Well Fed Network

Posted by Madeline Miller on Growers and Grocers.

The Well Fed Network was lucky enough to receive an invitation to the Worlds of Healthy Flavors Retreat 2007, an invitation-only held from January 18-21 in the beautiful Napa Valley, California at the Culinary Institute of America’s Greystone campus. (I also have to note that Well Fed was the only web-based media outlet attending the event.) The motto for the event was: “Bringing together the best of world cooking and the latest in nutrition research.”

Hosted by the Culinary Institute of America and the Harvard School of Public Health - Department of Nutrition, the retreat was attended by representatives from chain restaurants, hotels, supermarkets and volume food service. Basically, it was a who’s who of major culinary forces of the world. There were reps from diverse institutions ranging from McDonald’s to Whole Foods Market.

The idea of Worlds of Healthy Flavors was to bring together top nutritional scientists and the people that control the nutrition of widely available food such as corporate chefs, foodservice leaders, world cuisine experts and consumer and trade media. World flavors were emphasized, as was incorporating a wider range of flavors and ingredients into American menus.

So what did I learn in two days worth of presentations? An amazing amount. Here’s a quick summary of the highlights, with more detailed posts to follow:

• Trans fats will someday not be a part of American food. It will be a tough, costly process to get there, but the momentum exists today to make it happen. One of the Harvard scientists referred to trans fats as “metabolic poison.”
• Some corporations, such as Au Bon Pain, have led the charge to eliminate trans fats. Even using their best efforts, they are now only 87 percent trans fat free, with a goal of eliminating trans fats by May 2007.
• After eliminating trans fats, nutrition scientists hope to reduce the amounts of refined starches and sugars in the American diet. Then reducing sodium consumption and increasing fruit and vegetable consumption are the next priorities.
• The soft drink industry will likely be a target soon. They have been clearly linked to obesity and the risk of type 2 diabetes. If an individual drinks one or more sugar sweetened beverages, their risk of diabetes doubles.
• There are signals of change showing up in the foodservice industry, but advocates of change must realize that corporations must have a sustainable business to deliver healthy food.
• Research shows that the risks of consuming small amounts of mercury in fish are outweighed by the benefits of eating fish (pregnant women excepted). Farmed fish actually contain more uber-healthy omega-3 fatty acids than wild fish.
• If Americans doubled their consumption of produce (which we would have to do in order to eat as much as we should be eating), there would not be enough vegetables to go around. More government funding for fruits and vegetables instead of big row crops like wheat, corn, soy and rice would help the problem.