Big Picture Health

I first encountered Paula Deen when I spied her magazine at Publix. On the cover, pudgy Paula hoisted high a huge frosted cake, next to her beaming, triple-chinned face. “WRONG!” my public health heart cried out. “That heavy woman shouldn’t be pushing that heavy food on my fellow Americans!” Most cooking magazines highlight the food itself; the juxtaposition of her overblown face and that cake was a bit much.

Publix slips racy magazines like Cosmo (for which I used to write a lot) behind opaque plastic sheaths that reveal the publication’s titles but conceal the sexy  cover ladies. I see these plastic sheaths as magazine burquas.   I think Paula Deen’s magazine should have one.

Now understand, I am truly sorry that Paul Deen is ill. With truly rare exceptions, I wish illness and suffering on no one.

Still, I find it abhorrent that after getting rich promoting the kinds of diet that fosters diabetes, she has jumped up to start promoting diabetes drugs and make even more money.

Paula Deen could perform a great public service. She could learn about the real reasons behind the diabetes epidemic. It’s not just about personal choices made by people with diabetes, regarding their food and activity. Children are developing diabetes at an unprecedented rate. Young children aren’t making these choices for themselves at all.  Paula Deen  could look into the food environment that has launched this massive diabetes epidemic that’s now costing the word so much in human and economic terms.

Approximately 10 food companies control nearly all of the foodstuffs that fined their way into our grocery stores, according to my professors at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. The food industry in America represents a prime example of vulture capitalism.

Why is our diet today so overstuffed with empty calories from corn based products and cheap oils? It’s not because they taste good. Why has soda pushed milk out of the drinking glasses of American children? Why do so few Americans get more fruits and veggies in their day than a shot of OJ in the morning?

Paula Deen COULD use her platform to help other people avoid ever hearing that dire diagnosis. She COULD speak out for the kinds of policies that promote the increased availability of fresh, local healthful foods for all Americans.

But no. Paul is instead smiling through another heavy lunch with her financial advisor, which she has scheduled right after her meeting with the marketing folks at Novo Nordisk.

As I watch the Republican contenders scramble all over each other in their effort to appear more conservative, I long for one of them to be honest about the need for rational public policies to promote health—the health of our economy, our environment and our people. All these various aspects of our national health depend upon one another; they are as inextricably wound up as the individual hairs in my daughter’s dreadlocks.

That is the purpose of this blog, to discuss rational policies that promote public health.

Bigpicturehealth helps Americans answer these questions: “What policies would really improve our public health, when it comes to both government policies and policies from the private sector? What can we do as individuals and communities to advance these policies?”

I learned a vital life lesson came from a novel by Madeline L’Engle. She wrote, “Love is a policy.” This insight has guided me in the conduct of my life to an enormous degree.

Yes, love is a policy. So are moderation in thought and speech, open-mindedness, and a respect for the truth even when the truth flies in the face of treasured assumptions.

All of the Republicans vying to run for the Oval Office profess to lead profoundly religious lives. Let’s hope that they start praying for some of these virtues in their quest to lead our nation toward better overall health, although I see no sign of it yet.

For this, my first post of the election year, and in the spirit of bipartisanship we so sorely need, I want to pass along some wisdom I just read in this morning’s NY Times. This wisdom comes from two older Republican Iowans as they finally reach today’s caucuses. We sorely need to improve the health of our political system if we are going to improve the health of our people, nationwide.

Speaking for herself and for her husband Arthur, age 72, a semiretired physician, Norma Doenecke, 68, said, “We believe that if you aren’t informed and if you don’t vote, you really don’t have a right to criticize your country or your government.”

Like me, the Doeneckes are political junkies. They’ve been going to all sorts of political events—dinners, forums and debates– for months, the events I’ve been reading about voraciously.

