Читать книгу The Social Network Diet - Michael Bertoldo - Страница 9

As long ago as 1949, the late nutrition scientist Ancel Keys speculated that our social and economic circumstances might produce an epidemic of obesity. He predicted that overeating and expending less energy would become an issue, leading to problems with weight control. “While our calorie intake goes up our output goes down,” he wrote. “The wonderful advances of technology do not merely free us from back-breaking toil; they make it almost impossible to get a decent amount of calorie-using exercise.”

Keys was right. Over the past half century or so, potent forces have molded our food supply and our built surroundings, creating an environment that sabotages our efforts at healthful eating and physical activity. How? What is going on here?

My research at Tufts University and my work on two government committees offer some answers. In 2008, I was asked to be a member of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee to help the government develop the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. For two years, I joined twelve other leading nutrition scientists in delving into the newest science on nutrition and health. This was an incredible experience. It was also challenging. This committee has a long tradition of taking conservative, politicized positions on the question of the American diet. The challenge for me was to try to move it in a new direction. Fueled by concern about the current obesity epidemic, I was particularly interested in understanding what Americans actually eat. What do they eat too much of and too little of? How has this changed over the past four decades or so? There’s no denying that what we consume has changed. What does the overall food environment look like? How is what we eat now different from what we used to eat? What about where we eat and where we purchase foods? Finally, I wanted to understand better how we got to this place of unhealthy eating. Very few Americans eat well. Why? And why is the modern American food supply such a catastrophe?