After work this evening, I attended an hour-long lecture given by Dr. Martijn B. Katan from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences; Professor of Nutrition at VU University Amsterdam, which was hosted by HSPH's Department of Nutrition. Katan's talk was titled: "Is Nutrition Science?" He touched upon how nutrition could be considered a flawed science and how this perception started. He utilized portions of Micheal Pollan's book, In Defense of Food, to demonstrate that the more we (Americans) worry about nutrition (and the science behind it), the less healthy we seem to become. Most of what we are eating today is not food, but instead "edible food-like substances," which are no longer products of nature, but of food science. Katan also stated that the public's dissatisfaction with nutrition/diet may have started in 1990 with the downfall of margarine-- and noted the media frenzy and consumer uproar that surrounded this research. Overall, Katan's talk was extremely interesting and really got me thinking about the marketing and politics behind the "science" of nutrition. I also made me really want to read Pollan's book and understand his perspective-- perhaps that will be my next read!
Dinner tonight was Simply Asia's Toasted Sesame Garlic noodles to which I added red peppers, snap peas, and red onion. It was a pretty good meal, but I prefer some of Simply Asia's other flavors much more.
From above...
Dessert was toasted Ezekiel bread with chocolate spread. Mmmmm! I am loving this Ezekiel bread; the taste and texture are wonderful!
Noodles: ~350
Ezekiel bread: 80
1 tbsp chocolate spread: 85
Dinner total: 515
My afternoon snack was a banana as well as a piece of Banana Coconut Bread that one of the Deans baked. Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of the bread because I was in a meeting, but it was delicious. I loved the banana-coconut combination! I should ask her for the recipe! :)
Banana Coconut bread: ~200
Banana: 125
Snack total: 325
Banana Coconut bread: ~200
Banana: 125
Snack total: 325
4 Comments:
I'm reading Pollan's book right now! While there are some points that I disagree with in his book, there are also a whole lot of parts that I *do* agree with...he makes pure common sense, and really makes a person think about what they're eating and putting into their bodies.
Since I am almost done Fit from Within, I was thinking about buying that book too, did the speaker you saw have any books or publications out? I would love to read some of his thoughts! By the way, your ezekial bread w/ chocolate spread looks yummy!
Yes, he also mentioned "Food Politics" by Marion Nestle, which is about how marketing needs of the food industry determine too much of the nutrition research that is done. Sounds very interesting! Let me know if you end up reading it. I'm going to add it to my reading list, but I want to read Fit from Within and Pollan's book first.
I just finished his book, and I loved it. He is right on I think. Some of the rules are hard to follow (like the one about five ingredients or less) but I realized that I follow most of them already, at least the majority of the time.
My favorite thing he says is that you shouldn't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize. That really put things in perspective for me.
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