I spent this past Thursday morning at the Childhood Obesity Summit sponsored jointly by the Cleveland Clinic and Slate.com.  Lest you think that my sense of urgency about diabetes and obesity is overdone or misplaced, here are a few statistics I learned that might rocket you out of your chair:

Obesity rates in children have tripled in the past 30 years.  Stroke rates in children are up by one-third.  This problem has nothing to do with genetics.  Evolution doesn’t happen that fast.  

Twenty-seven percent of 17-24 year olds are now too heavy to serve in the military, and fully 47% of male and 59% of female military applicants cannot pass the military physical.  

In 15 school districts surrounding greater Cleveland, 8000 students had their BMI’s tested this past year.  BMI stands for body mass index, and you can calculate yours here.  In kindergarten, 26% were in the 85th percentile or higher.  By 5th grade, 40% were in the 85th percentile or higher.  

A child who develops diabetes before age 14 shortens his/her lifespan by 17 to 27 years.  

Meals prepared and/or eaten outside of the home contain at least 134 calories more than meals prepared and eaten at home.  

David Katz MD, Director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center and one of many terrific speakers at the symposium, spoke a message that hit home when he said that we face a terribly difficult obstacle in our attempts to overcome this public health crisis.  The fact is that public health has no face.  I can quote all the statistics I can find, but in the end they are just numbers. 

Dr. Katz urged us to turn the statistics into compelling human stories.  We need to help John Q. Public find a parking spot at the hospital where he is visiting his mother after her stroke, to videotape John Q. picking up his diabetes medications at the pharmacy, to see the look on Jane Q. Public’s face when the pediatrician tells her that her son’s blood sugars have risen into the diabetic range.  It’s time to give “public” a human face.  

I’ve shared in this blog stories about Mrs. Price and many others.  They are not just stories.  They are real.  They are about you and me and the people we love.  We cannot fix this problem without a lot of effort, but fix it we must.  I do know that if we are to survive strong and healthy, then prevention must become the backbone of the American health care system. 

Follow Your Health is on Your Plate on Facebook.

I’ve been very busy this week getting ready for Passover.  A few days ago I got an email from a neighbor asking if anyone knew where she could find horseradish.  Now, as I’ve written about before, I planted a horseradish root a few years ago.  So I happened to know the answer to her question.

This morning she showed up at 9 a.m. sharp, and soon afterwards another friend showed up with a whole bunch of children in tow.  We dug and dug, and then we dug some more.  When we were done, we had enough horseradish for everybody, plus some fragrant, green onions.

It was such a great way to get ready for the holiday.  Passover is also known as the Festival of Spring, and being in mud up to my knees was a fantastic way to be reminded of that.  When I came inside to write my post, all I could think of was how impossible it would be to eat that horseradish fast.  Not just that, but it would be impossible to eat any meal quickly at which strong, fresh horseradish is served.

Right now the horseradish is soaking in a big tub to get all the mud off.  Tomorrow I’ll scrub it well, and then I’ll place it right in the center of our Seder Plate.

Meanwhile, I came up with 9 more ways to slow down.  It’s one of the most valuable things we can do for ourselves.  Remember what Sue Monk Kidd says about slowing down and appreciating the world around us.

1. Dig it up yourself.
2. Put it in a crock pot.
3. Eat it at a table with your friends.
4. Use a cloth napkin.
5. Invite people over to eat with you.
6. Turn off the television, and the radio, and the computer.
7. Before you pick up your spoon, take a deep breath or say a blessing of thanks.
8. Put down your fork between bites.
9. Eat at a table, and not in a moving vehicle.
10. Chew.

Happy Holidays to all, and best wishes for wonderful meals prepared with care, and enjoyed at leisure surrounded by loved ones.

Last weekend I was sitting at the kitchen table with my dad while he thumbed through the coupon section in the Sunday paper.  He grumbled, “There’s nothing in here that I’d wanna buy.”  Let’s see what he meant.

This week I found coupons designed to entice consumers to buy the following edible products: Fiber One chewy bars, Betty Crocker cake mix and ready-to-spread frosting, Bisquick pancake mix, V-8 splash, a new breakfast cereal (more on that here), salad dressing (more on salad dressings), Pam cooking spray, Texas Toast croutons, YoCrunch Fruit Parfait (more on yogurt), Snapple iced tea, Temptations by Jello, Crystal Light (more on beverages here), Ore-Ida hash browns, Dole Fruit Crisp, and a variety of candies, including Hershey’s kisses, Reese’s peanut butter cups, Cadbury eggs, and chewing gum.  

If you’re a coupon clipper, you want to be really careful not to clip coupons for anything you wouldn’t have considered eating before you saw the coupon.  

Just because Jello has figured out a new way to package the same old flavors doesn’t mean you have to try it.  Even if it’s a bargain (this week).  Just because two (!) different companies have now begun to market their usual thing with oats to sprinkle on top doesn’t mean you have to try it.  First of all, it’s not a particularly nutritious product to begin with, loaded as it is with excessive amounts of sugar.  Secondly, it’s a very expensive way to buy oats.  And you probably have some in your kitchen anyway.  You wanna sprinkle oats on your yogurt or your fresh fruit?  Go right ahead.  You don’t need a coupon.  

I am happy to report that I did find a few items that my great-grandparents (or somebody’s, at any rate) would have recognized as food.  Compared with the large number of creatively designed, manufactured products, there weren’t that many.  But there were a few.  They included turkey bacon (Butterball); cheese (Babybel and Alpine Lace); butter, half-and-half, and eggs (all from Land o’ Lakes); and tomato juice.  There was also a coupon for California mandarins. 

Remember that processed products are made from very inexpensive ingredients, and they are sold for a good deal more than they cost to make.  The profit margin is high, so manufacturers stand to benefit even more if they can convince you to buy processed food-like products.

I also found coupons for razors, skin and hair products, glass cleaner, paper towels, plastic containers, plastic bags, and cat food.  I have a cat, and I pack lunches.  I use some of these items, and they cost less when I use coupons.  

So coupons aren’t always a bad deal.  But they aren’t always a good deal either.  In many cases, they are designed to get you to buy something you would not otherwise have considered.  That’s where you need to be careful.  Caveat emptor — let the buyer beware.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

I spend a lot of time reading books written by people who really, REALLY, like to eat.  Lately I’ve been listening to Tony Bourdain, American chef and author of Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly and A Cook’s Tour: In Search of the Perfect Meal, as he traipses around the globe eating the most extraordinary assortment of what once slipped, slithered, slid, or flew straight into the hands of his hosts.  You think that’s gross?  In defense of his diet, and with tremendous concern about what now passes as acceptable fare in America, he says:

“Do I overstate the case?  Go to Wisconsin, spend an hour in an airport or a food court in the Midwest.  Watch the pale, doughy masses of pasty-faced, pringle-fattened, morbidly obese teenagers bulked up on cheese that contains no cheese, chips fried in oil that isn’t really oil, overcooked grey disks of what might once upon a time have been meat.  These are the end products of the masterminds of safety and ethics?  Then tell me I’m worried about nothin’. 

A steady diet of ho-hos and muffins, butterless popcorn, sugarless soda, flavorless lite beer.  A docile uncomprehending herd led slowly to a dumb, lingering, and joyless slaughter.”

I’m not the only one who’s noticed that there is something terribly wrong going on out there.  That’s Tony Bourdain, with his unique commentary on the monstrous consequences of eating a diet that consists largely of manufactured calories.  Very difficult to ignore.  Go, Tony!
—————————————————————————————————————————————————