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By Fred, February 8, 2010 10:00 am

We’ve talked in the past about our love of TED and how many of its big picture talks can help us frame new ways of thinking about the gluten free diet (”GFD”) and Celiac Disease (”CD”). In the video below, Bill Davenhal discusses the impact that geography has over health.

Davenhall walks through his own live, having lived in several “red zones” for health; he grew up in PA, lived in Louisville, KY, which he proclaims as “Rubbertown”, and then moved to smoggy Los Angeles.

His approach to geomedicine, as he terms it, is broad and long term. Having lived years in these places, he claims, that his physicians;

Never asked about the water put in my mouth or the food that I ingest in my stomach.

For CD, the implications might be more profound with a more tactical approach to data.  If every restaurant someone with CD visited in the past month had poor options for those on the GFD, then the probability of gluten ingestion is higher than for those who made different choices.  Davenhall makes a brief case using big time periods; the impact appears as if it might be more profound if smaller periods of time and a more detailed focus on location were made.  Think restaurants, not states and the impact on CD becomes more profound.

Davenhall closes with a quote from respected physician Jack Lord;

Geography is destiny in medicine.

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By Fred, January 28, 2010 5:38 pm

TED is a nonprofit that puts together conferences where the speakers talk about bold, challenging ideas.  At the July 2009 event, they invited Ms. Carolyn Steel, author of Hungry City, to talk about how food shapes modern cities.  It’s a fascinating presentation in which she walks through the history of modern cities, with a focus on London, and outlines how food has impacted the shape, size, and distribution of mankind.

Ms. Steel introduces the concept of a Sitopia, or “food place” - borrowing from Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, or “ideal place”, from his 16th century book.  The sitopia she describes is a place where people live in concert with, and in full knowledge of the source and impact of their food.  It flows well with the concepts of Michael Pollan, for those who have read his books as well.

She states,

[You] Can’t have it without people who think about food, who plan ahead.  We need these people, they are part of a network.  Without these kind of people we can’t have places like this [the sitopia].

Could that be what we, people who have CD, or who pursue the GFD, are?  Like it or not, we think about food a lot.  Much more than the average individual.  And we are certainly part of a network - both our own networks as we share information on food, and as part of the non-GFD communities in which we participate every day.  All our colleagues know that we are food sensitive.  We are the de facto food experts in any gathering.

Sitopia already exists in little pockets everywhere.  The trick is to join them up.

We couldn’t agree more.

We can use food as a really powerful tool to make the world better.

Thanks again, Ms. Steel - these are the kind of bold, challenging, ideas, that we like to hear.