I agree with Norma D that everyone who wants better government and a better America ought to become informed and at the very LEAST vote. However I draw the line at saying nonvoters and sideline sitters have no right to criticize the government or the country. I mean, really.  If corporations have the right to free speech as “human beings” then I think we actual food-eating, hair-shedding, respiring homo sapiens surely have the right to say what we please and then do nothing.

It’s just a terrible waste and shame when those of us with enough energy to gripe don’t also take the time to assert our opinions in a way that actually makes a difference by voting.

As a poster I once saw in a NY Bus shelter stated: “When you vote, you talk.”

We could avoid so many health problems if we were careful about testing the various chemicals that we expose ourselves to, through diverse environmental routes.  This requires strong government regulation.

Today’s New York Times has a story on a move away from paper store receipts towards emailed receipts. I was surprised that this story failed to make any mention of a big health issue surrounding receipts printed on thermal paper, which is that they contain significant amounts of a toxic chemical BPA.

Here’s the text of a letter I just sent to the NY Times.  If they run it, it will be my fourth letter for them:

Dear Editors:

The business story you ran today on a shift away from paper store receipts (“Shopper Receipts Join Paperless Age,” 8/8/11)  failed to mention a possible health benefit of electronic receipts, that is avoidance of the toxic chemical BPA which is widespread in receipts printed in thermal paper.   Research has linked BPA, a synthetic estrogen, with many health problems including infertility, sperm damage, heart disease and obesity. Studies have shown that human skin is a swift absorber of the toxic chemical.

When more consumers become more aware of these health risks, over and above the tedium of sorting through often-faded paper receipts, I imagine that more people will opt for the digital versions.

–  Milly Dawson

PS I am nearly finished with a Masters in Public Health degree that I am pursuing at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

I’ve been reading the ads and articles about Mother’s Day presents during breaks from the intense spring cleaning that is my current focus.  Here I’ve been, mired in clothes I don’t wear, makeup that somehow was never the right shade, earrings that lack partners and household items that gather dust for years. Meanwhile the newspapers and magazines are telling my family to go buy me more stuff.

No thank you!  This green Mama wants none of it. No new frock, no new baubles, no new nothing.  I’d like some help with the decluttering though.

Mother’s Day  was declared a holiday by Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy was an ardent conservationist.  Teddy wouldn’t want America’s Moms to be the cause for more unbridled consumerism, more wasted resources, more petroleum burned making and shipping things that the Moms generally do not want or need.

Here’s a suggestion. REALLY honor your mother; at the same time honor Mother Earth. Ask your mom  how she’d feel about your using your money to do something for the natural world and for humanity by giving to a good cause in her honor. She may be delighted to support an environmental cause or to help needy Moms and their children instead of getting something in a box.

Then again she may prefer a present she can unwrap. If so, shop carefully. Perhaps buy a handmade item from a place where other moms depend on craftwork for their livelihoods. Or buy something made by craftspeople in your own area. Make sure that the item you choose for your mom was created in a sustainable way, with natural materials, and that it will eventually biodegrade.

Happy Mother’s Day to you and your mothers.

–

Here are organizations that help Moms and children who need help:

• Planned Parenthood   http://www.plannedparenthood.org/
• WIN (Women in Need)  http://www.women-in-need.org/
• Heifer International  http://www.heifer.org

Here are some of my favorite environmental nonprofits:

• The Center for biological Diversity  http://www.biologicaldiversity.org
• The Nature Conservancy http://my.nature.org
• The Sierra Club   http://www.sierraclub.org/

Also, look for a local organization that serves as a Bicycle Coalition. There are dozens around  the country. They can help us all get out of our cars and out into the lovely fresh air. Support the one near you or your mom

I wish there were more recipes circulating for thoughtfulness about. food, rather than for specific dishes. Since I haven’t seen any published yet I am posting one:

Recipe for a Thoughtful Thanksgiving

               Level: moderate to sophisticated 

               Serves: 1 who can then spread awareness to many

                Time required: A lifetime

1. 1 soon-to-be better informed human being (you)
2. 1 heart open to the plight of other creatures, both human and animal
3. 1, 2, 3 or more info sources about the industrial vs. sustainable, local farming
4. 10, 15, 20  or more creative impulses that allow you to view food in a new light

Don’t touch the oven. You won’t need it.

