The food industry really did help solve the kind of nutrient deficiency related diseases that we were seeing of the day in the early 1900s and helped people avoid malnutrition as you say. I think it was well intentioned but there were some mistakes and mistakes happen and they were you know unintentional. We took this kind of reductionist view of nutrition which is called been called nutritionism where you break down a food into its little components and you try to fix health that works for vitamin deficiency diseases quite well. It doesn't work for complex chronic diseases related to our gut microbiome and our liver health and our brain health and our heart health where it's much more complicated so I think that's one mistake
Episode #246. Have you ever considered the way our current food system was shaped? Or the way it continues to impact modern dietary guidelines? This episode is for you. In this conversation with distinguished researcher Professor Dariush Mozaffarian, we analyse the past 120 years of nutrition science and assess how this research continues to impact the modern diet.
We cover:
- Introduction (00:00)
- A Journey Through Nutrition Science History (03:49)
- The Food Industry's Contributions to Improving Vitamin and Calorie Deficiency and What Went Wrong (16:05)
- The Evolution of Dietary Guidelines (26:59)
- Are Food Rating Systems Accurate? (37:48)
- Is the Role of Saturated Fat in Nutrition Neutral? (44:22)
- Understanding the Algorithm Behind Tufts' Food Compass (46:57)
- Industry Funding and Scientific Research (52:03)
- Validating the Food Compass Scoring System (57:04)
- Are Breakfast Cereals Healthier? (01:04:45)
- The Food Compass System: A Work in Progress (01:08:04)
- Exploring the Uses of the Food Compass and the Possibility of Improving Its Functionality (01:10:33)
- Takeaways (01:29:19)
- Outro (01:34:50)
If you found this conversation informative, you can learn more about Dr Mozaffarian here, and read more of his work here. If you have any additional questions you would like answered in future, make sure to leave a comment on YouTube.
Discover more insights and supporting resources in the full show notes.
Enjoy, friends.
Simon
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Simon Hill, MSc, BSc (Hons)
Creator of theproof.com and host of The Proof with Simon Hill
Author of The Proof is in the Plants
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