Category Archives: Diet

Getting beyond ’empty signifiers’—Food policy expert Corinna Hawkes asks: What are food systems for?
Advocacy / Agri-Health / Agriculture / Article / Diet / Opinion piece / Policy

Getting beyond ’empty signifiers’—Food policy expert Corinna Hawkes asks: What are food systems for?

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Corinna Hawkes, director of the Centre for Food Policy at City, University of London, UK, asks all of us concerned with ‘food systems’ of one kind or another to think beyond ’empty signifiers’, even beyond visions for better food systems, and to get back to a fundamental question—what should be the purpose of food systems? If we can reach agreement on that, she argues, we can then set about creating diverse visions and actions, suiting diverse circumstances, for fulfilling that agreed-upon purpose. Continue reading →

US nutrition experts say limits on saturated fats should no longer be recommended to reduce heart disease
Consumption / Diet / Event report / Human Health / News clipping / North America / Nutrition / USA

US nutrition experts say limits on saturated fats should no longer be recommended to reduce heart disease

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Following a two-day, DC-based workshop entitled “Saturated Fats: A Food or Nutrient Approach?” a group of leading nutrition scientists, mainly from the U.S., released a consensus statement detailing their findings on the latest research regarding the intake of saturated-fats and heart disease. After reviewing the evidence, the expert group agreed that the most rigorous and current science fails to support a continuation of the government’s policy limiting consumption of saturated fats. Continue reading →

The meat wars: A backlash is occurring on the backlash to meat dietary recommendations published late last year
Advocacy / Agri-Health / Animal Products / Consumption / Diet / Nutrition / Science paper

The meat wars: A backlash is occurring on the backlash to meat dietary recommendations published late last year

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On 19 Nov 2019, guidelines were published in the Annals of Internal Medicine that caused a backlash, and now a backlash on the backlash is occurring. The abstract to the original 2019 Annals article, titled Unprocessed red meat and processed meat consumption: Dietary guideline recommendations from the Nutritional Recommendations (NutriRECS) Consortium, had the following results and recommendations to report. Continue reading →

Inalienable imperative—More, and more sustainable, meat, milk, eggs and fish for more than one billion people
Advocacy / Agri-Health / AMR / Animal Products / Climate Change / Consumption / Diet / Environment / Fish / Food Security / GHG emissions / ILRI / Nutrition / Policy / Pro-Poor Livestock / Science paper / Vulnerability

Inalienable imperative—More, and more sustainable, meat, milk, eggs and fish for more than one billion people

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A new scientific article from the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems has four big messages: (1) Meat, offal, milk, eggs and fish are vital to—and missing from—the diets of nearly 800 million people. (2) ‘Animal-sourced foods’ are the best sources of high-quality nutrient-rich food for toddlers 6–23-months old. (3) The harms caused by livestock and animal-sourced foods to human and planetary health are overstated. (4) Sustainable development must address the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world. Continue reading →

On why the EAT-Lancet’s ‘Great Food Transformation’ will require a ‘Great Economic Transformation’—and more
Consumption / Diet / Nutrition / Policy / Science paper

On why the EAT-Lancet’s ‘Great Food Transformation’ will require a ‘Great Economic Transformation’—and more

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A new paper by scientists at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Tufts University analyses the costs of adopting the ‘universal reference diet’ recommended for both human and planetary health by the EAT-Lancet Commission (Willett et al., Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems, 16 Jan 2019). Such a diet, report the paper’s authors, is beyond the means—indeed, it exceeds the total household per capita incomes—of more than one and a half billion people today. Continue reading →