Should Someone Be Fired for Promoting Healthy Eating?

Fla. doc fired over 'doughnuts equal death' sign

By MELISSA NELSON, Associated Press Writer Melissa Nelson, Associated Press Writer Thu Aug 13, 4:41 pm ET
PENSACOLA, Fla. – Dr. Jason Newsom railed against burgers, french fries, fried chicken and sweet tea in his campaign to promote better eating in a part of the country known as the Redneck Riviera. He might still be leading the charge if he had only left the doughnuts alone.

A 38-year-old former Army doctor who served in Iraq, Newsom returned home to Panama City a few years ago to run the Bay County Health Department and launched a one-man war on obesity by posting sardonic warnings on an electronic sign outside:

"Sweet Tea (equals) Liquid Sugar."
"Hamburger (equals) Spare Tire."
"French Fries (equals) Thunder Thighs."

He also called out KFC by name to make people think twice about fried chicken.

Then he parodied "America Runs on Dunkin'," the doughnut chain's slogan, with: "America Dies on Dunkin'."

Some power players in the Gulf Coast tourist town decided they had had their fill.

A county commissioner who owns a doughnut shop and two lawyers who own a new Dunkin' Donuts on Panama City Beach turned against him, along with some of his own employees, Newsom says. After the lawyers threatened to sue, his bosses at the Florida Health Department made him remove the anti-fried dough rants and eventually forced him to resign, he says.

"I picked on doughnuts because those things are ubiquitous in this county. Everywhere I went, there were two dozen doughnuts on the back table. At church, there were always doughnuts on the back table at Sunday school. It is social expectation thing," says Newsom, a lean 6-foot, 167-pounder in a county where 39 percent of all adults were overweight in 2007 and one in four was considered obese.

Newsom was hired by the state Health Department to direct the county agency. His $140,000-a-year salary is paid jointly by the state and the county. His job primarily involves educating the public about health issues — swine flu, AIDS and the like — but he also decided to address the dangers of glazed, sprinkled and jelly-filled treats.

He angered staff members by barring doughnuts from department meetings and announcing he would throw the fat-laden sweets away if he saw them in the break room. He also banned candy bars in the vending machines, putting in peanuts instead.

In May, lawyers Bo Rivard and Michael Duncan, co-owners of a new Dunkin' Donuts, asked Newsom to take down the "America Dies on Dunkin'" message. Newsom already had run other anti-doughnut warnings, including "Doughnuts (equals) Diabetes," and "Dunkin' Donuts (equals) Death."

The businessmen had the backing of County Commissioner Mike Thomas, who owns a diner and a doughnut shop. Thomas called for Newsom's ouster, saying the doctor shouldn't have named businesses on the message board.

"I think he was somewhat of a zealot," Thomas says. "I don't have a problem with him pushing an agenda, it's the way he did it. People borrowed money to go into business and they are being attacked by the government."

A short time after Newsom's meeting with Rivard and Duncan, Newsom says, his bosses at the state Health Department told him that his leadership wasn't wanted and that he could be fired or resign. He chose to resign May 8 but has reapplied for the job.

"I have never been known for my subtlety. I don't have a knack for it. I speak the truth to people and just assume that that my data and purpose are so real and true that everyone will see the value of what I'm doing," says Newsom, who now works at a prison, doing exams of inmates.

Rivard and Duncan did not return numerous calls to their offices.

"Dunkin' Donuts is pleased that the signs have been removed," Andrew Mastrangelo, a spokesman for Canton, Mass.-based Dunkin' Donuts said in an e-mail.

The Florida Health Department has refused to talk about Newsom since he is considered a job applicant. "We will be happy to talk to you after the position has been filled," department spokeswoman Susan Smith said in an e-mail.

Newsom is hoping to get his job back so that he can resume his campaign against overeating.

"My method was a little provocative and controversial," he says, "but there wasn't a person in Bay County who wasn't talking about health and healthy eating."

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I guess if he had kept his signs 'generic' instead of mentioning brands by name, he wouldn't be in such hot water.

It's sad that health promotion is not supported. Instead, society/lawyers/insurance companies are so focused on disease treatment instead of prevention.

Healthy lifestyles saves health care dollars. Department of Defense and other entities have proven that. Worksite wellness programs save companies money with decreased sick days and insurance premiums. But there is still very little reimbursement or insurance coverage for wellness services (i.e. office visits with a Registered Dietitian to provide a personalized approach to healthier eating within the patient's lifestyle/preferences).

How Bad is a High Fat Diet?

High-Fat Diet May Make You Stupid and Lazy

Short-term memory getting worse? Exercise getting harder? Examine your diet. New research published online in The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org) showed that in less than 10 days of eating a high-fat diet, rats had a decreased ability to exercise and experienced significant short-term memory loss. These results show an important link between what we eat, how we think, and how our bodies perform.

