Introduction



Nutrition is a topic that has fascinated me for a while, especially its relationship with economics, and in particular the topic of time preference; it's something I plan to research and write about extensively. I believe that the modern health crises cannot be separated from the deeper economic forces that drive high time preference consumption and production decisions in the food industry. After many years of research, this was one of the main topics I wanted to include The Bitcoin Standard, but after beginning to write about it I realized it would require too much space and needed significantly more rigor to reach the level of quality I demanded from myself. This month's bulletin is the first time I'm writing in long-form on the subject, but it will by no means be the last; I consider this a starting point of my thoughts on the topic, and will use it as motivation to continue researching and finding data to test the various hypotheses presented here.

In his bulletin I will present a few theories I have for understanding the interplay between government control of money and nutritional and health trends across the twentieth century. The first section of the bulletin will present an understanding of nutrition based on the work of Weston Price, which is quite different from the prevalent views on this topic. The second section of the paper describes some of the main industrial foods that came into popular use in the twentieth century, and the economics behind their production. Building on this background, and on the chapters of The Bitcoin Standard discussing the relationship between the monetary medium and time preference (Chapter 5) and government influence over the economy and individuals' lives (Chapter 7), the next three sections present the main processes which I believe link the monetary system of government money to the current trends in food consumption and the resulting health problems.

Source: Saylor Academy, Fiat Money and Fiat Food
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