Sustainable Nutrition in a Changing World

Our societies and health systems are faced with a growing problem: affluence. In
1958, the economist J.K. Galbraith published a book entitled The Affluent Society¸
which investigated why in the US the public sector remained poor while the private
sector was growing richer all the time. This is precisely the situation in today’s
affluent societies, in which social inequalities are becoming ever more apparent.
Increasing social inequalities will inevitably drive up the numbers of people suffering from food insecurity. This trend will be compounded by modern lifestyles,
which often lack the traditional characteristics of family life—with no daily shared
meals, for instance, and a prevailing lack of knowledge regarding food and how to
prepare it. For many time-poor people, fast food is the answer. But it is not necessarily the best answer in nutritional terms, and widespread societal reliance on fast
food and processed foods will have serious, long-term health consequences for the
world’s population.