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“Well Fed but Undernourished”

What is a micronutrient?

Micronutrient is the umbrella term used to represent essential vitamins and minerals required from the diet to sustain virtually all normal cellular and molecular functions. 

My initial vision is to use the US consumer market to drive awareness and functionally change the food system towards nutrients. However, the issue of undernourishment is a global issue. Maybe there is some overlap here.

31% of the US is at risk of at least one vitamin deficiency (or anemia from iron). (link) We’ll need another day to define what deficiency actually means. My theory is that this number will grow as we define what humans actually need to thrive. The deficiencies are:

  • Vitamins: A, B6, B12, C, D, E and folate
  • Minerals: Iron

Globally we’re here (link):

  • Iron, iodine, folate, vitamin A, zinc

On both lists we have:

  • Iron, folate, and Vitamin A

Perhaps by focusing on these we may be able to accomplish US roll-out and global impact.

 Nutrition is the most powerful adaptable environmental exposure to target in order to reduce the burden of diseases and death across the life span around the world. 

80,000 hours

40 years of work x 50 weeks x 40 hrs per week = 80,000 hrs

What to do with it? The organization 80,000 Hours is working to answer this question.

The content is HEAVY but worth reviewing. I recommend sharing with anyone who asks, ‘what should I do with my life?” The scope can be limiting at times. There are many, many problems and their definition of most critical is quite specific.

Here is how 80,000 Hours invites you to to impact a cause the most effectively. They recommend these problem areas.

  • Research in relevant areas
  • Government policy
  • Work at effective non-profits
  • Apply an unusual strength to a needed niche

Does this line up with what I’m trying to do? A bit. Here is what I’m thinking right now.

  • Modern food research is difficult to understand. Do you trust your doctor? The FDA? Are eggs good or bad for you?
  • Do we trust the FDA to shape food policy? Dig into trans-fats or BPA for your answer there.
  • I don’t know enough about non-profits in food, but many of the shopping habits today are influenced by consumer demand.

What if we:

  • Understand existing food research and usher it into the food system quickly by raising customer awareness?
  • Drive changes in government policy by leveraging widespread consumer demand in the private industry?

The number of years of human life lost to obesity is in the billions. Causes are varied and complicated. Let’s figure it out.

Random links for bored people:

Sam Harris interview with William MacAskill – “Being Good and Doing Good”

https://globalprioritiesinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/gpi-research-agenda.pdf

https://80000hours.org/problem-profiles/

News from The Underground

Which vegetable will make the best example as our nutrition guinea pig?

  • Which vegetable is most popular?
    • What nutrients do we expect to be obtaining from this vegetable?
    • Do these relate to any major deficiencies in the global population?

What did I find from this data:

  • Yawn, potatoes
  • I like the idea of broccoli as a test subject because it’s popular, green, and cruciferous (more on this later.) I’m still holding on to carrots as well.
  • People seem to be buying more veggies because they care about nutrition.
    • What does actual sales data say?
  • Organic is a can of worms that I will open later
  • People probably care where their food is coming from. I doubt people know what fair trade is. BUT – the power of labeling and mass categorization may be a powerful tool.

Data summary: (From a survey of 1,000 consumers from The Packer magazine, a produce industry publication.)

When asked which vegetables they had purchased in the past 12 months, the respondents said:

  1. Potatoes
  2. Tomatoes
  3. Onions
  4. Carrots
  5. Broccoli

Some other responses:

  • 6 in 10 are more likely to buy a vegetable when listed as “fair trade”
  • 70% of shoppers said they are buying more produce
    • 75% of these consumers said they were buying more produce for “better nutrition”

Why do consumers choose organic produce?

  • 60% to avoid chemicals
  • 48% for nutrient content / personal health
  • 34% environmental responsibility

Additionally, 57% of all respondents said they would buy organic if price was no object.

Where should I put this Vitamin K?

Here is a summary of triage theory from Dr. Bruce Ames (linked below).

  1. Your body uses certain micronutrients (vitamins / minerals) in different ways
  2. Some of these uses are for short term survival, others protect your long term health
  3. When your body has a limited amount of a certain micronutrient, it will prioritize the short term use (and the long term use will be starved that micronutrient)

Why is this important:

  1. Only a small fraction of the population has adequate micronutrient consumption
  2. For those moderately deficient, but not extremely deficient, there may be no short term symptoms at all
  3. Over time, these moderate deficiencies are adding to chronic illness

Stick with me here, time for science:

Your body creates proteins to do specific jobs in the body. These proteins are built form amino acids. Your body can build many, many kinds of proteins.

We know the functions of (10) proteins that require Vitamin K to complete their functions. Of these ten, (7) of them have jobs in the body related to blood clotting. When you take these proteins away from mice, they die. They are short term important.

When you have limited Vitamin K intake, your body will prioritize giving it to the (7) proteins to keep you alive. You need a surplus of Vitamin K to keep the other (3) functioning.

What do those other (3) proteins do? They seem to have a role in bone health, calcium in your arteries, and glucose regulation.

In the US and the UK, we’re not getting enough Vitamin K. We’re not even sure if the “getting enough” recommendation is adequate.

More to follow. In the meantime, eat your greens.

Triage Theory, Bruce Ames

Random link to Quora on protein

Disclaimer re: citations

The purpose of these posts is to share interesting findings as I navigate and digest the complex world of human nutrition. When possible I will link to the source material. However, I may miss some details and I will not be formally citing reference material. I will be drafting more detailed information through different forms that will be more data intensive.

Your body makes a choice

Do I send this vitamin to support an immediate need to keep me alive?

OR

Do I send this vitamin to support longevity?

When you are short on a vitamin, your body will choose to support short term survival. This is what most nutrition is based on. This is a big deal and probably the future of nutrition and health. Lots to unpack and learn here. I highly recommend this interview.

Fake meat is a dead end

Food industry question of 2019: “What do you think of Beyond Meat and the Impossible Burger?”

Mostly, I haven’t thought about this. Here is what I tell people:

  1. Yes, meat consumption is broken
  2. Yes, this will likely reduce meat consumption
  3. No, they are probably not healthy
  4. No, they are not the future of food

I’d be cautious on investing. Are they blowing their R&D budget? Are they meeting revenue targets? What % of the meat market share do they expect to capture? (I have not looked at any of this.)

My hypothesis is food should be:

  • Nutrient dense
  • As unprocessed as necessary (waste of energy)
  • Help rather than hurt soil
  • Be part of a robust, sensible, safe and diverse farming system
  • Something consumers want to eat
  • Consider to nutrition ratio (go away bananas)

They should create plant-based, altogether new foods that consumers actually prefer to animal byproducts, covering the same nutritional value and then some.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/startupnationcentral/2019/05/15/ready-or-not-the-food-of-the-future-is-coming/#7352299c3e11