What to Eat: Personal Responsibility versus Social Responsibility

 

Image credit: InsideLoeb by Sean Lavallée

Usually I don't recommend a resource until I've finished reading it -- or in this case, listening to it. But I think it's safe to make this exception:  What to Eat: Personal Responsibility versus Social Responsibility, the podcast of Marion Nestle's presentation at Stanford University on iTunes U.

Yesterday during my afterwork walk,  I listened to  Dr. Nestle discuss research on why people eat more, supermarket "rules" and marketing to children. Her talk entertained, informed and, I admit, dismayed me.  But I think my dismay will be turning into optimism.  I've saved the  last 25 minutes for this afternoon's listening pleasure.  The topic:  the social movements arising from current food issues, e.g.,  eating local, slow food, organic food, humane treatment of animals.

Here's how to find this podcast on iTunes U.

• Go to the iTunes Store. 
• Select iTunes U. 
• Then select these links:  Stanford -> Health and Medicine ->  Healthy Living. This talk is #13.

The deal on saturated fat -- according to Marion Nestle

I need to find a way a saving all of Marion Nestle's wise advice on interpreting complex and contradictory nutrition research, but until then, I will have to use my blog as a repository. (I know some of my readers also read Marion's blog so please excuse the double-posting.)

Today especially I want to make a note of her response to a question that basically is asking "What if saturated fat isn't so bad?"  Here is part of Marion's answer:

(1) All fats–no exceptions–are mixtures of saturated, unsaturated, and polyunsaturated fatty acids (2) Saturated fats occur in greater proportions in animal fats–meat and dairy foods, (3) Some epidemiologic evidence–but not all–suggests that people who eat a lot of meat and dairy foods have a higher risk of heart disease than people who eat a lot of fruit and vegetables (this is correlation, not causation), (4) The same clinical studies that show how trans fats do bad things to blood cholesterol levels also show that saturated fat does too, although not as much (But: people take in a lot more saturated fat than trans fat), and (5) Saturated fat is a single nutrient and the studies reviewed and discussed by the journalists take saturated fat out of its dietary context.

Out-of-context studies of single nutrients are exceedingly difficult to interpret. At the moment, today’s dietary (not single nutrient) advice is the same as it has been for the last fifty years. As I put it in What to Eat, “Eat less, move more, eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, and don’t eat too much junk food.” Michael Pollan gives exactly the same advice: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Do this, and you really don’t need to give a thought to single nutrients.

 Links: What's the Deal on Saturated Fat?, What to Eat (home page)