“The doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition.” ― Thomas Edison

The Food Revolution is on its way!

I have been lately focusing quite a bit on food, and the massive food system that influences what we eat every day.

I have taken a class from the Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health on how the whole US food system works - from farm to table.

Through another class, I learned about an initiative across the pond known as the New Nordic Diet (from Scandinavia), which might be an example of how we need to start thinking about eating (and cooking) foods that grow naturally and efficiently where we live.

- If you are interested in learning more on these two classes, check out coursera.org - the new way of free learning, taught by top worldwide schools. 

In addition, I have compiled a great little stack of books on the topic of food. These include one on Food Politics (Marion Nestle is the author), another on the latest research on dieting - better put, on eating (The Calorie Myth by Jonathan Bailor - highly recommended!), and another one (Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss), giving an unvarnished view of the food industry, which seems to finally be coming under a much-needed enhanced level of public scrutiny.

There has been very little good information out there on these subjects until recently, and it has been interesting to learn about some of the research and study in this area that has finally reached the public.  

I am hopeful that the lack of information on food and the overall food system may be about to come to an end.

I make that statement not only because of all the information mentioned above, but also because today, while reading the June issue of Glamour Magazine, of all things, I learned Katie Couric is endorsing this important cause of food awareness, by publishing a documentary in conjunction with film producer Laurie David called Fed Up - in theaters now.

 

What a great initiative! That, along with the Let’s Move campaign Michelle Obama started some time back, should make a dent on this amount of misinformation!

Happy eating and happy learning!

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” - Michael Pollan

Hey there!

Today I’d like to talk about Food!!

Food is essential to life as all living beings need nutrition in some form or another. I’d like to focus on humans and on our interesting ways of feeding ourselves.

I am an adopted child of the USA, and having made the US my home only for the past 14 years, I have noticed some very interesting differences between my new home and my birth country, Portugal.

I remember very clearly the first few times I watched the 6:30 news in the US, and noticing that every single day the topic of food was discussed: “how to fight overweight and obesity; caffeine is good (other times bad) for you; broccoli is great for you;” and the list goes on.

It struck me back then that people were obsessed with the topic of food, and more importantly, obesity. I did not really know what to think of it, and that during the next decade or so I would learn a great deal about it.

I went on to study food science and then work for parties that are key players in the food system in the US and in the world, both in academia, researching ways of enhancing food products with key ingredients that are important for human health, and in the industries that make those and other kinds of food products and eagerly try to sell them to us.

In both instances, the issue of food and feeding ourselves was approached differently than in my birth country. In Portugal, I was taught that eating in moderation, and cooking food from scratch with raw ingredients were the best - better said, the only - approaches to follow. And the reasons were not only related to health, but also - and more importantly - related to economics and culture.

Interestingly enough, 14 years later I am sitting here realizing that the US has caught up with that notion - that eating in moderation and with fresh and unprocessed ingredients makes the most sense for human beings and for the environment around them. 

The US is just reverting back to the uncomplicated days where processed foods did not exist and we humans, lived in harmony with our world and environment. It looks like Portugal had it right all along!

Healthy eating!