Decide to become a (1) better informed human being by opening your mind and heart to learn about the sources of your own food.

With your (2) heart open, be prepared to hear horrible but vital facts about industrial farming, which destroys rural communities and treats animals as things to be produced as cheaply and quickly as possible. Families that have farmed for generations are forced to become near-serfs when the industrial giants move in to their communities. To learn more, obtain ingredient (3). Start by Googling the Grace Public Fund or follow the link at the bottom of this recipe.

As for animals, industrial agriculture requires no special care in their handling. They can be placed on trucks for 24 hours or more without food or water for transport to slaughterhouses. There they can be hung by the feet upside down in shackles and moved by conveyor belts to the killing zone. Continuing to seek (3), Google the Humane Society or follow another link right at the end of this recipe.

It’s time for (4). Browse some cookbooks or online sites for vegetarian or vegan recipes and try to plan your menu around local foods in season.

Bon appétit! Happy Thanksgiving!

* * *

Visit the Grace Fund:   http://www.gracepublicfund.org/Candidate_Education_Paper_Points.pdf

Learn about cruel slaughter:   http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/slaughter/

And keep reading….

On the environmental impact of mega farms  http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/environment/

On the benefits of sustainable food from Dickinson College in Pennsylvania    http://www.dickinson.edu/uploadedFiles/about/offices/human-resource-services/The20Benefits20of20Sustainable20Food%5B1%5D.pdf

I’m taking a graduate level course called Food Production, the Environment and Public Health. It’s part of my work towards a Masters in Public Health at Johns Hopkins. Talk about an eye opener.

Prior to this course, I have been avoiding the grisly portrayals of the damage done by the industrial animal farming operations. I have skipped the Food Inc type movies and the Michael Pollan books. I knew they’d be upsetting and disgusting. I just wanted to eat my occasional take out rotisserie chicken in peace and not worry so much. Well, now that I am in this course, it’s been impossible for me to avoid the facts about these grim, dangerous enterprises.

Here I want to introduce an overarching concept presented in my course which was new to me and can powerfully shape the way we think about our own health, the health of other creatures and the environment. This concept, which I learned about from a monk named Brother Dave Andrews, is “the land.”

“The land,” as he discusses it, contains everything in, on, over  and under what we normally think of as land. Microorganisms in the soil, worms and all other living things in the soil are included along with all the creatures above the land, large and small, including us. The concept of “the land” includes the soil itself, its composition as a mixture of organic matter (the products of the decay of dead plants and animals) and the inorganic elements in it. Everything in, on or near to the land is subsumed in this concept of “the land.” It’s the one the thing we need to understand, cherish and protect in order to have a healthy environment and healthy creatures, including ourselves, but not with an exclusive focus on ourselves.

This represents something worth pondering at Thanksgiving. It’s our most food centered holiday and the foods we choose to eat hold huge importance for the fate of the land. If we buy commercial, conventional products we are encouraging the misuse and pollution of soil, water and air and cruelty to animals. We’re also encouraging the proliferation of harmful life forms such as antibiotic resistant bacteria which pose a serious threat to human health.

If instead we choose to dig a bit deeper to find locally grown foods produced on small farms near where we live, we are voting with our knives and forks for healthier soil, water and air and for the better treatment of animals. We’re voting against the antibiotic resistant bacteria that proliferate in large industrial animal feeding operations. We’re also voting for healthy human communities that revolve around small farms.

I realize that buying local is time consuming and can be difficult; sometimes more costly. I know this is a problem for a lot of people and don’t want to pretend this problem doesn’t exist. But for those of us who have the resources to find and buy local foods,we do a lot of good for ourselves and our world.

Eat well! Enjoy! Happy Thanksgiving!

