Purpose of this Blog

Unfortunately, food has become complicated. Cooking is a skill that is steeped in many vague “rules,” we are exposed to a glut of nutritional information and mis-information, and our food takes a mystifying journey from earth to plate. I am obsessed with these things, but I am so because someday I do not want to be. Finding a healthful and satisfying diet is my primary concern, but after reading Michael Pollan's work, I realize that I also need to appreciate how my food is produced.  I will use this blog to express my opinions of nutrition and the experiences of my food journey.

I study nutrition to optimize my diet, however, I do not follow the current nutrition dogma as I used to. I am confident that science has not been the only determinant of our current dietary guidelines, as there are many commercial and bureaucratic interests - therefore I will remain skeptical. Reading Good Calories Bad Calories was enlightening. And I think we should look to evolutionary biology and robust pre-industrialized cultures for insight into a healthful diet. From this perspective, I’ve developed some basic principles to follow when addressing nutrition.

There is a critical difference between correlation and causality. Moderation is a relative term and has no roots in science. We can explain obesity by physiology, not psychology. Sugar is literally fattening. We use reductionism and measure grams and calories to study our diet, but we eat food, therefore our diet is composed of foods, not grams or nutrients. And I’m sick of talking about calories.

So please, join me at the table as I share my experience as a struggling-always in my head-grad student who is constantly balancing the culinary expressing-nutrient containing-money costing-responsible or sustainable- mental dance that I do each time I sit down for a meal.