NYT op ed in today's NYT re funding of diet studies

[CTyankee]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/13/opinion/diet-research-nutrition.html

As you can see, this article argues for funding of studies of the effects of nutrition in people's diets rather than drug related trials which are more richly enabled. While I am all for them if they will yield more and better information to guide us in our eating habits, this article ignores the high cost of eating a nutritional diet that should be factored into the disucssion. Being poor in this country, I would argue, prevents millions of people from having what they want to eat: good nutritional food. This needs to be studied, I am sure, so why does this article not acknowledge this fact of our nutritional life in this country?

I am not an expert on nutrition but I am not what would be classified as poor. I do live by a budget, being elderly and on a fixed income, but I am finding that the cost of food is becoming more and more expensive. If that is the case for me, a middle class consumer, I can only imagine what the poor go through in trying to figure out how to afford good nutritional food for their family.I know this is a political issue locally and statewide here in CT. We have many food activists who are also activists on race and gender bias so it is not considered unimportant by many communities.

Why does this article not mention that factor in its discussion of studying nutrition?

[elleng]

1. Dunno, but these are the authors:

By David S. Ludwig and Steven B. Heymsfield
Drs. Ludwig and Heymsfield are physicians and health scholars.

[CTyankee]

2. I do not doubt that they are esteemed in their fields. I just wonder why they would ignore the

economic situation that is preventing people from getting nutritious food. They appear to be onto something that should be studied but you can't argue that essentially we should eat more healthy foods without considering economic factors.

I wonder why so I will google these two gentlemen...

[Phoenix61]

3. It's not just cost. It's availability.

There are too many areas where fresh fruit and veggies are not available. People wind up shopping at Dollar General. One of the best reasons to promote urban gardening on unused land.

[CTyankee]

5. There's the demand argument here. Fresh fruit and veggies are plentiful in areas of more

affluent folks who can afford to buy them. If you are poor, you have restricted access to stores that supply them so you are forced to eat what is available. And of course, if you are poor you can't afford the prices stores charge.

I am finding that buying fresh fruit is becoming hugely expensive. I cannot buy a huge watermelon and lug it home so I get cut up watermelon. I try to buy in season and off season use the fruit in jars packed in their own juice and that's expensive but less so.

[tman]

4. Interesting piece

Ignoring most modern diet orthodoxy was the best thing I ever did for my health.

The science of nutrition is a complete mess.

[CTyankee]

6. Do you follow nutrition guidelines? What is your system?

[Doremus]

7. The high cost of eating a nutritional diet?

Can you afford cabbage and whole grain noodles? Beans and brown rice? Baked potatoes (without butter & sour cream)? I could go on but you get the idea. All of these foods and hundreds more are nutritious and inexpensive. All are rich in protein, calcium, magnesium and a host of other vitamins and minerals we need to be healthy.

Let's not buy into the BigAg lie that eating well is expensive. It isn't.

[CTyankee]

8. Good point. I don't snoop in people's food cart while shopping so I have no idea if cabbage and

beans and brown rice are being consumed more these days.

I like the beans and wild rice idea. Which beans are best?

[Doremus]

9. I make a mean lentil soup :)

If this is any indication, I'd say more people definitely are giving up meat products in favor of healthier choices.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/13/business/dean-foods-bankruptcy.html

A Milk Giant Goes Broke as Americans Reject Old Staples
Dean Foods filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday. It’s not the first food giant to be caught off guard by a shift in tastes.

When Samuel E. Dean Sr. founded his milk company at a processing facility in Illinois, milkmen still delivered pints to homes all over the United States and children dutifully drank three glasses a day.

That was 1925. Nearly a century later, milk is quickly going out of fashion and Dean Foods — which is now the largest milk company in the United States — has found itself unable to compete as plant-based and lactose-free dairy alternatives rise in popularity.

Saddled with debt and struggling to adjust to changing consumer habits, Dean Foods filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, signaling another grim chapter in the recent struggles of the dairy industry. The company, whose portfolio of brands includes TruMoo and Lehigh Valley, said it was in talks to sell itself to Dairy Farmers of America, a marketing cooperative that sells milk from thousands of farms.