was not even aware of. It is called insulin resistance. I ran around to a few doctors and diabetologists because I thought I had diabetes, but I did not. My results were fairly good, and Karolina sent me to have my insulin level checked and an insulin curve performed—something nobody had thought of before. I had the insulin curve done, and it turned out that I had insulin resistance, a disorder that causes, in short and without going into details, a great deal of fat to be produced in my body. That is why I ended up looking like this.

– Congratulations on achieving such fantastic shape in a healthy way. And Karolina, who needs a psycho-dietitian, and what problems can people come to you with?

Karolina Mielczarek (KM): – Above all, one could say that this kind of specialist is needed by anyone who simply wants to change something about their appearance or self-esteem. When we combine the dietary aspect—taking care of physical health—with psychological well-being, it can involve cases like Dawid’s, insulin resistance alone, or people I often see with anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, commonly occurring diabetes, or simply obesity. This is a major problem in our society.

– If I went to your practice, would you conduct some kind of interview with me? What does it look like?

– The first meeting with a psycho-dietitian primarily involves an interview and consultation. I carefully listen to the client who comes to me: what is the problem, and how can I help? Above all, we look for the cause. We do not just examine the effects of obesity, for example, and how to combat it; we also look at where it came from. Very often, the basis is psychological. For example, when we are stressed, we eat to deal with that stress. It is very important to reach the cause and only then begin a healthy diet.

– I understand that this is a diet tailored to very individual needs. Is that how it works?

– (KM) Exactly. It is a very individual diet. In practice, it cannot be repeated from one person to another. It is tailored to age, illnesses, eating disorders, and, above all, preferences. It is not that everyone will now eat buckwheat, for example. Everyone can simply eat what they like, in appropriate amounts, avoiding only what is harmful in the case of a particular illness. In Dawid’s case, for example, there was insulin resistance, so his diet has to have a low glycemic index.

– How did you realize that it was insulin resistance? You must have specific knowledge about it. I would have had no idea.

– (KM) First of all, I consulted with others and examined the test results that had been performed. A glucose curve had been done, but not an insulin curve. Based on the symptoms I heard about—sleepiness two hours after eating—it simply seemed to me that insulin resistance was a possibility. After the insulin curve was performed, it was indeed confirmed.

– All right, when I come to you, I can already imagine that you will order some tests for me. Will I have to tell you about all my childhood traumas to arrive at the need for an individual diet?

– (KM) No. It depends on the case, of course. If someone comes to me who simply has a problem with insulin resistance, we generally address that illness. But if someone comes to me who says they eat unhealthily, binge in the evenings, and cannot cope with it, then we try to find the cause. When did it begin? What could have caused it? Only then can we combat, for example, excess weight.

– Mr. Dawid, cannot we find these causes in your practice, for example, with you as a psychotherapist?

– (DK) That is a very good question, because there is indeed a fairly high level of cooperation between a dietitian, psycho-dietitian, and psychotherapist. A psychotherapist can try to identify this kind of disorder, while a psycho-dietitian is, I think, a better specialist when it comes to guiding a person out of such a disorder. One could say that this often leads to what is called a combined or two-track therapy: psychotherapy on the one hand, and work with a psycho-dietitian on the other.

– So in this practice, you can also learn a little about yourself and how to eat healthily. I am curious because we are a country that has gone through the pandemic, and a great deal is being said about it and how it affected all of us. A lot is said about young people. Online school had a very negative effect, and many young people are even in psychiatric hospitals. Did this also affect eating? How are young people eating?

– (KM) Absolutely. The pandemic has had enormous significance, including for my work and the number of people who need my help. It has gone in two directions. There are children and young people who have gained a great deal of weight. Obesity is becoming increasingly common. Children are at home all day. Lessons end late, and in winter it is already dark by the time they finish. They practically do not go outside at all. When you are at home all the time, it is easier to go to the refrigerator, to put it bluntly. Many people have obesity after the pandemic period. But there are also young people who go in the other direction. I have one client who, because she was alone at home all the time and did not prepare food for herself, came to like her new body entirely. She developed severe anorexia. She was already on the verge of needing hospital admission. Her body weight was life-threatening. Fortunately, we managed to overcome the situation. The client and I achieved enormous success. From eating 500 kilocalories a day, which was not even enough for the brain to function, she reached 2,300 kilocalories a day within a year, and her body weight is now entirely normal. The client truly came to like herself, which is a very significant achievement.

