Frederick Stare

摘要

The United States has become a land of behemoths. Enormous rumps overhang bar-stools, and wheezing giants attempt to cram their blubber into little seats on aeroplanes. One in five Americans is now classed as obese. Genetic misfortune, cries the lobby of the larger-sized. Others spot the reason elsewhere, in soft-drink cups the size of small buckets, sacks of potato chips and all-you-can-eat food counters. In this welter of obesity, Frederick Stare played a role that was both vital and, at times, contradictory. Dr Stare could be judged as America's top nutritionist. He founded the Department of Nutrition at Harvard's School of Public Health in 1942, when the science was still young, and ran it for 34 years. In his long career, he wrote 18 books and more than 400 articles on how Americans should eat, and frequently advised the government. His founding premise, however, was not that the American diet was bad, but that it was the best in the world. What Americans ate, he believed could not possibly harm their health.