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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Newby, P. K., author.
Title: Food and nutrition : what everyone needs to know / P.K. Newby.
Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2018] | Series: What everyone needs to know | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018013010 (print) | LCCN 2018015508 (ebook) | ISBN 9780190846657 (Updf) | ISBN 9780190846664 (Epub) | ISBN 9780190846633 (paperback) | ISBN 9780190846640 (hardcover)
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018013010
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When you get right down to it, food is practically the whole story every time.
Kurt Vonnegut, Galápagos
“good bacteria,” and how are they related to “probiotics,” “prebiotics,” and the “microbiome”?
Plant Protein Power: Beans and Peas, Legumes
PREFACE: WHY
IS
NUTRITION
CONFUSING, AND WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT?
Are you sometimes confused about what to eat for health? Do you want science-based information but don’t know what to believe? Do you feel like nutritionists are always changing their minds? If so, you’re not alone. And it’s exactly why I wrote this book. Its subtitle—What Everyone Needs to Know (and that means you) is nonetheless a bit overwhelming and deeply humbling for this writer, for how can any single work cover the entirety of food and nutrition? After all, “[w]hen you get right down to it, food is practically the whole story every time” (in the wise words of American author Kurt Vonnegut). Thus, no individual book could ever do justice to this vast subject, covering in depth the myriad ways food shapes and impacts our health, environment, economy, and society. I try, even so, to provide what everyone needs to know, taking you on a journey that spans time, space, and place—and large bodies of literature across scientific disciplines like nutrition, agriculture, biology, and anthropology—to better understand how and why what we eat matters, from farm to fork.
But we live in a time of short attention spans fomented by fastmoving newsfeeds that never stop, and contemporary food and nutrition conversations are dominated by anti-science coming from all directions, including self-appointed gurus, Hollywood celebrities, well-meaning bloggers, snake oil salespeople, physicians with next to no training in nutrition—and your mother. People are hungrier than ever for evidence-based answers, but the din of junk science
diet advice is deafening, fueling the oft-heard mantra, “Why is nutrition so confusing?”
The reality is that nutrition is rooted in biochemistry, and knowledge evolves over time, inching forward slowly, a science like any other. Even so, there is far more consensus about diet and health than you would believe: a staggering 80% of chronic diseases are preventable through modifiable lifestyle changes such as diet, which is the single largest contributing factor responsible for today’s chronic disease pandemic. Moreover, modern food production is responsible for grave environmental damage to our land, water, and air and a major contributor to climate change. For these reasons and others, some believe we are undergoing a food revolution. Indeed, more and more people are taking a harder look at what’s on their plate and how it got there—and demanding change in our food system. And I have hope that, decades from now, the tide on chronic disease will have ebbed and agriculture will have embraced more sustainable practices that protect eaters, farmworkers, and our beautiful planet Earth.
You may stumble across information in this book that does not concur with your current views. In these cases, I challenge you to question the source and basis of your information, open your mind, and perhaps follow the advice of Yoda, the sage Jedi master in Star Wars: “You must unlearn what you have learned.” Indeed, the great futurist Alvin Toffler’s similar words ring truer than ever in today’s social media society that shrouds opinions as fact: “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” Science is not a belief system built on faith and unknowable truths but a systematic method of inquiry that, over time, creates a rich body of information illuminating the way the world works—and science is true whether you believe it or not, to paraphrase Neil deGrasse Tyson. In the case of nutrition science, this knowledge can literally save your own life—and maybe even the planet—and make the world a better, safer place for all creatures, great and small.
My ultimate goal is therefore that this book not only answers some of today’s most pressing questions in a way that stimulates your mind but also leads to action. Perhaps it will whet your appetite for more information, and I encourage you to seek more detailed
accounts of the science and history if you’re so inclined. (A selected bibliography is provided at the book’s end, and a complete list of the 1200+ references is found at pknewby.com.) Although this book is rooted in human health and disease, the realm of traditional nutrition, I also raise awareness about our culinary past and highlight critical issues in our present that encourage a more global and compassionate view of why food’s influence lies far, far beyond our own bodies. While the book concludes by considering what tomorrow’s supper will look like based on current trends in science and technology, paramount is the knowledge that it is we, everyday eaters, who shape the future of food with every choice we make, every bite we eat. Together, we possess the collective power to create the change in the world we wish to see, stimulating the necessary revolution we need to save ourselves and our planet.
