Energy for our Cars, Homes, and Bodies: Who's in Charge?
Critics say federal energy policies hurt the economy and federal nutrition policies harm our health. For a healthy economy: we want clean, reliable, and affordable energy. Same for our bodies...
As children our parents guide our food choices. Babies and toddlers can (and do) throw food they don’t like to the floor, or keep their mouths firmly shut to show preferences. That’s frowned upon as we grow older. We gradually gain autonomy to make our own food choices. But few of us are trained nutritionists, and few of our parents are, so do we really know enough to choose between foods healthy or unhealthy? Do our parents know enough?
We get used to many foods from eating at home, with friends, and at restaurants. Plus sometimes we have lunch and snacks at school. We could look for guidance on TikTok or from YouTube, Instagram, or Dr. Google. Or we could meet or watch a trained nutritionist. How much does advertising influence what we eat and what we think is healthy to eat?
Can we trust professional associations like the American Diabetes Association and the American Heart Association? How about the American Cancer Society? These and other professional associations can be and are influenced by their funding sources, including grants from federal agencies, private firms, and industry associations.
Science journalist Nina Teicholz writes skeptically about a recent education video from the American Diabetes Association, which actually recommends carbohydrates for those with type 2 diabetes: The American Get-Diabetes Association
A recent and widely-report study (or poster) from by the American Heart Association has also been widely criticized for the weak associational claims it is based on. Dr. Annette Bosworth explains problems in this short video review: Intermittent fasting causes cardiovascular death
So… that’s on the ongoing debate about how best to power our bodies. And critics say the federal government has been giving bad advice and funding wrong-headed programs for nearly fifty years. Moving from the energy sources to power our bodies to the energy sources to power our homes, cars, appliances, critics say the federal government has been giving bad advice and funding wrong-headed programs for nearly fifty years…
I’ve been speaking and writing on federal energy policy and transportation policy reforms because these are this year’s Stoa and NCFCA debate topics. The public school (NSDA) policy topic calls for reducing economic inequality by increasing fiscal transfers. In the videos linked below I try to mash these debate topics together and add housing and nutrition policy reforms.
The presentation is divided into four parts. Running at 1.25x or 1.5x will further compress.
• Federal Energy and Food Follies, Part One
• Fed. Energy and Food Follies, Part Two
• Fed. Food & Energy Follies, Part Three
• Food and Energy Follies, Part Four
