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Ale:,:ander Comfort i_~hed, for tha anthroFoto~eal reason THE WORLD DIET REVOLUTION Center Associate Alexander Comfort, M.D., is an Honarar3, Research Associate o] the Department of Zoology, and Director of Research h2 Gerontology at University College, London. Dr. Comfort is probably the worM's most distinguished gerontologist; a noted biologist and physician. He is also a poet, playwright, novelist, and editor of the boo,t:, The Joy of Sex. The rising price of food in the United States represents not economic mis- management alone, but the first rip- ples of the world food shortage fore- cast by futurologists. Like the growing energy crisis, it is arriving on or a little ahead of schedule. Our eat- ing behavior resembles our sexual be- havior in that while at one l~evel it is biologically programmed (we need certain ingredients in certain quan- tities), eating habits are anthropologi- cally determined. Because it is the anthropology of American eating rather than its economics which is at present in question, it becomes inter- esting to look at the future pattern of food in general. The size of our unconscious invest- ment in eating habits can be measured from the fact that implication of change in them is as disturbing to con- servatives as the prediction of change in sexual mores, while radicals often substitute dietary for moral prescrip- tions, or supplement one with another. L6vi-Strauss would understand this equivalence ~ puritanism and radi- calism correlated with valuations (often quite unfounded in fact) of simplicity, naturalness and plainness. Conservatism may do the same: quan- tities of food may imply prestige, as does conspicuous waste, especially in a second generation reacting to past poverty. Magical ideas of the virility- value of red meat or the purifying quality of vegetables, and sophistica- tion-assertion (cordon bleu) are also identifiable. Graham crackers, made of unsifted wholewheat flour, started not as a promotion but out of an evangelical enthusiasm on the part of a militant anti-se,,malist who believed that red meat promoted lust. The American public has had little accurate nu~tional ad~ice, and would not readily heed it if it had. Its dietary habits are about to be modified by necessity. At present, aside from the sizeable proportion of Americans who can no more afford self-selection in food than they can in morals, the folk- image of correct diet is based on the prescriptions of deceased mothers; in- flated in the direction of conspicuous consumption. In this respect the mass- ive consumption of dairy produce and meat is a gesture, not a preference; like the American love of firearms, it is an exaggeration of an historically- patterned tradition. An anthropologist dining in most restaurants would notice the emphasis on quantity, es- pecially of "high-quality" foods such as meat and butter, which are served and paid for but normally not finished. A typical Amerlcan steak would serve a family, not only in Asia but also in most of Europe, where it would be accompanied by diluent foods (pota- toes, rice) which are served in Amer- ica but commonly left. The anthro- pologist's impression might be of a chair-borne and car-borne citizen at- tempting, for fantasy and cultural reasons, to eat a diet appropriate to a log-hewing pioneer. The Administra- tion's advice to Americans that they should eat le_~s has annoyed the pro~erous more than the undernour- that the v, bility to overeat and to wzste have become cultural differentiants b)" which we assert non-poverVl, implicit in our use of the word "rich," and hence our industa3, and worthiness. On the other hand, and in spite of the still undernourished twenty per cent, unlike Marie Antoinette's dietary suggestion, the Administration is right. About fi~ty per cent of adult male deaths in the United States are prob- ably precipitated, in whole or in