Lifestyle and Chronic Diseases

Harvard’s (Much Better) Version of MyPlate

rzirkle — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 03:29:00 +0000

There are many shortcomings in the USDA’s MyPlate graphic. It gives very general guidelines- most likely to prevent people from being confused or overwhelmed by too much information. It doesn’t address the issue of portion control; just how big is that plate? Along with several other problems, MyPlate doesn’t seem to provide that much guidance when it comes to eating healthily. However, Harvard came out with their own Healthy Eating Plate which is much more helpful. It provides more detail, but it still simple enough to understand. Take a look at what they came up with, and to see the whole article about the Healthy Eating Plate, click here. To see a bigger image of the Healthy Eating Plate, click on the graphic below.

USDA’s New MyPlate

rzirkle — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 02:53:16 +0000

As you are probably already aware, the USDA has ditched the old MyPyramid and replaced it with MyPlate. In case you haven’t taken a look at it yet, this was taken from USDA’s website:

Balancing Calories
	●	Enjoy your food, but eat less.
	●	Avoid oversized portions.

	Foods to Increase
	●	Make half your plate fruits and vegetables.
	●	Make at least half your grains whole grains.
	●	Switch to fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk.

	Foods to Reduce
	●	Compare sodium in foods like soup, bread, and frozen meals ― and choose the foods with lower numbers.
	●	Drink water instead of sugary drinks.

Fee for Smokers and Obese

rzirkle — Mon, 30 May 2011 01:15:02 +0000

I recently read an article in the New York Times about a plan in Arizona that proposes charging adults a fee of $50 for Medicaid if they are smokers or are obese. Rather than try to summarize it, I will post it here:

Arizona, like many others states, says it is no longer able to adequately finance its Medicaid program. As part of a plan to cut costs, the state has proposed imposing a $50 fee on childless adults on Medicaid who are either obese or who smoke. In Arizona, almost half of all Medicaid recipients smoke; while the number of obese people is unclear, about one-in-four Arizonans is overweight, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state’s plan must ultimately be approved by the federal government. Monica Coury, spokeswoman for Arizona’s Medicaid program, discusses.

Q. What is the current status of the state’s Medicaid program?

A. “In Arizona, there has been an increase of 30 percent in the number of people on Medicaid and a 34 percent decrease in general fund revenue since 2007. We are one of just a few states that cover childless adults in Medicaid. We want to change the nature of eligibility for that program from an open-ended entitlement program to one that the state manages based on available funding, which means we can freeze the program and then open the program back up for enrollment should we come into additional funds. But that is just one of the things we are seeking to do. We also want to reform the payment system for Medicaid. Currently, Medicaid is structured such that we are a purchaser of ‘widgets,’ if you will. So, providers are incentivized to do more — since they get paid for quantity. There is no financial incentive for a provider to reduce the number of hospital admissions, for instance, because that drives down the bottom line. We want Medicaid to move away from that concept to one that supports and financially rewards health plans and providers for supporting quality.”

Q. Why is it a good idea to charge people a fee for being overweight or for smoking?

A. “The issue is this: we can’t keep complaining about the rising cost of health care and not drill down to what that means on the individual level. Maricopa County (where Phoenix is located) has started a program among its employees where smokers have to pay $450 more for health insurance than non-smokers. They take a swab to detect nicotine. The bottom line is that there’s plenty of evidence and studies that show there is an undeniable link between smoking and obesity and health care costs.”

Q. What has been the response from critics?

A. “Some people have suggested it is discriminating against obese people. To me, it is a matter of fairness. We have an obligation to provide health care coverage to 1.35 million people. And we’ve got a budget crisis, so if there’s something you can do to help out — we’re just asking you to put a little more back into the system. What we want to test is whether making people pay is going to affect behavior. We think it will.”

Q. How would disabled people be affected?

A. “We’re not talking about the disabled, the elderly, pregnant women, or children, and certainly there would be exceptions for certain conditions, like cancer. We are talking only about able-bodied people who have the capacity to manage their weights.”

Q. How did you arrive at the amount of $50? Would that be sufficient to offset the fund’s costs?

A. “We’ve talked about $50 once a year. We haven’t done the math, but it’s not about how much we would collect. It is totally about testing the efficacy of this strategy. Obesity is costing us billions in health care costs, so our thought is ‘let’s test some of these strategies.’ ”

Changing Workplaces, Changing Bodies

rzirkle — Thu, 26 May 2011 20:12:43 +0000

It’s not breaking news that one third of the population in the United States is obese. While diet, lifestyle, and even genetics play a role in our nation’s obesity epidemic, the change in the type of work that we engage in has also been shown to contribute to the problem. According to an article published by the New York Times:

“A sweeping review of shifts in the labor force since 1960 suggests that a sizable portion of the national weight gain can be explained by declining physical activity during the workday. Jobs requiring moderate physical activity, which accounted for 50 percent of the labor market in 1960, have plummeted to just 20 percent.

