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.”
UK report on the decline in kids’ health
The headline in The Guardian: UK children shorter, fatter and sicker amid poor diet and poverty, report finds.
It’s principal findings:
- The height of 5 year olds has been falling since 2013.
- Obesity among 10-11 year olds has increased by 30% since 2006.
- Type 2 diabetes among under 25s has increased by 22% in the past 5 years.
- Babies born today will enjoy a year less good health than babies born a decade ago.
As it says in the introduction,
Crucially, the report not only highlights a deeply worrying increase in conditions driven by calorie dense diets such as obesity and type 2 diabetes, but also highlights the equally concerning and substantially less talked about results of poor-quality diets and undernutrition….All children should be able to eat in way that fuels their bodies and minds, giving them sufficient calories and nutrients to be free from hunger and diseases of nutritional deficiency, while being protected from the bombardment of ultra-processed, highly sugary and salty foods that most often contribute to excess calorie intake but lack vitamins, minerals, fibre, healthy fats and quality protein.
Comment
I’m guessing if a similar study were to be done in the United States, its results would be similar. Children are the future of our nation and society; they deserve good health and protection against junk food.
