Mount Vernon — To the Editor:
I was pleased to see the Mount Vernon Gazette cover the recent American Association of University Women (AAUW) showing of the movie “Food, Inc.” with a panel discussion in which I took part (“Taste Trumps Nutrition,” Nov. 23), however, several corrections to the article are in order.
The title insinuates nutritious, unprocessed healthy foods and meals can’t be healthy. Reality is they can. With a bit of effort people don’t have to choose between taste and nutrition.
I did not make the statement that organically grown foods are the “safest and nutritionally most beneficial way to buy and consume food.” My position is that consumers may want to consider buying some foods known, when grown conventionally, to contain significant pesticides. See the Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 from the Environmental Working Group: http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary/. However, I don’t believe it’s necessary at this point to buy all so-called organic foods to eat healthfully.
I provided several statistics about diabetes which were cited incorrectly. The following are correct: Nearly 80 million Americans have prediabetes. About 50 percent of Americans over 65 years of age have prediabetes. Children born after the year 2000 have a 1 in 3 chance of developing type 2 diabetes and minority children (African American, Hispanic Americans, etc.) have a 1 in 2 chance. The source for these statistics and many others about diabetes is the CDC’s National Diabetes Fact Sheet, 2011 http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pubs/pdf/ndfs_2011.pdf
Thanks to the Gazette for coverage of this important topic.
Hope Warshaw, MMSc, RD, CDE
Alexandria