I've interviewed Marion Nestle for nutrition stories in the past. I was struck by the eloquence and sense of her first question-and-answer column written for the San Francisco Chronicle. Here it is:
Q: What's the most pressing nutrition issue today, and why?
A: The answer can be summed up in one word: calories.
Calories are at the root of today's most important nutritional problems. Those of us in the Western world get far too many. Much of the rest of the world doesn't get nearly enough. And for everyone, calories are suddenly getting very expensive.
Calories measure the energy value of food. They are a quick way of talking about the amount of food we eat and how much that food costs. Eat too many calories for the number you use, and on come the pounds. Food tempts us everywhere, even in places like business supply stores, bookstores and libraries. It comes in larger and larger portions. And we are expected to snack all day long.
New York City and San Francisco are leading national efforts to post calories on menu boards. When you actually see the numbers, it's a revelation. The smallest serving of ice cream is 400 calories (and that's
without candy mix-ins), a cookie is 500, hot chocolate is 700, and a pizza-for-one can have more than 2,000. Most people need 2,000 to 3,000 for an entire day.
Humanitarian crises: How ironic it is - and how tragic - that we now have a world food crisis over the high cost of calories. People in Egypt, Haiti and Indonesia are rioting because they cannot afford to buy basic foods. Governments everywhere are scrambling to protect their countries' food supplies. Expensive calories create humanitarian crises and political instability, and are a problem for people, governments and the world.
Economists say food prices are rising because demand exceeds supply. In the United States, this hardly makes sense. We have loads of supply. The foods we produce, plus imports, less exports, are enough to feed every man, woman, and child 4,000 calories a day. This is roughly twice the average need. Most other countries - all but the very poorest in Africa and Asia - also have plenty of calories, or did until nature and politics intervened.
Climate change reduces crop yields, and tsunamis, cyclones and earthquakes disrupt agriculture. Wars don't help and neither do agricultural subsidies and trade policies that undermine food production in developing countries.
In America, we pay farmers to grow corn to put calories in cars. And we waste what would amount to at least 1,000 calories a day each through such things as incomplete harvests, overly generous food service, and the increasingly frequent vegetable recalls.
Burdick Chocolate