"Western diets are typically high in fat and are associated with long-term complications, such as obesity, diabetes, and heart failure, yet the short-term consequences of such diets have been given relatively little attention," said Andrew Murray, co-author of the study and currently at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. "We hope that the findings of our study will help people to think seriously about reducing the fat content of their daily food intake to the immediate benefit of their general health, well-being, and alertness."

Rodents are thought to be good analogues to humans for studies like this, but research in humans would be needed to confirm that the effects cross over. Also, because rats live much shorter lives, study effects may play out on significantly shorter time scales than in humans.

Murray and colleagues studied rats fed a low-fat diet (7.5 percent of calories as fat) and rats fed a high-fat diet (55 percent of calories as fat). Muscles of rats eating the high-fat diet for four days were less able to use oxygen to make the energy needed to exercise, causing their hearts to worker harder - and increase in size.

After nine days on a high-fat diet, the rats took longer to complete a maze and made more mistakes in the process than their low-fat-diet counterparts.

In the fat-laden rats the researchers found increased levels of a protein called uncoupling protein 3, which made them less efficient at using oxygen needed to make the energy required for running.

"It's nothing short of a high-fat hangover," said Dr. Gerald Weissmann, editor-in-chief of journal. "A long weekend spent eating hotdogs, French fries, and pizza in Orlando might be a great treat for our taste buds, but they might send our muscles and brains out to lunch."
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Andrew J. Murray, Nicholas S. Knight, Lowri E. Cochlin, Sara McAleese, Robert M. J. Deacon, J. Nicholas P. Rawlins, and Kieran Clarke
Deterioration of physical performance and cognitive function in rats with short-term high-fat feeding
FASEB J. first published on August 10, 2009 as doi:10.1096/fj.09-139691 Abstract

The full article is available online but only for FASEB members (which I am not).

Humor

Nutrition for the Athlete

Adapted from the Health & Lifestyle lecture I have been providing at Joint Base Balad, Iraq during my deployment with the 332d Expeditionary Medical Group.


The first priority for athletes is meeting energy requirements. Energy balance is key to maintaining lean tissue mass, immune and reproductive function, and optimum athletic performance.

To have calories in = calories out means you will have a balance effect on the scale. If you have more energy coming in then going out then your weight will start increasing. If you have less energy coming in and more energy going out then you will have a wt loss.

With limited energy intake the body will then use fat and lean body tissue for fuel. Not maintaining enough energy for fuel compromises the benefits of training.

You will most likely not achieve your best physical performance while restricting calories. (Keep in mind that it is certainly possible for an over-fat, way out of shape individual to both lose weight and improve their physical performance at the same time) However, for a normal weight, relatively “in-shape” individual…caloric restriction will be detrimental to performance.

Low-energy intakes can result in loss of muscle mass, menstrual dysfunction, loss or failure to gain bone density, and increased risk of fatigue, injury, and illness.

To help optimize training and prevent illness, athletes should consume a daily diet rich in nutrient-dense carbohydrates and high-quality protein in order to provide adequate energy for muscular activity and maintenance of optimal immune system functions.

Carbohydrates are the body’s main source of energy. The body converts Carbs you eat into glucose. Glycogen is the main storage form of glucose and it is stored primarily in muscle and liver.

Continuous exercise uses up the body’s glycogen stores. It is important to ensure adequate Carb intake pre, during, and post intense physical activity. Repetitive training/competition reduces glycogen storage leading to impaired performance.
Athletes (and very active military members) need adequate Carb intake to keep glycogen stores high, therefore allowing for optimal physical performance.

Approximate protein intake guidelines are based on the type of athlete. Requirements include the need to repair exercise-induced microdamage to muscle fibers, use of small amounts of protein as an energy source during exercise, and the need for additional protein to support gains in lean tissue mass. However, repeated research has shown that protein intake in excess of 2 g/kg simply results in the excess amino acids being converted to fat and stored appropriately.

Turns out that most Americans (even non-athletes) easily achieve these protein intakes as part of their regular diet, therefore it is rare that an athlete would need to deliberately add a protein supplement to their diet. Except when people are limiting their total caloric intake for weight loss.

For optimal benefit, spread protein evenly throughout the day.

Fat is important in the diets of athletes as it provides energy, fat-soluble vitamins, and essential fatty acids. Additionally, there is no scientific basis on which to recommend high-fat diets to athletes. There are no ergogenic effects from fat intake (i.e. eating more will not improve athletic performance, but not eating enought total calories may hurt your progress). Be sure to limit saturated fats since that is the type of fat that can raise blood cholesterol.



