Our Government, Our Food and Ourselves

A recent survey conducted by the Center for DIsease Control found that approximatley 40% of American adults, 93 million people, are overweight or obese. There is a clear health crisis in the United States that has become increasingly prevalent, now negatively impacting life expectancy, and causing a diabetes pandemic. At the core of this crisis is malnutrition and access to high quality food. In this podcast, we talk with Jerry Mande, M.P.H. in Nutrition and Epidemiology, Professor of Practice, Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and a Senior Fellow at Tufts University in Massachusetts. Previously working with the Bush, Obama and Clinton administrations, Mande’s work with the FDA and USDA has positively impacted food safety and food access policies.  And, he has many, great stories to share, including how calories became such a relevant part of way that we think about our daily diets.

Mande has been a leader in providing more awareness to malnutrition and healthy living. He was a head designer of the Nutrition Labels Facts, helped shape the country’s food safety, tobacco, and cancer control policies, and was a major supporter and executor of former First Lady, Michelle Obama’s fight against childhood obesity. 

Mande helps explain why we have a growing malnutrition problem in America, and shares his point of view on where we go from here in making healthy food more accessible to all.