Mail Call

Bill Fahber

Villennes-sur-seine, France

"The Nature of Nutrients" asks why Scandinavians, who ingest a lot of calcium through their dairy-rich diet, have a higher rate of hip fractures than in Singapore, where adults don't drink milk. The simple answer is that the roads in Scandivanian countries are covered with snow and ice during the winter but not so in Singapore, where there is no snow and no ice.

Moshe Abeles

Tel Aviv, Israel

Your articles and interviews with experts regarding nutrition were interesting and informative. It is easy to advise people to eat a healthful diet and exercise, but I wonder how many of your experts actually visit a grocery store to purchase the healthy food they advocate. I suggest they try eating for a month on what one can buy with food stamps. At my local grocery store, salmon, highly touted in your articles for its omega-3 fatty acids, cost $7 a pound, sometimes more. In the vegetable section, tomatoes are $3.99 a pound. Apples and oranges are close to a dollar each. Leafy greens are also expensive. About the only "good" food one can buy cheap is chicken. My husband and I are pretty well off, yet I often go back to the store several times and buy as many as I can, then store them in the freezer. What I'd like to see is some good advice for poor people to eat well, short of growing their own vegetables. Boxed macaroni and cheese, which can feed a whole family, costs $1.99. On a public-assistance diet, which food would you choose?