“The remaining 80 percent of jobs, the researchers report, are sedentary or require only light activity. The shift translates to an average decline of about 120 to 140 calories a day in physical activity, closely matching the nation’s steady weight gain over the past five decades, according to the report, published Wednesday in the journal PLoS One.”

Because there has been a shift away from manual labor, many people are not getting the physical activity needed to remain at a healthy weight. It is unlikely that the lost physical activity can ever be fully restored to the workplace, but employers can make changes and offer solutions to the problem. This can be done by offering subsidized gym memberships or incentives to use public transit. According to the article, some companies have set up standing workstations and marketers now offer treadmill-style desks. Employers can also redesign offices to encourage walking by placing printers away from desks and encouraging face-to-face communication, rather than e-mail. What has been done in your workplace to encourage physical activity?

Eat Right For Your Type

rzirkle — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 19:30:41 +0000

Recently I was talking to someone about being a vegetarian and they mentioned the Eat Right for your Type diet. It suggests that your blood type determines what you should and should not eat to be healthy. For example, type A individuals should be vegetarian while types O and B should eat meat daily. When confronted about the fact that high consumption of animal-based foods lead to an increase in cancer, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, kidney disease, obesity, and colon disease, the author of the book stated that only type A’s do well on vegetarian diets. However, the Red Cross says that the US population is about 39% type A, 46% type O, 11% type B, and 4% type AB. Based off these numbers, it would be impossible for the research that has shown such great benefits that come from eating a pant based diet to come from just those individuals who have type A blood, since they are a minority. In addition to this, in the book Eat Right For Your Type, there are no footnotes to verify his claims, nor has the author (Peter D’Adamo) ever published any research that could support his theory in any credible medical or scientific journals.

This diet is just one of many that lack a scientific basis and fool individuals who are hoping to lose weight and become healthier. Other diets that claim to be based in science include the Atkins Diet, Beverly Hills Diet, and Barry Sear’s The Zone. These diets seem to appeal to people because they promise quick results with little effort. A perfect example of this is the HCG diet. Many people have lost weight on this diet, but it is only temporary. A major downfall of each of these diets is that it is not sustainable. Does it make more sense to take HCG and eat less than 1,000 calories the rest of your life or to exercise and make diet modifications which include more whole foods and less trans fat, cholesterol, and sugar?

How do you prevent cancer?

rzirkle — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 03:07:43 +0000

In 1987, Breast Cancer Awareness Month which is held in October was started by Imperial Chemical Industries- a parent company to Zeneca Pharmaceuticals, now AstraZeneca. This has been a controversial issue for years since they sell Tamoxifen- a drug used to prevent breast cancer, but has been shown to cause endometrial cancers, blood clots, and strokes in some individuals. Their trademark slogan, “Early Detection is Your Best Prevention” seems to make sense to some people. However, this is a secondary prevention- since in order for it to be detected, the cancer has to be there already. I am grateful for the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and their resources that are available to cancer patients and their families. However, I think that primary prevention steps need to be taken reduce cancer morbidity.

So…. what are those primary prevention steps? One of them is eating a healthy diet. A major international report titled Food, Nutrition, and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective found that 60 to 70 percent of ALL cancers can be prevented by staying physically active, not smoking, and “choosing predominantly plant-based diets rich in a variety of vegetables and fruits, legumes, and minimally processed starchy staple foods.” The report reviewed over 200 studies on the link between fruits and vegetables and cancer. They found that 78% of the studies showed that fruits and veggies had a protective effect against cancer, while 22% showed no significant link, and no studies showed an increase in cancer.

The British Medical Journal stated: “What is remarkable about the diet-cancer story is the consistency with which certain foods emerge as important in reducing risk across the range of cancers. Millions of cancer cases could b e prevented each year if more individuals adopted diets low in meat and high in fruits and vegetables.”

