Information about the Aspen Ideas Festival is here. I am scheduled for a session, The American Wellness Paradox, currently scheduled from 11:00-11:50 a.m., at the East Lawn Tent. This will be a discussion with senior HHS policy advisor, Calley Means. Here’s the blurb on it: “Americans are spending more than ever on healthcare, supplements, wellness trends, and “clean eating,” yet rates of chronic disease and metabolic illness continue to climb. As skepticism fuels the rise of movements like MAHA, debates over what Americans should eat have become deeply cultural, political, and economic. Two influential voices with sharply different perspectives on nutrition and food science explore how food systems, farming practices, consumer culture, and the wellness industry collided to create one of the defining public health debates of our time.”
by Marion Nestle
May
10
2009
Weekend fun: eat fast, grow the economy!
According to the latest charts in the New York Times, countries in which people eat more quickly have faster growing economies than countries in which people linger over meals. The Gross National Product in such countries also suffered less severe declines last year. On the other hand, they exhibit higher rates of obesity. Coincidence? Maybe, but here’s another example of why food is such a powerful tool for examining major societal questions.
