Crossposted from the Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet .
On Thursday, June 28, the Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet project and the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition will release Eating Planet--Nutrition Today: A Challenge for Mankind and for the Planet in New York City. Today, Nourishing the Planet highlights a contributing author of Eating Planet, and shares his views on how to fix the broken food system. Tune in on the 28th via livestream : we will be taking questions in real time from the audience, from the livestream , and from Twitter and Facebook .
Alexandre Kalache is one of the world's leading experts on aging, particularly the care and treatment of the elderly and the epidemiology of aging. Kalache's concluding vignette in the Food for Health chapter of the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition's most recent publication: Eating Planet 2012 -- Nutrition Today: A Challenge for Mankind and for the Planet , questions whether living longer is necessarily better. In his piece, Kalache challenges the measure of lifespan as an indicator for societal health and well-being, and instead stresses the significance of health span and quality of life in determining the success of healthcare policies.
Although average life expectancies have
increased drastically over the course of the past century, Kalache suggests
that life-style related diseases including diabetes, cardiovascular disease,
and certain forms of cancer, as well as the rapid onset of obesity, pose an
imminent threat to the gains in life-expectancy from modern medical
advancements. In addition to tobacco smoking and excessive alcohol consumption,
Kalache points to unhealthy diets and sedentary life-styles as major
contributing sources of age-associated diseases. In addition to decreased
quality of life and reduced lifespans, these life-style related diseases also
contribute to increased health care costs and less money for other public
services, such as schools and parks, that would improve the quality of life for
communities at large.
In light of the recent emergence of
lifestyle-induced diseases, and the healthcare costs associated with these
preventable diseases, Kalache stresses the need for policies that would ensure
good health and quality of life for the world's aging population, particularly
obesity prevention.
According to Kalache, numerous studies
demonstrate the benefits of a reduced calorie diet, including the potential for
the extension of the human life span to 150 years or more. Kalache recognizes,
however, that the reduction in calorie consumption that would be required to
reach this ideal would most likely hinder individuals' quality of life and
would ultimately be unpopular with the general public. For Kalache, the
question of how to best implement culturally appropriate and sustainable
policies that promote balanced diets and healthy lifestyles that would in turn
enhance both individuals' quality of life and life expectancy presents the
primary challenge for health policymakers today.
Effective public health policies, according to
Kalache, optimize the opportunities for health participation and security, and
also enhance the quality of life for individuals as they age. Such policies
would include increased government investment in marketing research as a means
of evaluating and enhancing existing healthy habits and preferences of the
population. Successful policies would also utilize this information to
encourage culturally appropriate and healthy lifestyle behaviors with fiscal
and legal policies, such as subsidizing fruits and vegetables, and taxing
unhealthy food items while also prohibiting food items such as sugary drinks
and fatty foods from public institutions such as schools.
Tune in to the launch on the 28th via livestream : we will be taking questions in real time from the
audience, from the livestream , and from Twitter and Facebook .
You can also purchase your own copy of Eating Planet for $3.99 on Amazon
or iTunes .
