Just What are You Eating?

I do love this graphic of "What the Average American Consumes in a Year" by Visual Economics. The bad news (no surprises  really, though startling to be sure) is that, on average, we're eating 110 lbs red meat, 192.3 lbs. of flour and cereal products, 141.6 lbs. of caloric sweeteners, including 42 lbs. of corn syrup, 29 lbs. of French fries, 23 lbs. of pizza and 24 lbs. of ice cream, 53 gallons of soda each year, averaging about one gallon each week, and 2.736 lbs. of sodium.  But I was pleased to see we eat 415.4 lbs. of vegetables and 273.2 lbs. of fruit each year, on average. Though I suspect that potatoes (in the form of french fries and chips?) account for the vast majority of the veg intake--they usually do in food frequency questionnaires.  Bottom-line is we're eating way too much of highly processed, carbon-intensive foods, and not enough of the whole foods that have been keep humans healthy for ages.

I thought of this graphic this morning after I talked about food labels with Kim Murphy on Fox 6 for Get Active Today (you can watch below.)  Its an important food literacy issue simply because Americans eat so much processed food these days.  While surveys show that many people look at food labels, they don't show that people really "get" them, and my encounters with clients confirms for me that most people don't understand them well, and therefore don't really know just what they are putting in their mouths.  Confusing the issue can be the front of the label health claims....remember these claims ("3 grams fiber!" or "No cholesterol!") may or may not be relevant to the foods overall nutrient value. Reading the ingredient list and the nutrient facts label can help you sort out a packaged food's true nutrition nature.

Whole or minimally processed foods, like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans. fish, dairy, nuts, pastured meats, eggs, and so on, are naturally nutrient dense in their original (or close to original)  states.  My advice is to choose plenty of these foods and learn to understand food labels. You can go to Get Active Today for a helpful handout on label reading.

 

What is on the plate for 2011?

Will Americans get ever closer to a McDonalds or have more access to fresh, local, healthy food in 2011?

The turn of the year always makes me curious for what the next 365 days will hold…. 

Nitrogen Contaminated Water 

Of course, we can expect more of the same problems to unfold: because we can suppose that Americans will continue to watch almost as much television as a full-time occupation (~35 hours each week) and will each drink over 50 gallons of sweetened beverages on average this year—we can expect that public health problems like obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes will continue to grow.  And along with many other nasty habits, because our growing population continues to choose a highly carbon intensive diet; high in industrialized meat and highly processed foods sold in highly processed packages—we will continue to raise the level of carbon in the atmosphere while it’s already at dangerous levels.  And because American farmers will apply so many pesticides and spread so much nitrogen on their fields this year, we can expect to see the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico expand even further, watch more fresh ground water become undrinkable due to nitrogen levels, and continue to put ag bees and wildlife at risk.  Another 27,000 species will likely be lost from our planet this year…with much of the loss due to agriculture.

Milwaukee Farmer's Market

But we can also anticipate more of the positives that make up the burgeoning food movement—farmers markets and the organic sector will continue to expand, as markets grew in number by 16% last year and the organic sector has grown by ~20% in each of the past several.  The increases in small scale, sustainable ag support will allow more farmers to grow more produce and to raise animals on pasture and so we’ll have access to healthier foods.  More young people will learn about food traditions and how to cook, garden, farm (this last one we’ll have to cross our fingers that more people will someday get into farming than are getting out of it) through the increasing number of programs like school gardens, college curricula, and farm internships.  Work will continue to ensure that endangered foods; like the Narragansett Turkey, Milwaukee Apple, Lake Michigan Whitefish, and Beaver Dam Pepper remain.

Will Zebra Mussels taste
anything like these
Sicilian beauties?

And we’ll likely see more innovative solutions come out of the woodwork and into the mainstream—like the invasive species diet .  Maybe this idea can be simply defined as eating invasive species so that the pressure of their invasion is reduced.  Here in Wisconsin friends and I have enjoyed delicious concoctions like invasive garlic mustard pestos, but what I really wonder about is zebra mussels—will someone find a way to harvest & eat those mollusks that are taking over Lake Michigan?  A Spanish marine biologist I met at the Salone del Gusto is successfully marketing invasive yet deliciously edible seaweed along his coast.  And a big question for the world of eco-minded nutrition professionals—will the soon to be released, USDA's 2010 Dietary Guidelines for American’s finally address sustainability???

No matter what else happens this year, the more agroecology, nutritional ecology, food biodiversity, traditional foodways, and just plain old kitchen wisdom we invest in, the more we will improve our environmental and collective health…what we put on or plates will help to shape the things to come.