8 Unexpected Consequences
sided or badly balanced—that is, one in which either protein or fuel
ingredients (carbohydrate and fat) are provided in excess.”
As I look back, I can see that I was the beneficiary of advice such as
Atwater’s. Yet my favorable edge had nothing to do with choices I made
personally when starting out life. My good fortune was not having access
to foods I wanted because of their cost. As it turned out, consuming
wholesome foods like plenty of fruits and vegetables in my formative
years was akin to winning the nutritional lottery—even if I failed to see
it when I was yearning for rodeo fare.
The challenge that today’s parents face is creating a similarly nu-
tritious diet when the economic incentives are just the reverse. Fami-
lies need a healthy food system that takes advantage of the depth and
breadth of good food that is now available, rather than loading up on
empty calories.
Such a system would begin with the principle that people are not
bags for putting food into and getting money out of. Paradoxically, the
danger of ever more food was already known shortly after the grand food
bargain took hold. As W. O. Atwater put it, “The evils of overeating may
not be felt at once, but sooner or later they are sure to appear perhaps in
an excessive amount of fatty tissue, perhaps in general debility, perhaps
in actual disease.” Atwater wrote that in the year 90 .