How to Be a Conscious Eater

2 Problem: Foods that are low-calorie can be low- or no-nutrient

and high-resource. Approximately one-third of Americans’

calories come from “nutrient-poor” foods. When we choose

nutrient-poor foods that are also calorie-free or low-

calorie, it might seem like a wash. What’s the harm? Well,

we’re still pouring heaps of natural resources into produc-

ing essentially useless products. Air-popped chips come

to mind, for example. Or take diet soda. A 16.9-ounce

bottle might contain zero calories. Bravo. Except it actu-

ally involves between 170 and 310 liters of water to make

that much soda and deliver it to you in that plastic bottle,

according to a figure the Water Footprint Network provided

to the New York Times. As we know, single-use containers

are buggers. For empty calories, think also of all the energy

required to produce those foods—the lights to power the

factories, the electricity to power the machines, the fuel

to drive the trucks or ships to move the large volumes of

nutritionally pointless products all around the world. Not

to mention the resources required to make the plastic or

the cardboard or that silvery lining material of chip bags.

All that energy (and land) could have gone into making a

nutrient-rich food, maybe even a high-calorie but higher-

quality food, for someone who needs it. It’s situations like

these that contribute to the obesity-hunger paradox, which

you can think of as two sides of the same coin. Solution:

Replace nutrient-poor foods (whether packed with calo-

ries or not) with nutrient-rich foods—especially those that

don’t involve a lot of processing and packaging. Both your

body and this little planet of ours will thank you.

3 Problem: Foods that are high-nutrient, low-calorie, and low-resource

are often low-profit, making them a tough economic sell. I’m talking

fruits and veggies, unfortunately. Cancer researchers have

found a gaping hole between what the US government

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