More on Our Bodies…

https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140523121519-23027997-fed-up-confused-and-still-eating?

What, then, do I think we can and should do about all this? Glad you asked:

1. Recognize that the overall pattern of the diet matters
2. Recognize that the best way to avoid bad foods is to eat good foods instead
3. Talk about nutrients less, and foods more
4. Acknowledge that the quantity of calories does, of course, count
5. Acknowledge that the quality of calories does also, of course, count
6. Acknowledge that the best way to control the quantity of calories without being hungry forever is to improve the quality of those calories
7. Acknowledge that daily use of feet and forks does involve personal choice, and thus requires personal responsibility
8. Acknowledge that to be responsible for anything, people need to be suitably empowered
9. Acknowledge that choices we make are in turn dependent on choices we have- both need to be good
10. Acknowledge that impulses related to food are deeply rooted in both biology and culture, and thus hard to change
11. Acknowledge that culture must adapt to compensate for Stone Age biological impulses that otherwise do harm- whether they are about sex, or food, or anything else
12. Acknowledge that no one thing is THE thing wrong with our diets, and no one food or nutrient change will fix it all
13. Acknowledge that we need to change the world around us, but can’t just wait on the world to change; in the meantime, we need to empower, and change, ourselves
14. Acknowledge that most expert opinion and the weight of scientific evidence support a basic set of fundamentals of healthful eating
15. Recognize that the imperfect knowledge we have of optimal nutrition is still enough to eradicate 80% of the total chronic disease burden. If ever there was a case not to make perfect the enemy of good, this is it
16. Emphasize to the public what we know best and agree on most about healthful eating, rather than an endless “my diet can beat your diet” parade of contestants
17. Work out what we don’t know, while applying to good effect what we do
18. Establish a reliable, objective, operationally useful definition of junk food- and then ban all of it. Junk is not food, and food is not junk.
19. Identify gaps in the prevailing skill set for healthful living, and establish programs to fill those gaps in all of the relevant settings: schools, worksites, churches, restaurants, cyberspace, supermarkets, and so on.
20. Keep pushing on the food supply to change, but take better advantage of the most effective, least contentious way of changing it: changing our demand.
21. For fully fleshed out approaches to these and related ideas, see:

• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-katz-md/obesity-epidemic_b_3292179.html
• http://www.davidkatzmd.com/admin/archives/Obesity%20be%20Dammed.Katz.Fall-06.pdf
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-katz-md/healthy-life_b_1176506.html
• http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/2012/07/18/i-love-you-have-another-helping
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-katz-md/holistic-nutrition_b_842627.html
• https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20131119151551-23027997-fixing-food-stamps-for-all-could-be-a-snap