City Diet / Sustainable Eating
Practical guidelines and considerations for sustainable health
and solving the health-care crisis
To Begin - A Proposal
The City Diet is not merely disseminating information about food, it is about the heart and soul of food, life, health, community and who we are as people. We are concerned then about our epigenetics, or the environment we create for the expression of our genes.
What part do our food choices play in the environment of our cells? We have evolved with our foods and they communicate with our cells, says Sayer Ji of Green Med Info.
Once we start paying attention to what we are eating, by reading labels and such, it sometimes seems there is nothing we can eat that won't cause harm. This is because our food system is very corrupted. Our goal here is to inform our community of the dangerous toxins in our highly processed, refined and artificial foods so that we can begin to demand better from our food industry. Suppliers often say they will only respond to change when consumers demand it. We hope to convince them we want better. A sure-fire way to do this is to inform them of our preferences and vote with our dollars.
With a little more effort, education and discretion in our food choices it is possible to avoid (by voting with our dollars) many of these toxins. Then, as suppliers respond, our choices will become a bit easier, our health and the health of our community will become more sustainable and the health care crisis will diminish.
A study was done by the Department of Nutrition at the University of North Carolina, to discover how much training medical students received in nutrition. Of the 127 accredited U.S. medical schools approached, 109 responded; 103 required some form of nutrition education, but only 25% required a dedicated nutrition course with average contact hours of 19.6. Their conclusion: "This amount of nutrition education is inadequate." Therefore, our physicians may not have a comprehensive understanding of nutrition either. Sorry docs, just presenting the facts as disclosed by this study.
So, while we must seek the guidance of our physicians, we must also remember to listen to our own inner physician. In the words of Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine and originator of the Hippocratic Oath taken by all doctors on entering the medical field, "Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food." It is safe to assume he was not talking about the Standard American Diet or SAD diet. Hippocrates also said "First do no harm."
As well, it is abundantly clear that there is plenty of conflicting information out there. Dr. Joseph Mercola MD (of mercola.com) stated, "In the last few years, there has been a literal explosion of data in the nutritional sciences. Sometimes when addressing this data we are put in the uncomfortable situation of realizing that today's facts are rapidly becoming tomorrow's fiction. However, by keeping an open mind and always questioning what we think we know, we will be able to provide our patients with the best and most innovative care possible." What you hear from your doctors or friends may not be what you find here. They will be learning along with us.
Together we will explore some current thinking, research and policies regarding the toxic components of the Standard American Diet which are undermining our health. We will leave it to you to decide what is best for you.
The City of New York led the country by establishing a trans fat ban in restaurants and public food service venues. It's Mayor Bloomberg attempted limiting the size of soft drinks at fast food restaurants. The Navajo Nation, it's precincts spanning northern Arizona and New Mexico, has instituted a junk food tax. What can we do here in Tucson?
To see what some of our medical experts say you can watch this senate sub-committee hearing on integrative health organized by Senators Harkin and McKulsky to address the health care crisis. Participants included Dr. Andrew Weil, Dr. Mahmet Oz, Dr. Mark Hyman and Dr. Dean Ornish. Those interested can view the entire session at http://help.senate.gov/hearings/hearing/?id=036295750924cb2e13b68a8065ababb
The three hour hearing can be watched in segments. The doctors discuss how so many of our chronic diseases, 75-80% are preventable with good nutrition and recommend an educational campaign across the nation to address the problem. One senator said she did not believe the government would take this on and that it would likely be left to individual or grass roots initiative to educate the people.
An all too common comment, by many people on learning of the dangers of these artificially processed foods, begs the question, "Why does the FDA and the government continue to allow these toxic food like substances to be sold to the people?" A child's insight follows:
The Girl Who Silenced the World for 5 Minutes (from conference on the environment Brazil) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQmz6Rbpnu0
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copyright © The City Diet Project <citydiet at gmail.com> metasofa.org/citydiet updated 2012 Jan 23