Do you have a healthy heart?

rzirkle — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 03:50:30 +0000

I want to start off by saying that I am not against meat eaters. If a person wants to eat meat, they have a right to eat all the steak they want. However, I do believe that there are health benefits that come from not eating meat. This post, and this blog in general, is designed to present facts relating to heath so that you will have the information needed to make informed health decisions. With that said, I have been reading about the meat industry and couldn’t help but see similarities between their tactics to promote their product and the tobacco industry’s strategies to sell theirs. First and foremost, both industries pour billions of dollars into the promotion of their products. Marketing companies are hired to advertise their product and ensure that they are portrayed in a positive light. Deception is often at the center of these marketing strategies. Additionally, huge amounts of money are spent to provide free educational materials to schools, public service announcements, and press releases. These are all used so that you think that they are doing a service for you and the rest of the community. Really, they are attempting to divert the attention away from the fact that their product may not be beneficial to your health. Discrepancies are common between what individuals in the meat industry claim and what is proven scientifically. Sam Abramson, the CEO of Springfield Meats stated, “Who says meat is high in saturated fat? This politically correct nutrition campaign is just another example of the diet dictocrats trying to run our lives.” On the other hand, Marion Nestle, the chair of the nutrition department of New York University said, “Meat contributes an extraordinarily significant percentage of saturated fat in the American diet.” First, it is interesting that the meat industry would say that “diet dictocrats” are trying to “run our lives” when in reality, they were reacting simply to the release of facts to the public. An educated population does not need anyone to run their lives for them, since they can make better choices with the information they are given. Second, saturated fat and cholesterol (which is also found in meat) contributes greatly to atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease.

A program developed by Dr. Dean Ornish helps patients reverse heart disease. His program is comprised of 5 main parts:

A very low-fat, whole foods, vegetarian diet
Half an hour a day of walking or other exercise
Half an hour a day of stretching, meditation, relaxation, stress reduction, ect..
Psychological and emotional support groups
No smoking

While you don’t have to be vegetarian in order to improve your health and decrease your risk for heart disease, you will receive greater health benefits as you limit the amount of meat (red meat especially) that you consume. It may be wise to think of fish as a good alternative or small amounts of white meat. Here are a few numbers to think about:

Average cholesterol level in the US: 210
Average cholesterol level of US vegetarians: 161
Average cholesterol level of US vegans: 133

From William Castelli, M.D., director of the Framingham Health Study, the longest-running study of diet and heart disease in medical history: “Vegetarians have the best diet; they have the lowest rates of coronary heat disease of any group in the country.”

Wal-Mart to Promote Healthy Foods?

rzirkle — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 02:30:42 +0000

A major complaint among individuals attempting to eat healthier, and an excuse for those just don’t want to, is that healthy foods are simply too expensive. However, according to an article in the New York Times, Wal-Mart is hoping to make changes that will make healthy foods cheaper and more accessible. These changes will take place over the next 5 years and will largely focus on Wal-Mart’s house brand, Great Value. Included in this plan is to “sets specific targets for lowering sodium, trans fats and added sugars in a broad array of foods — including rice, soups, canned beans, salad dressings and snacks like potato chips.” Wal-Mart also hopes to get other companies, such as Kraft, to lower the non-nutritional content in their products. Additionally, prices will be cut in the produce department. While this will decrease Wal-Mart’s profits short term, they hope to make up for it through increases in sales volume. While Wal-Mart sells more groceries than any other company in the United States, nutrition experts expect that this may have a huge impact on the availability of inexpensive, healthy foods and benefit the health of American families.

Thank You for Smoking

rzirkle — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 21:43:24 +0000

Maybe you have seen the movie Thank You for Smoking but if not, it is about a man who is the spokesman and lobbyist for the tobacco industry. It is a comedic movie but it also effectively illustrates the tactics used by the big tobacco companies to sell their product and the way they frame their product to keep it in a good light. However, as social norms are changing and smoking is becoming less and less acceptable in public, tobacco companies such as Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds are being forced to come up with new ways to attract more customers and keep their existing ones. This is especially important since their product is killing off their customers at a rate of 443,000 people per year in the United States alone. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking accounts for one in every five deaths in the US. The CDC also says that “more deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than by all deaths from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined.”

Here are some smoking statistics as it relates to your health:

- Smoking causes 90% of all deaths from lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD)

- Smokers risk increases by:

2 to 4 times for heart disease and stroke
23 times for lung cancer in men, 13 times in women
13 times for death from COPD

Smoking causes the cancer in the following areas:

lung
cervix
bladder
esophagus
larynx
pharynx
kidney
mouth
stomach
uterus

According to Dr. Buttar from the book The 9 Steps to Keep the Doctor Away, the negative effects of one cigarette takes 7.4 or more years to get out of your system. So what does this mean? It means that one of the most beneficial things you can do for your self is to stay away from tobacco products!

Are you a cannibal?

rzirkle — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 03:27:34 +0000

Unless you have eaten another human then technically no, you are not a cannibal. However, as I was reading the book I mentioned in the previous post, I found that pigs are 84% genetically identical to humans. This is why we use pigs for insulin, surgery practice, and recently even some organ (lung and kidney) transplants. Dr. Buttar suggests that when we eat pork products our body begins to reject the meat because it is too similar to self-digestion. This leads to a higher risk of autoimmune and other chronic diseases. What do you think?