part, by animal fats and the maternal image of a "healthy" diet based on dairy products, a number second only to those precipitated by cigarette smok- ing. The responsible foods (fat meat, eggs, whole milk and many milk prod- ucts, and possibly sucrose) are also among the most wasteful to produce, and include those which, by a combi- nation of policy and world demand, are being priced out of consumption. It seems fairly clear that by the year 2000 or sooner, beef will be eaten throughout the developed world rather in the way that pheasant or venison is now ~ as an occasional luxury. We have accordingly a choice of paths, and will probably choose both. On one hand, intelligent business plan- ning will foresee coming shortages and try to accustom us to substitutes. On the other hand, knowing that many civilized diseases, especially atheroma and coronary disease, are partly sump- tuary, and related to excessive high- energy food consumption, it would be possible to plan future dietary habits so as to make a virtue of necessity, since the changes needed to avert shortages are precisely those needed to improve public health ~ wider use of vegetable and fish products and sub- stitution of unsaturated for saturated fats. The main physiological difficulty in the way of a reeducation lies in the fact that we have acquired the habit of eating quality foods to satiety; one contributor to future technological diets is likely to be an increase in palatable non-nutritious fdlers based on cellulose such as non-caloric spa- ghetti. Protein substitute meats of vegetable origin are already with us in far larger quantities than consumers realize. These are mostly based either on soy protein or on cultured molds 35 T!2~9!-0~44

and bacteria. They ~ I:~ te.~zred ~d flavored to resemble meats, and their maifi drav:b~=k, that they do not contrAn uma~zrated membran~ lipide, is remed~able by addition. Butter can ~e -- and in Europ~ now largely is -- replaced by unsaturated vegetabIe fat margarines, which are more econom- ical than the production of "unsatur- ated" buttcr made by feeding the same oils to cattle. Milk remains a key com- modity in ma'mtaining a stock econ- omy ~ much of it is" already skimmed or defattcd, but the breakthrough point is likely to be the development of tasteless dehydration. At the moment we spend millions of dollars hauling water about the country. Once de- hydrated and reconstitutable milk can be made indistinguishable from fresh milk, the liquid commodity will be priced out. At the same time, once milk becomes not a liquid but a pow- der to be rcconstituted, total replace- ment with an unsaturated synthetic is only a matter of time; the coffee bean is going the same way, but remains necessary as a starting point, which the cow is not. If I were a food merchant I would sit down like Pharaoh and deal wisely with thenl, knowing that I had the in- formed resources and ecology lobby and the American Heart Association on my side, together with the growing unease among the young over what a Hindu once d~-'n~oM to deplorable habit of feasting on co~_=es." I wo~d b~ng out a soy ~d mold prote~ c~ ~n~e~ or Con- eem (t~ ~e dy~g out o~ ea~g) and promote it ~th ~er~ of a slau~terhome vddo~g buRer, ~o~g ~at ~e mo~ers now at co,ego ~I pro- g~ the hcMthy food habi~ of ~mre h~bmds ~d sons. S~cc m~ropol- o~ dete~es eat~g habit, such a venture wo~d be of a piece ~th chang op~on md in l~c wi~ cco- no~c fact, ~d it mi~t ~1 off some of the ~ossly defi~ent "macrobiotic" or o~e~se fre~ die~ ~ong young which ~c ~ducing Iost dise~es ~ke scu~ ~ong ~cir devotees. I would buy stock in ~h ~d ~esh vege- tables and in ne~v foods prepped from them (fish-b~cd, non-fishy stc~ ~eady av~lable, but ~e pubBc ~ll not buy it, ~d ~e ~ehovsta catch goes ~to cat food.) ~ere is a ~er possib~. S~cc 1940 it has been ~o~ ~at caloric res~iction is a ~ghly cffcc~e means of delaying a~ng in most orgmisms tested ~ it is ~e ~st technique in line for hum~ teeing in attempting to mod~y a~ng rates. Since t~s depends on combining adequate ~t~ns essenti~s x~th low-c~ofie satiety, only a developed food technolo~ could produce an ~ti-a~g diet s~table for p~ople unuzcfl and unwilling to f~el hungt3", but avoidance cf ob~i~3' already b~g b'~s w~ch ~d haw a l~gc payoff ~ dsI%'~d a~g. S~ long ~ we p~r~t in ca~g at every reed what o~ ~oor p~t ~tors wo~d Bke to have eaten once, to see how it felt, we ~c probably shorte~g o~ Hves. But a ~'en~ to fo~y per cent ~cre~e ~ pre-se~ longe~ty is no me~ ~ccnfive to chafe our habit, even ~cafl of ~c "pig p~," now ~der rose.oh, w~ch ~ enable m, l~e Cfli~la, to gorge o~selves without absorb~g what we eat ~esponsible solu~on ff ever ~crc w~ O~. I for one, ~en, ~ not about abuse Presidcnt NLxon for rc~fing to push back meat prices. It ~o happens that in ~is field of ~et~, reprog~- ~ng necessity, economic and busin~s for~i~t, pubic hcflth, cg~it~sm, improved l~p~, "ecolo~," vcgeta~ hum~ a~ point ~ s~e way. W~ cm ~ ~ a rich mid~c class ~ let ~c world food crises of the ~ighfies ~d Nineties hit us, go on pig- ~ng and w~ting, md export ~ much of ~o shortage as possibl~ to tho ~ird World ~d our own welf~o poor, or wc cm use our heads ~d combine benefit and profit ~th a fccBng of righteousness. Those of us who fore- saw ~is wfl[ t~e our profit in conscience. THE FUND FOR THE REPUBLIC, INC. BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Robert M. Hutchins, Chairman; J. R. Parten, Vice Chairman; Ralph E. Ablon, Joseph Antonow, Harw S. Ashmore, Blair Clark, Ramsey Clark, Patrick F. Crowiey, Fagan Dlckson, James H. Douglas, Jr., James C Downs, Jr., Ioseph W. Downs, Arnold M. Grant, Vesta Hutchins, Francis J. Lally, Edward Lamb, Eulah C. Laucks, Wilbur Price Laughlin, Morris L Levinson, J. Howard Marshall, Frances McAllister, Stewart Mort, Paul Newman, Seniel Ostrow, Bernard Rapoport, Eleanor B. Stevenson, Bernard Weissbourd, Harold Willens ~'HE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS SF~NIOR FELLOWS; Robert M. Hutchins, Chairman; Norton S. Gin~hurg, Dean; Harry S. Ashmore, Elisabeth Mann Borgese, Iohn Cogley, Lord Ritchie-Calder, Rexford G. Tu~well, Harvey Whee~er, John Wilkinson; 5ecretar], to the Senior Fellows: Gary M. Cadenhead VISFi'ING FELEO~',~J: Rick ]. Carlson, Thomas E. Cronin, Seymour Fox, Wendell Mordy, Joseph Schwab, gonald Segal ASSOCIATES: Richard Bellman, Silviu Brucan, Alexander Comfort, Paul Ehrlich, tAircea EIiede, Neil H. lacohy, Bertrand de Jouvenel, Abxander King, Alva Myrdal, Gunner Myrdal, Fred Warner Noel, RaOl Prebisch, Karl H. Pribram, Robert Ro~en, Nathan Rotenstreich, Adam Schaff, Carl Frie~rich yen We~.c.'.:er, Herbert York CONSULTANTS TO THE CENTER: Chief S. O. Adebo, Hugh Downs, Clifton Fadiman, Robert Gordis, N. N. Inozemtsev, Clark Kerr, Joseph P. Lyford, Milton Mayer, Isidor I. Rabi, George N. Shuster, Sander Vanocur OffICERS AND STAFF: Harry S. Ashmore, President; Frank K. Kelly, Vice-President and Director of Continuing Education; Gary M. Cadenhead, Secretary-Treasurer; Wilde Osborn, Assistant Secretary, Else Rylander, Assistant Treasurer; The Center Magazine: John Cogley, Editor; Donald McDonald, Executive Editor; Center Report: Mary Kersey Harvey, Editor; I~ooks and Audio Tapes: Bernard Norris, Editorial Director; Fatricia Douglas, Audiotape Cc6rdinator; Michael }~assera, Special Projects Co/~rdinator; Peter Tagger, Director of Promotion, Membership, and Development; William R. Bidner, Director, Western States Office RESEARCH ASSISTANTS: James Albritton, Richard Kipling, David M. Krieger, |am~s O~born, Daniel Sisson CENTE~ OFFICES: 205fi Eucalyptus Hill Road, Santa Barbara, Calif. 93108, phone: (~05) 959-32G1; Mail address: Box 4053, Santa Barbara, Calif. 93103; E~tern States Office: 45 E~t 61st Street, New York, N.Y. 10{)21 Western S~tes OEice: 205 ~o~th ~everI~ Drive, B~verly, Hitb, Calif. ~212 36 T!259!-0~45