How much energy do you need? Even when you are trying to lose weight, there is a minimal amount of calories you need to prevent loss of muscle mass. You need to support your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR).



Once you calculate what your body needs to support stable weight at your activity level, you can reduce the intake, increase the activity, or best - combination of both, to help promote weight loss. But never eat less than your RMR if you want to keep your metabolically active muscles - see "Maximizing Metabolism" Lecture (coming soon).

Want to gain weight (muscle)? You have to support the proper exercise (higher resistence, fewer repetitions to fatigue) with adequate rest for repair and building. And you need enough extra CALORIES (not extra protein). Remember the protein needs even when in anabolic mode (muscle building) are maximum 2 g/kg (or ~1 g/lb body weight).

Look at your hands; your two hands are a good representation of the total amount of protein you can use in a day for support of muscle building. Magazines advertising protein powders and bars and supplements are owned by the companies selling these products. High protein diets tend to increase blood acidity, phosphorus load (thus pulling calcium out of your bones and then it is lost in your urine), and nitrogen released when protein is used for energy (fortunately healthy kidneys can remove the excess nitrogen from our blood).

To get extra calories between meals try dried fruit & nuts, peanut butter sandwich, high fiber snack bars.




Hydration (Fluid) is very important. And being deployed in the desert (Iraq) makes it a prime concern even if you are not exercising. Water is the best rehydration for most people. Electrolyte-replacement Sport drinks (i.e. Gatorde or Powerade) are useful when your workout is over 60 min or you are drinking a lot of water and not eating (don't want to dilute the sodium in your blood).

Water helps cool your body. When you are active your body heats up. Sweating brings water to the surface of your skin where evaporation pulls this heat away from your body. If you don't have enough water to sweat, or you cover up all your skin so you sweat but it cannot evaporate, you will overheat. If your body temperature gets too hot, you are "cooking" yourself into a severe illness.

Some ways to tell if you are drinking enough. Weigh yourself before and after your workout. Drink at least 2 cups of water for every pound lost. Check your urine; if it's darker than pale yellow straw you need to be drinking more. Here in Iraq I've been drinking about 4L per day.



For more information:
sportsmedicine.about.com/Sports_Nutrition.htm
www.dietitian.com/sportnut.html
Food and Nutrition Information Center (USDA)
Nancy Clark, MS RD “Sports Nutrition Guidebook”

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Sleeping is Good for Weight Control

Public release date: 8-Jun-2009
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-06/aaos-srr060209.php

Sleep restriction results in weight gain despite decreases in appetite
and consumption

WESTCHESTER, Ill. – According to a research abstract that will be
presented on Monday, June 8 at SLEEP 2009, the 23rd Annual Meeting of
the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, in the presence of free
access to food, sleep restricted subjects reported decrease in appetite,
food cravings and food consumption; however, they gained weight over the
course of the study. Thus, the finding suggests that energy intake
exceeded energy expenditure during the sleep restriction

Results indicate that people whose sleep was restricted experienced an
average weight gain of 1.31 kilograms over the 11 days of the study. Of
the subjects with restricted sleep who reported a change in their
appetite and food consumption, more than 70 percent said that it
decreased by day 5 of the study. A group of well rested control subjects
did not experience the weight gain.

According to lead investigator Siobhan Banks, PhD, a research fellow at
the University of South Australia and former assistant research
professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, it was
surprising that participants did not crave foods rich in carbohydrates
after sleep restriction, as previous research suggested they might.
Results indicate that even though physiologically the desire to eat was
not increased by sleep loss in participants, other factors such as the
sedentary environment of the laboratory and the ability to snack for
longer due to reduction in time spent asleep might have influenced the
weight gain.

"During real-world periods of sleep restriction (say during shift work),
people should plan their calorie intake over the time they will be
awake, eating small, healthy meals," said Banks. "Additionally, healthy
low fat/sugar snacks should be available so the temptation to eat
comfort foods is reduced. Finally, keeping up regular exercise is just
as important as what food you eat, so even though people may feel tried,
exercising will help regulate energy intake balance."

The study involved 92 healthy individuals (52 male) between the ages of
22 and 45 years who participated in laboratory controlled sleep
restriction. Subjects underwent two nights of baseline sleep (10 hours
in bed per night), five nights of sleep restriction and varying recovery
for four nights. Nine well rested participants served as controls. Food
consumption was ad libitum (subjects had three regular meals per day and
access to healthy snacks, and during nights of sleep restriction
subjects were given a small sandwich at one a.m.).

We Probably All Could Use More Fiber

But is sugar-sweetened cereal the best way to get more of it in our daily diet?
----------------------------------------------

One of the largest and loudest leaps onto the fiber bandwagon will take
place Thursday when Kellogg
(K) announces
plans to pump fiber into most of its cereal line.