– That is a wonderful result. You mentioned bulimia and anorexia. In your experience, when do such unhealthy relationships with food begin?

– Above all, when food controls our lives instead of simply being something we eat when we are hungry. When we begin to think about whether we should eat, when we feel we must have a specific body weight or keep lowering it—as in anorexia, even when we are already underweight and our body weight is too low, but we still want to reduce it. When we cannot go out with friends because we are afraid someone will notice our problems. When food begins to control us, that is where an unhealthy relationship with food begins.

– So we think too much about what we eat instead of eating our fill and enjoying life. Mr. Dawid, are there any preventive programs related to awareness of healthy eating? They seem very necessary, especially for young people.

– (DK) Here we are probably entering a somewhat political context. However, I will say this: I am not aware of any effective nutritional-prevention programs. I would even venture to say that unhealthy food is actively promoted. After all, wherever we go, we are bombarded with advertisements and information about unhealthy eating. And when it comes to healthy eating, even something I was not fully aware of until Karolina diagnosed me, products labeled organic do not necessarily have to be organic. That does not mean they are healthy in any way. They may be produced in a healthy manner while containing glucose, sugar, or other substances that simply wreak havoc on the body. To answer more broadly, I do not see any investment being made in the direction of healthy eating. Is it a matter of driving the market? Simply a matter of money. It is more profitable to sell something unhealthy. I am sorry for the comparison, but I will put it plainly: in my opinion, this is a huge business. The production of unhealthy food is like the production of drugs, so I will even go so far as to say that.

– You are frightening us. Indeed, when I search my memory, I can recall some food pyramids. Something is discussed with children in class, because my daughter also brings home some information. A teacher at school warns them that either salt is terribly unhealthy and does not allow them to salt their food, or sugar is extremely unhealthy and does not allow them to sweeten it. So, Karolina, how do we develop healthy habits? What should we not eat at all? What should we eat? Are there any golden rules we should follow when eating?

– (KM) I will refer to what you said. Absolutely, simple sugars should not be consumed in excessive quantities. But if we do not have problems with obesity or insulin resistance, using sugar will not cause anything extraordinary. The key is to pay attention to the amount. According to the ordinary food pyramid that is often mentioned, the most important thing is movement. At least an hour a day of continuous physical activity, without breaks. There should be as many fruits and vegetables as possible, followed by other ingredients. Simply try to eat everything in appropriate proportions, rather than consuming 90 percent fat or sugar. We should try to eat a varied diet.

– There are also various diets, such as the ketogenic diet or a diet based on blood type. Do you recommend them as well? What do you think about these specific diets?

– As for a diet tailored to blood type, I consider it relatively unhelpful and poorly suited to specific individuals. It is difficult to say that everyone with the same blood type likes eating the same things. The point is not for a diet to be unpleasant for us. The diet I establish should really stay with us for our entire lives. What we eat should be enjoyable and satisfying, so nobody should have to suffer through their food.

– And the ketogenic diet?

– This is a diet based on fats, with a very low level of carbohydrates. It consists mainly of fats. It can certainly be recommended for some people, but this is connected with specific illnesses. It should not be a diet for everyone, only for people with neurological diseases. It is recommended for drug-resistant epilepsy.

– I understand that one should take an individual approach, for example by coming to you and finding out what is good for me. Is that the foundation of everything?

– Yes.

– And finally, Mr. Dawid, you probably have some knowledge about this. Do the residents of Bolesławiec eat healthily or unhealthily?

– (DK) Healthily or unhealthily? Looking through the prism of conversations at the practice and my own social involvement, I have to say that they are generally unaware. And if they are unaware, they want to eat healthily… Perhaps I should put it this way: they want to eat healthily, but they do not have full awareness in this area, which ultimately means that they do not eat healthily.

– So if we want to eat healthily and deliciously, and, I suspect, sensibly too, we warmly invite you to Karolina’s practice. We will provide the contact details below the interview so that you can easily reach the practice. Thank you for this extremely interesting interview.