With daily reports about the economic crisis and other urgent national issues grabbing our attention, the fact that our national nutrition crisis can make headlines is noteworthy.

The current obesity epidemic is one symptom of the national nutrition crisis.  Research has implicated the environment we live in as a major predictor of obesity and poor health.  Factors like the availability of neighborhood sidewalks and parks, access to grocery stores with fresh fruits and vegetables, and junk food ads on children’s television programs have all been shown to influence obesity.

These factors can be addressed through state and federal nutrition policy; however, as public health expert and dietitian Suzanne Havala Hobbs notes, much of our nutrition policy is set up to fail.  Failure is, in fact, almost guaranteed due to conflicts of interest within our government (public officials and scientists commonly receive funding from the food industry and processed food manufacturers) and strong fiscal policies that support junk food production. One oft mentioned example of food policy gone awry is the heavy government subsidies of corn production, which drive the availability of massive quantities of cheap high-fructose corn syrup in our food supply.

However, the issue goes beyond the challenges of implementing effective policies to improve American’s health and waistlines.  Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food, has laid out a series of food and nutrition related challenges facing our next administration in an open letter to the President-Elect. Pollan documents the inter-relationship between our current food policy, which supports the production of cheap commodity crops, and the energy crisis, climate change, and the global economy.

He notes, for example, that the current way we produce food uses more fossil fuel than any other sector of the economy other than cars, and contributes to greenhouse gases more than anything else we do.  It is well documented that the dramatic increase in healthcare costs in the past few decades is due to an increase in diet-related chronic diseases like Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer.  And, in recent months, global food shortages due to high prices have led to violence in many countries and will certainly impact future trade policies, while the risk of terrorism involving food supplies is increasingly a national security concern.

Fortunately, Pollan doesn’t just give us the bad news.  He provides a number of suggestions for ways the new administration could improve food policy to address all these inter-linked concerns.  I encourage you to read his article in full, but in the meantime here are some suggestions for your own personal “food policy”:

1. Eat whole foods and avoid processed foods. Refining foods not only removes a lot of nutritional value, the industrial processing and packaging is destructive to the environment. 
2. Buy organic when feasible. Using your food dollars to buy organic foods not only gives you higher levels of nutrients but supports farming practices that are sustainable and healthier for the planet.
3. Buy local. Whenever possible, shop at farmer’s markets, produce stands, or get community-supported agriculture produce delivered to your door.  Start a garden.  Do what you can to minimize the environmental impact of transporting food long-distances (which also minimizes risks of food contamination, purposeful or not).
4. Enjoy your food. OK, I’m not sure whether enjoying your food will help the economy or reduce global warming. However, I do know that when I take the time to really savor my food, eating only when I’m hungry and appreciating the labor that went into producing what I’m eating, I naturally start to eat healthier, eat less, and cultivate gratitude, which I suspect is healthy in lots of ways.