“It isn’t easy being green,” Kermit the Frog of Sesame Street used to sing. I agree.

Then there was another old song, Sweetest Hangover. One refrain went, “Think about it all the time….never get it out of my mind.” He wasn’t talking about ecology but the state of our planet is one thing that I do think about all the time these days.

Those two songs—“it isn’t easy being green” and “think about it all the time”–sum up how I feel about caring greatly about the planet.

So today I’m writing  about recycling. I’m wondering why businesses that sell beverages and foods in recyclable packages for onsite consumption aren’t required to have recycling bins for those containers.

McDonalds, Panera, Einstein’s Bagels…all those restaurants serve drinks and food in containers that wind up in the trash in our overcrowded landfills when they could easily set up recycling bins.  I think that the law ought to require such restaurants to provide recycling bins.

One thing we can all do: Speak to the managers in restaurants you patronize. Ask politely for recycling bins to be installed. Also ask that they let their supervisors know of your request. Go online and send a message to the company directly.

And if there are bins present on that site, thank the manager for their presence and/or send an appreciative email to the firm.

How is a candidate for high office like a box of soap?

 Below I’ve posted the text of a speech that I gave last Friday, at my local Toastmasters club. People of various political persuasions responded positively, which I found heartening:                                                                         

The speech:   Sunday I attended a political fundraiser in Winter Park, Florida. I joined a group of about two dozen people, in an immaculate, airy lakeside home full of colorful modern paintings and ceramics. We were all waiting for the candidate whose campaign we were supporting to show up but he was seriously stuck on I-4, the interstate nearby.

Fortunately, he had a surrogate present to speak for him. A surrogate means a well known endorser like another politician or a celebrity. Last Sunday, the surrogate for our candidate, Kendrick Meek, was Senator Bill Nelson.  He’s a staunch advocate for veterans and children,

Bill Nelson gave us a sweeping overview of today’s political climate.

Here, I will summarize Senator Nelson’s talk for you. His concerns ought to be issues for all thoughtful Americans. His worries about the way candidates sell themselves mirror my own.  I hope, that after today, they will be issues for you as well. I’ll concentrate on three issues he highlighted:

1. 1.      Candidates attempting to buy high political office.
2. 2.      Sources people rely upon nowadays for information.
3. 3.      The need for civil discourse in America.

OK #1—Attempts to buy high office: We’ve been seeing a flood of advertising paid for by wealthy businessmen running for high offices in Florida. They present themselves as the right people to create jobs just because they have a business background.  Republican Rick Scott is spending millions in the governor’s race. Jeff Greene is spending massively in the Democratic Senate race.

They tell voters that because they made fortunes in business they can create jobs. But this isn’t necessarily the case.

Jeff Greene got rich using credit default swaps that are widely blamed for the housing crisis and are now strictly controlled. In effect, Greene made high stakes bets that the housing market would collapse. When it did, and thousands lost their homes, Greene profited. His wealth didn’t involve creating goods or offering services that employ people on any scale.

Scott has been involved in lots of businesses, from doughnut shops to hospitals. But his record is cloudy. When a firm he led, Columbia/HCA, was accused of Medicare fraud, its Board of Directors forced Scott out.

Senator Nelson decried this trend of rich people with no public service record trying to buy high office. He described these candidates as “selling themselves like a box of soap.”

As voters, we need to watch these ads with a healthy dose of skepticism. We need to understand that just because a businessman made a fortune doesn’t mean he is a solid leader or created jobs. It’s just not that simple.

            This leads me to #2, the sources of information people use these days as compared to earlier times. People used to read newspapers and watch ABC, NBC and CBS. They took in news produced by professional journalists. Certain standards for objectivity and fairness prevailed, not perfectly. But standards did exist and created restraints

Today, Americans surf the web, read blogs and watch polarized cable TV stations. Lots of news is created by bloggers who say whatever they want about anyone. Exaggerations, half truths and downright lies then reverberate in the world of cable. 

