How to adapt his scheme to his ill-health when one is affected by a chronic disease ? And, most importantly, how to continue to feed in a balanced way, despite the food taboos, sometimes reported by his treating physician ? These questions have intrigued some 20 million people in France who suffer from chronic conditions (diabetes, Crohn’s disease, or endometriosis). An application, you can now respond by simply scanning the products that are slipped into his cart at the supermarket. The benefits and risks of over 200,000 foods are detailed in function of pathologies suffered by each patient. There are also suggested recipes that may preserve or even develop the immunity of the patients. Interview with its creator, Sophie January.
The Point : A popular saying supports the idea that ” our health is on our plate “. ChroniCoach seems to echo this formula as it list the foods that the chronically ill should prefer to avoid health problems. How is born the idea of this ” app ” ?
Sister and daughter of a chef, Sophie January is the creator of the app ChroniCoach. © DR Sophie January : This saying is in truth confirmed by the WHO (the world health Organization) : the majority of chronic diseases could be prevented with better food. The latest report on chronic Diseases (Michel Chassang and Anne Gautier, 2019) of the Conseil économique, social et environnemental (Cese) is also reminiscent of the role of diet in the explosion of chronic diseases in France. Consider that there are 20 million chronically ill in France ! Which have intuitively the feeling that what they put on their plate is going to impact what is happening in their body. However, the power remains the poor parent of medicine in France. I’ve spent a OF therapeutic nutrition and completed internships in hospital : I was struck by the many questions that patients asked about the power supply, and the difficulty they had to find answers. And when they had it, it was too often in the form of injunctions to go on a diet, eating ” punitive “. I am the daughter and sister of a chef, I grew up in a restaurant with the love of good products and the ” eat well “. I told myself that it was possible to accompany the sick to a diet that reconciles pleasure and health.
Would you say that your app is a kind of Yuka medical ?
Yuka has opened a way. With this application, people have opened my eyes to the composition of the products from the supermarket. And the success of the application has put pressure on the food industry. This is obviously an application that inspired me. As Yuka, ChroniCoach allows you to scan food products to see if they are “limit” or “preferred” for his pathology. To do this, we rely on the recommendations of the PNNS (Plan national nutrition santé), of the Coves and on those of the learned societies for pathology. The scientific committee of ChroniCoach, composed of five medical specialists and two diétiticiens-nutritionists, is to guarantee the reliability of the rules on which is based the rating of the food.
Read also it is Necessary to do his shopping with the application Yuka ?
outside of the diabetes, what chronic diseases require follow-up dietary to be particularly attentive to ?
All of them ! As a disease, it is already a disruption of the homeostasis of the body, the harmony of physiological. The diet helps to re-establish it (but does not replace it, obviously, a drug treatment) and to prevent potential complications : eating less sugar, less animal fat, less salt, more fruits and vegetables, it is already putting things in his game. But this, almost everyone knows today. However, it is mostly the specifics for disease, and it is this that we treat more particularly.
For example, if you have a chronic inflammatory disease of the intestine in an active phase (that is to say, ” thrust “), we will advise you to limit fiber (while we say to the general population, to reason, to eat the most possible) in order not to aggravate the symptoms. If you have breast cancer and you’re undergoing chemotherapy, you will have side effects that will disrupt your feed : the application ChroniCoach takes this into account. We will propose you for example revenue “soft” in the case of mucositis, or recipes of dishes that do not emit odors bother you in case of nausea. We are trying to adapt not only to each pathology, but also to each particular situation in the disease.
You are accompanied by a scientific committee composed, in addition to dieticians, doctors overseeing the content that you post. To what extent are the physicians in their recommendations ?
The doctors have three roles. Upstream, they help us to define the rules that allow you to keep track of the foods. They are there to ensure that these rules are based on scientific literature and not on pseudo-magic recipes such that it can be read on the Internet. However, I surrounded myself with doctors ” open “, non-dogmatic, and which will therefore also rely on the experience of patients, open up eventually, naturopathy, meditation. Their second role is to re-read all of the advice we give on the application to guarantee, here too, the relevance. Finally, they have a role to standby and alert us as soon as new studies help to establish or influence of nutritional recommendations.
Among them figure the Pr Laurent Zelek, head of the department of medical oncology, Avicenne hospital, Bobigny. That recommends it to patients who have developed cancer ?
first, this will depend on the type of cancer : on the application, we do not treat for a time that’s cancer of the breast. The Pr Zelek would say better than me, but the patients who have already developed cancer are at a greater risk than others of developing a new cancer. To guard against this, a diet rich in fruits and vegetables is already something very important. And I’ll tell you why, because, in general, people remember ” five fruits and vegetables per day “, but are unable to say what that is. Gold, fruits and vegetables provide vitamins, minerals, water, and especially fibers, which will feed positively our microbiota (formerly called gut flora), which will prevent the rate of sugar in the blood rises too quickly and that will bring the “fullness,” which avoids overeating.
Read also : “We have the right not to be poisoned”
As recommended, by the way, Dr. Antonio Gallo, endocrinologist at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, accompanying you, in the case of high blood pressure ?
Dr. Antonio Gallo said very clearly that the power supply is the first-line treatment in hypertension. This means very concretely that we can cure a high blood pressure without medication, through simple dietary changes. In this respect, the most important is to reduce salt intake, increase the fiber (from eating fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes), and, except against-indication of renal disease, promote the foods that contain potassium : white beans, lentils, spinach, dried fruits…
A gynecologist or fertility specialist also works your sides. Is this to say that our meals can play a role in this area ?
Yes, limit the endocrine disrupting chemicals (including pesticides) is a wise precaution. The additives of the suspects.
Your application is free today. What economic model do you develop ?
We are in the process of developing a premium version, with additional features including access to our entire database of recipes and a personalized meal. This version will be available on a subscription basis. I also have the project to develop additional services outside of the application to further expand our audience.
If the disease prevention is at the heart of your project, do you plan of possible partnerships with stakeholders such as health authorities, social Security or mutuals ?
Yes, of course. We have discussions well advanced with a mutual, and we hope indeed that the ChroniCoach can be offered via the intermediary of health insurance. These actors are fully aware of their members and to help us imagine features on-able. They are in the front line in the prevention and know all the benefits that it represents : several studies (the european Agency for safety and health at work in particular) have shown that a euro invested in prevention can generate up to 13 euros of savings on health costs. We also discuss with the business, including policy makers in the field of disability (the majority of chronic patients have what are called ” invisible disabilities “), of corporate social responsibility (CSR) or quality of life at work.
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