The Cleaner Plate Club

Mike Hamm, the keynote speaker here at FoodMed 2007, nailed it yesterday. Noting that our diet is now the #2 reason why people in this country die (and it’s rapidly catching up to tobacco), he noted that we always frame this discussion in terms of personal responsibility. If you’ve got these challenges, it’s your fault. And, okay, that’s true, although there’s plenty of evidence that show how influenced humans are, beginning by age 4, by their environment (the fact is, the prime factor in what people buy is what’s available).

But, says Hamm, here’s the thing:

We force people to be heroes in order to be healthy. We force people to go to extraordinary lengths to not eat the junky food. How can we make it easier? How can we make it so that the default choice is the healthy thing to do? How do we begin constructing a society in which it’s easier to do the right thing?

He’s right. Think about what people say when someone’s lost weight: “how did you DO it???” Think about how people frame their relationships with food: like doing battle with the enemy. Think about how people talk about someone who’s actually able to be healthy in this world: “She’s my hero.”(or worse: they say “I hate her,” because she’s accomplished the seemingly impossible).

It shouldn’t take heroic efforts to do the things that every doctor recommends — to eat right, and move more. If it does take heroic efforts, then something is really, really f%$@ed.

There are several people here who are really working on creating an environment in which the default choices are the better ones. The guy behind this story, Preston Maring, is one of my favorites. He’s doing something. He’s an OB/GYN, who one day paused to wonder why his hospital was selling jewelry and handbags in the lobby.

“It made no sense,” he said. “It had no relation to our mission.”

So he started organizing weekly farmers’ markets on the hospital grounds. The first one opened in May, 2003, and was a stunning success; it felt like a block party, he says, and a strawberry vendor alone did $2,000 worth of business. Today, 38 Kaiser Permanente sites have weekly farmers’ markets on site, some sites have organized a CSA in collaboration with local farmers, and fresh, local healthy foods have come into the patient trays. Kaiser Permanente has gotten involved with organizing CSAs onsite at other employers, as well (today, a California auto plant gets Friday afternoon CSA deliveries, so the employees, mostly men, go home on Friday with fresh vegetables and flowers).

It’s so simple, really: this idea of bringing farm-fresh produce to people, rather than making them seek it out. Make it easier, not more difficult, to eat fresh produce. Again, kind of a “duh” factor, but there you are.

Dr. Lenny Lesser is another one who’s making the default environment a healthier one. He noted that 40% of hospitals serve some kind of brand name fast food in their restaurants. Comparing this to offering ashtrays in patient rooms, he did some research that confirmed that three out of ten more people are likely to eat at a fast food chain if that chain is located in a hospital on the day that they’re there…which, nationwide, totals about 5-6 million more people eating fast food each year.

He’s pretty unequivocal about fast food chains: “They’re dangerous, because they kill us…” He also has some compelling research to show that walking out of a doctor’s office to see the Golden Arches clouds people’s judgement about how healthy it is. So he’s been joining the fight to get fast food out of health care settings.

There are others — people who are fighting to change the farm bill so that there are more incentives for people to grow, and sell, and eat health foods; people who are struggling to keep farms alive; people who are changing food service options in schools and vending machines.

What strikes me is how constructive these folks are. Whenever people talk about trying to make people healthier, trying to create healthier environments, they get accused of taking away choices. Or lifting all of the responsibility from parents and individuals. They get accused of…I don’t know. A kind of negativity and blame that doesn’t fly with most Americans.

But these folks aren’t simply wagging their fingers at food marketers. They’re not running to an attorney, or casting blame. They’re not trying to remove people’s choices. Rather, they’re trying to increase people’s choices — by improving people’s access to nutrient-rich options, where they might otherwise be greeted by only a fast-food world.

They’re actually creating a better, richer, more colorful world, while they’re at it.