Kevin Klatt, PhD, RD

I've kept my posts mostly to nutritional sciences related things, but I actually am pretty big advocate and follower of improving the sustainability component of our food system. I had originally intended to go in that direction from a career perspective, but it's quite vexing to be in a field where there's so many thoughts and opinions on what is the most ideal, sustainable food system. Making a sustainable food system is not as simple as being pro-organic, pro-GMO, pro-local, pro-vegetarian, etc.  One thing that I always find interesting, because it's something that nutritional scientists, dietitians, and clinicians can advocate, is reducing meat consumption. A new report (1) put out by the United Nations advocates for reducing consumption of meat by 60% - taking us back to the 1940's meat consumption - not a simple feat. This is far from a simple issue, with some advocates swearing that local meat is entirely sustainable, and others disagree'ing. For heat...

There are a lot of different thought processes in nutrition. When it comes to employing nutrition research at a population level, there seems to be 2 lines of thought: good enough and perfection. I title this Chocolate Milk and Juice because these are two areas where the debate gets quite heated and you can see these polarized perspectives: Chocolate Milk - Milk is a great source of nutrients, like protein, riboflavin, calcium and (fortified) Vitamins A&D. In America, we have food policy that's made milk production super cheap (when compared to other nations, like India) and milk widely available - it's our society's chosen source of readily available calcium. We all know calcium is extremely important for bone health, and its particularly critical to absorb enough calcium throughout growth and development, to achieve peak bone mass and delay the onset of osteoporosis later in life. However, alongside all of the nutrients in milk, chocolate milk contains a significa...

If you don't already follow Marion Nestle's blog @ foodpolitics.com, I'd highly recommend checking it more frequently. Her perspective on socio-political issues is a nice counter-point sometimes. In perusing her blog, I came across an action notice by the FDA. The FDA will be studying the effects that nutrient claims have on consumer attitudes and responses. I find that this goes quite nicely with my most recent post on Isolated Nutrients and how the food industry likes to manipulate nutrient content to glorify the healthful components of their products. The FDA notes that it's stance "...  does not encourage the addition of nutrients to certain food products (including sugars or snack foods such as [cookies] candies, and carbonated beverages).  "  The FDA will be giving 15 minutes web-based interviews to 7500 individuals that reflect the U.S. Census data regarding gender, SES, age, education, ethnicity, etc. They will be using mock snacks, candy and carbo...