Growing at the Speed of Life - A Year in the Life of My First Kitchen Garden

Upon review, I’d call this a fairly typical example of

“Nudge-nudge, wink-wink . . . say no more,” to co-opt

the famous line from Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

Recently, one of President Obama’s largely behind­

the-scenes advisers coauthored a book called Nudge,

which suggests that government’s role is to encourage

change with gentle pressure through small positive leg­

islative initiatives (nudges) that will get the greater ball

of intended consequences moving in a positive direction.

Hence, we used to consume 3 servings and we have been “nudged” by 5- or

9- or 11-a-day programs to arrive at only 3.5 servings in 2010!

The Canadian program resulted in 4.964 servings a day in 2008, up from 4.277

ing the same period.

I wonder where we would be now if we had grasped

the nettle that science understood and began in 1974 with

a “9 A Day” program. As it now stands, we apparently

need to increase our consumption from 3.5 to 9–11

servings, which is at least a 300 percent increase. Th e con­

sequences for such an increase could be interesting. For

example:

■ We would become substantially part­

vegetarian. Meat (and its saturated fat lev­

els) would fall by at least 50 percent, as they



have in my household.

■ Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) choles­

terol levels would fall, along with triglycer­

ides, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL)

levels would rise, reducing heart disease.

servings in 1974—almost 1⅔ servings more than the U.S. achievement dur­

12 • GROWING AT THE SPEED OF LIFE