INFORMATION IS GOOD. EDUCATION IS BETTER.

In the United States we live in a culture where “more is better”. This is apparent in the size of our vehicles, the size of our typical food portions, and statistically in the size of our waists. When asked the question, “Should restaurants and fast food chains be required to provide their clients with nutritional information of the products they make?”, I feel compelled to reply with, “Well, sure, why not. But what good will having that information do?”. In order to really answer the question we need to back up a little. What good is information that you don’t really know what to do with? A chemical formula for Trinitrotoluene in the hands of someone who knows what to with it could be hazardous. The same formula in the hands of an average person is quite harmless; they may never know they hold the recipe for dynamite. If knowledge is power, then information is that power’s potential.

In 1993 the US Food and Drug Administration brought the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) into effect. According to the NLEA “Food labeling is required for most prepared foods, such as breads, cereals, canned and frozen foods, snacks, desserts, drinks, etc.” This makes the United States one of the countries with the most amount of nutritional information available to them on the shelves. So, why is it that approximately two thirds of adults, and roughly nine million American children are considered to be overweight or obese? It is simply not enough to only provide the data. We need to learn how to interpret it. In the old days we used to only worry about fat and calories. Nowadays, fat is broken down into saturated, unsaturated and trans fat. Calories are broken down into sugars and carbohydrates, and suddenly fiber is the new kid on the block. But at the end of the day, what does it all mean? In the same way that we learn that it’s always “i before e except when followed by c” we should also be taught “protein before sugar except when followed by fiber”. I am 34 years old, and I am still dumbfounded by the nutritional labels on simple things like breakfast cereal. A box of Trix has fewer carbohydrates than a box of Grape-Nuts but also has two less grams of fiber than Grape-Nuts. If I know I weigh 230 lbs how can I place two grams into context? I can clip a fingernail and lose two grams; but how important is two grams of fingernail in the context of my entire body? I have access to the data, but I don’t know what to do with it. The solution comes back to education. Make nutrition the fourth “R” (along with reading, writing and arithmetic).

On Wednesday March 10, 2004 the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act (a.k.a. Cheeseburger Bill). The bill postulates that people should be responsible for their own choices under the principle of volenti non fit injuria (the voluntary assumption of risk). The underlying assumption here is that we should be able to exercise enough self-restraint to make our nutritional choices with a certain amount of wisdom and moderation. After all, even too much water can be harmful to the average person.

The critics of the cheeseburger bill are up in arms because they feel that this bill absolves the “corporate fat cats” from adhering to any sort of social responsibility. But in the end, what is that saying about our ability to choose? Herein lies the dilemma. We can have the choice and eat ourselves into heart attacks, or we can give up some of the choice and end up healthier. Lord Acton stated, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. Absolute choice, it seems, has a tendency to do the same. But, if we can become better informed about the choices that we make, then we can take that power back and “uncorrupt” it. If we fundamentally understood the concept of nutrition and its components we would surely think twice about super-sizing our next fix. Why is it that we can expect high school students to understand how to work a graphing calculator, and yet, not to understand some basic biochemistry when it comes down to how food is broken down in our bodies? The Sonoma County Family Nutrition Task Force in California is beginning work on programs that will attack the problem from three main viewpoints: give the kids healthier choices in vending machines and cafeterias at schools, advise physicians on ways to better “spread the word” about nutrition, and lastly, show the parents how to make nutritional lifestyle changes to instill better eating habits. The task force aims to use preventive measures to decrease the contributing factors to heart disease, diabetes and other diet related illnesses. Don’t put off ‘til tomorrow what you can do today. Education allows us to make better and more informed choices.

While requiring restaurants and fast food chains to provide their clients with nutritional information of the products they make may be a good idea, teaching people what to do with all the nutritional data we throw at them would be much better. We can also benefit from decreasing the amount of excess available to the general public (even if it has to be through legislation). McDonald’s, to their credit, have said that they will be phasing out the super-size value meals by the end of 2004. We will have less choice, but that will be a good thing. We have proven to ourselves that we could not exercise enough self-restraint to make good choices regarding food consumption. As the saying goes, “You can’t talk yourself out of a problem you’ve behaved yourself into”. Then again, with enough nutritional education (and the ability to finally make contextual sense of the data) we may find that those choices we no longer have were never viable anyway. Groups like the Sonoma County Family Nutrition Task Force have right idea. Information is good. Education is better.


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DISCLAIMER: This blog is intended to house my opinions and observations on the world as I see it. Although my arguments may come from the more emotional realm I do try to apply as much fact as I have available to me at the time of writing. I am not writing an encyclopedia here, I am writing opinions. Av
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