MIchael Pollan’s op-ed on health care reform – reform america’s food system first

“And so the government is poised to go on encouraging America’s fast-food diet with its farm policies even as it takes on added responsibilities for covering the medical costs of that diet.”

Get the article here.

europeans have superhuman sugar sensors

cupcakes at chelsea market

A study published in Current Biology found that those of European ancestry were more sensitive to sweet tastes, due to the genetic variation of the gene, TAS1R3. Because of the superman-like ability to detect very trace levels of sweetness, it is assumed that Europeans are more likely to like desserts LESS than Africans or others orginating from tropical environments. Maybe THAT is why french women dont get fat. Either that or all the cigarettes…

A good read on our fatness

is on the NYer site. Check it out and be disturbed.

we just keep getting fatter.

Centers for Disease Control released preliminary results of the 2008 National Health Interview Survey. I got this from the great Marion Nestle’s site “Food Politics.” We just keep getting fatter here in the great US of A.

Slow food? Slow eat.

Check out this graph from the O’Reilly Radar. Of course, Mexico and US are way up there. And then there is the French. Eat and smoke their way through decadence and remain stick thin. god dammit. One thing not really accounted for, as there are many confounders in this, is soda consumption…

This was done byCatherine Rampell of Economix.

Time spent eating versus obesity rate

Snacks and Glints

Forging a Hot Link to the Farmer Who Grows the Food – cool article in the Times

Raj Patel wants you to Buy Japanese or at least, live in Japan

Teenagers near fast food = obesity. And Marion Nestle has some ideas on it. And she was in the NY times last week. Go Marion.

The new Food Inc movie. Can’t see it here in Nairobi but see it if it comes to a theater near you…

And another film called “Food Fight”. It is hard to keep up these days…

Best Trattoria in Rome? Let the Debate Begin. God, how I would die to be eating this food every night. Taking slow food to the profound letter. But hell, this the origin of slowness in all its beauty.

Popkin’s View of the World. And it is fat.

Barry Popkin, one of the world’s experts on obesity and the “nutriiton transition”, and a Professor of Nutrition at the University of NC Chapel Hill, has just come out with a book called ‘The World is Fat’. I have yet to read the book but I have read many of his publications and articles. Popkin is known for bringing to light some scary realities about how obese we as a society have become – with 1.3 billion at least overweight – and the impact of obesity on our health and economic systems. Yikes. The Population Reference Bureau interviewed him here and there are some good slides that accompany his views.

Popkin describes the nutrition transition as follows:

“Large shifts have occurred in dietary and physical activity and inactivity patterns. These changes are reflected in nutritional outcomes, such as changes in average stature and body composition. Modern societies seem to be converging on a pattern of diet high in saturated fat, sugar, and refined foods and low in fiber – often termed the “Western diet.” Many see this dietary pattern to be associated with high levels of chronic and degenerative diseases and with reduced disability-free time.”

What are we going to do as a society to tackle this ever increasing prevalence of obesity? Ban softdrinks? Tax food? Whatever we do, we are in for the long haul in paying for huge medical bills of the many who will suffer from the repercussions of obesity – heart disease, diabetes, stroke and all the rest.