P.K. Newby, ScD, MPH, MS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book would never have been written had I not had the good fortune (and good sense) to enroll in “Nutritional Ecology.” It was the early 1990s, and Joan Gussow, EdD, led this class at Columbia University’s Teacher’s College. I was a new graduate student and quaffed hungrily every bit of knowledge I could about food and nutrition. The “Aha!” moment this course provided indelibly changed my life—and the course of my career. I jumped on the bandwagon, (still) proselytizing my own mantra “From farm to fork, what we eat matters!” encouraging Harvard and other places to add environmental nutrition to their curriculum, with varying degrees of success. It is because of Dr. Gussow that “farm to fork” eating—nutrition ecology—became the organizing philosophy for the many courses I developed and taught over the years, helping students connect their dietary choices with impacts on the environment, economy, and society, not just personal health. The concepts are far from novel, yet remain eye opening, and life changing, to so many. Today’s escalating climate change crisis has once again raised attention to how conventional agriculture is contributing to the destruction of our planet, and more and more eaters are taking a harder look at what’s on their plate, and how it got there. I am deeply grateful to the countless students who have attended my classes over the years, and to the public as well, all of whom have come to hear me speak passionately about these issues—especially for their ongoing inspiration, intelligent questions, and warm support. I’m also very appreciative to Oxford University Press for publishing this necessary book, the first of its kind, with special thanks going to my editor, Angela Chnapko,
for her patience and guidance throughout the process. Dr. Gregory Newby, my older brother, has been particularly supportive of my intellectual pursuits since the beginning and has been a wonderful mentor, sounding board, and editor from this book’s conception. My dad, Neville Newby, gets a shout-out for being a life-long valued guide and friend, in all things, and my deep passion for food (gardening, cooking, baking, and the like) was cultivated as a child and is attributed solely to my mother, Linda Newby. My husband, Dr. Vilas Sridharan has been an ongoing source of support, emotionally and financially. And K’Ehleyr, our feisty black lab, has been my trusty writing companion, contributing to a peaceful environment (and also dragging me away from my desk for afternoon walks).
FOOD AND NUTRITION
WHAT
EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW®
Part I WHY WHAT WE EAT MATTERS
FARM TO FORK
Our food supply is more plentiful than ever, yet many of the challenges we’ve faced throughout history, like famine, nutrient deficiencies, and hunger, still plague our world. And a range of new health conditions and chronic diseases has emerged as a function of longer lives and changing lifestyles. At the same time, grave environmental damages related to food production threaten our Earth, its people, and future generations. Who is responsible, and what is the path forward?
1
FRAMING TODAY’S FOOD AND NUTRITION ISSUES
What’s this book about?
The Oxford Living Dictionary defines “food” as “a nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink or that plants absorb in order to maintain life and growth.” It cites the often used phrase “food for thought” as “Something that warrants serious consideration.” Both are perfect fodder to begin this book.
The contents herein focus on food in the literal sense, including the who, what, where, when, how, and why surrounding the basic act of eating. The goal is to provide, as the title suggests, everything you need to know when it comes to food and nutrition. At the book’s core is the question: how does what we eat impact health, longevity, and disease? An additional goal is to demonstrate how contemporary diet trends, whether gluten-free or Paleo-only, can be viewed through a scientific lens; this allows readers to understand whether such fads are meaningful for health or just plain hooey. How food choices are made and the way in which our eating environments shape our diets are also part of “what everyone needs to know” as it’s this information that steers and empowers the lasting and meaningful behavior change—yes, it is possible!—that enables healthy living.
Yet as important as physical nourishment is the food for thought this book offers. Indeed, “when you get right down to it, food is practically the whole story every time,” wrote author Kurt Vonnegut in his novel Galápagos. Thus, an additional aim is to expand the lens through which you view supper throughout time, space, and place.