Some 80% of Kellogg cereals will have at least 3 grams of fiber per serving
by the end of 2010. That may sound small, but foods with 3 grams are rated a
good source of fiber by the government. The fiber boost begins in August
with kid-targeted cereals Froot Loops and Apple Jacks.

The move is expected to rock the packaged foods industry, which is under
pressure from consumers and lawmakers to boost food quality. The industry
has recently begun embracing fiber-fortified products at warp speed.

New products touting higher fiber are rolling out at a record clip in 2009,
with 6.5% of new foods making such a claim through the month of May, reports
Datamonitor, the research specialist. Marketers from Dannon to Kraft have
introduced fiber-enriched products this year.

Fiber is the top-ranked item that consumers are asking Kellogg to add to kid
cereals, says Jose Alberto Duenas, vice president of U.S. cereal marketing.
The number of consumers who check fiber content on nutrition panels grew to
52% last year, vs. 42% in 2006, reports the International Food Information
Council.

Rest of article HERE.

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What about eating naturally high fiber foods, teaching your children to enjoy fruits & vegetables and whole grains (rather than more processed foods). Lead by example. Enjoy real food.

Hydroxycut Case from Soldier With Health Problems

Case study: A soldier suffers health problems after using Hydroxycut

Robert Tropea is a plaintiff in a planned lawsuit against maker Iovate Health Sciences Inc.
By Melissa Healy melissa.healy@latimes.com
May 25, 2009

Early this month, Robert Tropea was at his new job at the cash register of an Army PX when his former sergeant rushed in to deliver some news: Hydroxycut, the weight-loss supplement Tropea had taken for three months in 2007, had been recalled from the market. The FDA had linked the product to a string of illnesses, including liver damage, seizures, abnormal heart function and a condition called rhabdomyolysis.

Tropea says he was "completely shocked": How could an herbal supplement he took to trim down do all that? At least, he thought, it offered an explanation for the mysterious turn in his health and fortune.

A former Army radio operator stationed in Stuttgart, Germany, the 27-year-old had been medically discharged from the service just six months before. After a physical-training session with his sergeant in July 2007, Tropea's arm and shoulder muscles ached as they never had before. His urine was black. At the hospital, a blood test showed his creatine kinase levels -- a test for organ and muscle damage -- were 3,000 times the normal limit.

Doctors diagnosed rhabdomyolysis, an acute breakdown of muscle tissue that can damage the liver and kidneys and, in severe cases, cause sudden death. Because rhabdomyolysis is most often the result of crush injuries, heat stroke, alcoholism or drug use, doctors thought it was unusual to see the condition in a fit, active-duty serviceman who, according to his military records, drank alcohol very rarely, had regularly passed drug tests, and had no recent history of trauma. Fearing a potentially disastrous recurrence, Tropea's physicians have warned against physical exertion of any kind.

He used to bench press hundreds of pounds and could do push-ups with one arm. Now, says Tropea, he has trouble picking up his 3-year-old daughter and worries that he won't be able to coach her soccer team one day. His Army career -- from which he had planned to retire as an officer after completing his college degree -- is over.

Hydroxycut, Tropea believes, has left his health -- and his future -- uncertain. Tropea, who still lives in Stuttgart, is among the first wave of plaintiffs in a planned lawsuit against Iovate Health Sciences Inc., the maker of Hydroxycut.

"I thought of it as a supplement to help burn fat and increase energy -- no different than a vitamin to help me with exercise," says Tropea of the Hydroxycut Hardcore supplement he took. "I had read the label, looked at some of the ingredients. Quite a bit of it, I didn't know what it was. But they were selling it as something safe, and I took what they said and ran with it." Iovate refused to discuss Tropea's experience. "We have not seen the complaint and therefore cannot comment on it," said company spokeswoman Jamie Moss.

Like 59% of Americans polled by the Harris Poll in 2002, Tropea believed a government agency such as the FDA assured the safety of dietary supplements before they could be sold to the public. It is a belief that is only partially true.

Tropea had not even thought to inform his doctors that he had been taking Hydroxycut steadily for the three months leading up to his hospitalization, in an effort to boost his fitness level and get down to the weight limits set for active-duty soldiers. The only medication he had ever taken was Ibuprofen. And Hydroxycut, he reasoned, wasn't medication.

That's where Tropea was wrong.

"Dietary supplements are typically derived from plants and minerals, and they certainly can have effects on the body" as powerful as the effects that drugs can have, says David B. Allison, director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Clinical Nutrition Research Center and an expert on the safety of dietary supplements.

"This idea that dietary supplements are all natural is nice. But they're really no different than many drugs which are traditionally derived from minerals or extracts of plants or animals. And everything we do and take has side effects."