Pick your news sources carefully. Be open minded. Consider viewpoints that make you uncomfortable. Conservatives, liberals, moderates. We actually do all have good ideas to offer but we have to work together to make any kind of progress.

Lastly, I’ll address issue #3. The need for civil discourse in America.

Bill Nelson, a Democrat, spoke warmly of Florida’s other Senator, Mel Martinez, who is a Republican. Senator Nelson said, “Mel and I disagree about a lot of things. But when it comes to fighting for what Florida needs, we work together.” Nelson described a recent morning when he stopped by at Mel Martinez’s house after a jog and sat with his Senate colleague on Martinez’s front porch.

I’ve heard and a read a great deal lately about what a battleground the US Senate has become. Maybe you’ve heard that too.   Have you?

Hearing Bill Nelson speak warmly of his colleague Mel Martinez and Mel’s wife Kitty restored my faith in our national leaders a bit. It served as a reminder to me that no matter how well read I am, I never have the whole story. No human being ever does.

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Finally Kendrick Meek arrived. Senator Nelson sat down and Kendrick Meek took the floor.

“Well, it’s almost the first day of school,” he said. Then he spoke, with some pride, of how he had fought to improve our schools when he was in Florida state government. He had led the fight for limits on class sizes in Tallahassee against massive opposition. But he mustered massive public support to keep class sizes at manageable levels and he—and our kids–won.

Kendrick Meek was born and raised in Dade County. He started volunteering, working a lot with elderly people, as a teenager. 

In his twenties, he worked for five years as a state trooper. Then he went into state government and eventually ran for a seat in the US House of Representatives. He’s been reelected there easily because he’s served South Florida well. 

Unlike his Wall Street billionaire opponent Jeff Greene who has never lived for any length of time in Florida, Kendrick Meek understands our state. He understands and concentrates on the issues that matter to ordinary citizens and working families.

Kendrick Meek’s wife Leslie, whom I have had the pleasure to meet, also works, as an administrative judge. They have two teenage children.

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Today is the last day for early voting. In fact, you can vote right after this meeting. Just go around the corner to the WPPL, if you live in Orange County.

Election Day arrives on August 24^th.  Be exceptional by participating in a thoughtful way.

Be exceptional. Read diverse, credible sources of information about the important choices we face. Make careful decisions.

Then go vote.

In Manhattan in 2008, I saw a billboard that featured a huge photo of a young person’s face.  The billboard had this message, five words to live by:  

   “When you vote, you talk.”

 The end

Have you read about the fact that 2010 is shaping up as the hottest year ever? Well, it is.  With summer’s heat on full blast, it’s a great time to plan some light meals for yourself and/or your family. If you develop the habit of eating meatless meals regularly, you’ll be protecting the health of many important things:

Your wallet:  Means based around plant proteins, like beans, can cost much less than meat meals.

Your waistline: Plant-based meals tend to be low in fat. And the fat they do include is the good kind rather than that streaky white stuff that makes steak juicy and gives us heart attacks.

Our country: If all of us ate better and were leaner the cost of our healthcare would nosedive.

Our planet: Industrial type agriculture also generates great amounts of truly toxic wastes in the form of excrement. Big problem: The Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t regulate chicken-, pig- and cow wastes. They are just dumped in nature to devastating effect.

A professor at the Johns Hopkins’ School of Public Health, Bob Lawrence, reports that poultry farming poses a dire threat to the Chesapeake Bay. This is just one example of a huge, growing problem.

Maybe someday the EPA will have some say in the matter but in the meantime each of us can do our part by cutting back on meat and poultry meals.   

Industrial animal agriculture also adds to global warming; I’ll say more on that in a future post. .

Plant based meals can be so delicious. Try some recipes at the bean-makers’ websites. Progresso and Goya have great ones. One of my faves at one of those sites (I forget which one)  is Tuscan White Bean Soup.

Bon appétit! Smaklig måltid! Ibuen provecho!   And have a happy,  healthy summer.