Let’s Recycle
Dear Editor: Perfectly good cardboard sticking out of a garbage can bothers me. There was a time it could have been mine, that’s true. I have not been doing recycling all that long. Even more recently I found out that cardboard is one thing that pays for itself with a little extra from whoever buys it. Or is that whomever?
Anyway, more and more Sitkans are recycling more and more! That’s the good news. Keep it up. Love 2 C U at the Recycle Center!
Pauline Fredrickson, Sitka
Polar Dip Thanks
Dear Editor: The Sitka High School National Honor Society’s Annual Polar Dip was held on Dec. 28 with great success. The National Honor Society would like to thank the Sitka Fire Department and the Dive Team for ensuring safety as well as Harry Race for supplying hot cocoa and the Sitka Community Hospital for providing the warming tent. This event would not have been possible without their generosity. Additionally, thank you to those who brought canned foods for the food drive. Finally, thanks to all the brave (and slightly insane) participants!
Emma Bruhl, president,
National Honor Society
Sitka High School
Article Response
Dear Editor: The food industry article on Jan. 9, 2014, from the Associated Press did not hold out much hope for improvement in the food offered for sale or for the affect on the obesity crises. The industry has been encouraged by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundaiton to reduce the number of calories in their standard portions of processed food with the hope this will translate into healthier and less-fattening meals for the consumers. It has apparently not occurred to them that what is suitable for one person may not be so for another, and that the determination of how much to eat is not typically made on the recommendation on a product label, but on how hungry the person happens to be.
Hunger is driven by the body’s need for fats, protein and other nutrients, cravings by the deficiencies of specific nutrients. The more we choose to eat meals that fail to satisfy those needs, the more we will need to eat. Hence the large portions demanded and the more weight gained even as we are starving for essential fats, proteins and our natural food.
Priorities for someone interested in improving food presented to the public is to understand how the food matches the need of the consumer in general and specifically how it impacts the obesity problem. Most authorities now say we simply do not know how it works. Calories in-calories out calculations don’t work, nor does any of the diet plans or mystical formulas. High fat and low carbohydrate offer some relief but is an incomplete answer unless it is regulated to the individual natural history as measured in thousands of generations. There is not much chance the food industry can tackle the issue and offer us a solution.
Harold Kalve, Sitka,
Author of
‘‘Basic Food, A theory of Nutrition’’
