Kids and Probiotics: Research on Obesity

Simple messages, nothing new. Think Blue Zones and the Mediterranean Lifestyle!

Dr. Oz And The “Glare Of Publicity”

Interesting developments in the field of media medicine…

“Lest we forget,” as my wife likes to say.

And I like to say, “It goes without saying.” (Or I often think it anyway.) Here, Seth Godin makes another point so important that I have to repeat it for your benefit in case you don’t follow his blog. It is a quality of life point that might resonate with you or someone close to you. Consider it.

“Utility vs. entertainment

A graduate seminar is going on, with a dozen students paying a fortune to fill seats that are in high demand. Some of the students are using cell phones to update Facebook or tweet–and they are sitting right next to students listening intently and not merely taking notes. This juxtaposition puts a very sharp point on an overlooked distinction: some forms of media we engage with because there’s a significant utlity, and sometimes, we’re merely entertaining ourselves.

Every student in the lecture makes a choice in each moment–to be entertained and be in sync with the crowd online, or to find utility, by doing the more difficult work of focusing on something that only pays off in the long run.

And if that was the end of it, caveat emptor. But it’s not, because media consumed doesn’t merely have an impact on the consumer.

Media, of course, has morphed and expanded, and the change is accelerating. It has grown in both time spent and impact on us. Now, media consumption changes just about everything in our lives, all day long. While a century ago, a few minutes a day might have been spent with a newspaper or reading a letter, today, it’s not unusual for every minute of the day to involve consuming or creating media (or dealing with the repercussions of that). Media doesn’t just change what we focus on, it changes the culture it is part of.

I think we can agree that sending animated gifs or wasting an hour with the Jersey Shore have no utility, really, other than as a pasttime. Court TV didn’t make us smarter, it just wasted our time and attention. At the other extreme is learning a difficult new skill or attending an essential meeting, bringing full attention to something that doesn’t always delight or tantalize. Or consider the difference between viewing politics as a sporting event with winners and losers each day, compared with the difficult work of digging in and actually understanding (and participating in) what’s being discussed…

The blended situations, though, are worth sorting out. Is watching the news an activity that has utility? Perhaps it does for a headline, but is an endless, shallow, pundit-filled examination of politics or disasters actually producing value? When we involve desperate strangers in reality TV shows (planned or not), where is the utility? Does it make us better?

The media-industrial complex, of course, wants to turn everything into a profitable show. Is that what we want?

More media is not better media.

Fast media is not improved media.

Pack media is not the media we need.

Entertaining media is not the only option.”

A S.A.D Story

Another of Uncle Bill's Drawings

There is a lot of talk about the Standard American Diet (S.A.D.) in some circles.

Others who study behavior rely on fact. Here NPR reports on a study with some S.A.D. facts.

It’s not always easy to wake up from the hypnotic trance of social conditioning, but more and more people are finding out the hard way that the price they pay is dear. Fast Food feels good; most people don’t feel prevention.

In the article, the talk is about the dollar cost of food. The dollar cost of the food is only tip of the ice berg.

The funny thing is that when you limit your consumption of animal products and processed food, and fast food, you are left with good food and it is less expensive: that was our experience anyway, when we tried to go Vegetarian. I was surprised and may not have believed it if I were not married to the best shopper on the planet (some bias I know).

Helen always says, “You have to know your prices.” By the way, when it comes to good food, Organic or otherwise, the best values in our area are at Fred Meyer. Watch them at the at the check-out stand though: they make mistakes.

Here is some more on what not to do and why.

Be Careful Who You Listen To

I thought I had a page by that name, but no, it’s a category… Here’s one to think about after you read The China Study.

Carefully read the last sentence in this news release… then be careful who you listen to.

NEWS RELEASE:
USDA Children’s Nutrition Research Center Celebrates 30th Anniversary
___________________________________________

ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Alfredo Flores, (301) 504-1627, alfredo.flores@ars.usda.gov
October 31, 2008
–View this report online, plus photos and related stories, at http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr
___________________________________________

HOUSTON, Texas, October 31, 2008–Officials with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital will celebrate 30 years of cooperative children’s nutrition research during a ceremony here today.

Officials from the organizations will renew a long-term agreement at the Children’s Nutrition Research Center (CNRC) here to conduct cooperative research on obesity and other issues affecting the health of children in the United States. The Agricultural Research Service (ARS), an intramural scientific research agency of USDA, and Baylor College of Medicine manage CNRC through an agreement that has allowed the center to operate as a cooperatively run research institution.

“Research at CNRC has enabled healthcare providers and policy advisors to make dietary recommendations that improve the health of children in the United States and around the world,” said Caird Rexroad, ARS associate administrator for national programs.

Also speaking at the anniversary celebration were USDA Undersecretary for Research, Education and Economics Gale Buchanan, ARS Human Nutrition National Program Leader David Klurfeld, CNRC Director Dennis Bier, CNRC Director Emeritus Buford Nichols, Houston Mayor Bill White, and other scientists at the center.

“The CNRC has helped define the nutrient needs of children, from newborns through adolescents, since its inception three decades ago,” Rexroad said. “Its countless research findings through the years have greatly improved the health of today’s children, and will continue to do so for generations to come.”

CNRC is one of six federally funded human nutrition research centers in the United States and the first multi-disciplinary center to focus exclusively on scientific investigations into the role of maternal, infant and child nutrition in optimal health, development, and growth. Approximately 65 research scientists and 200 support staff work at the facility. CNRC researchers have published more than 3,000 peer-reviewed scientific papers since the center’s inception in 1978.

The center includes world-class research instrumentation, including a large, live-in metabolic unit, an energy metabolism laboratory, analytical core laboratories, a body composition laboratory, and an eating behavior observation laboratory.

In recent years, CNRC researchers have helped develop and field-test an innovative program to help prevent obesity among 8- to 10-year-old African-American girls, helped track and understand the factors that contribute to obesity in the nation’s Hispanic children and youth, and developed an interactive body-mass index (BMI) computer tool to help parents keep their growing children’s weight on track.

They’ve also helped develop guidelines to help parents determine what’s best to feed their infants and toddlers, have shown that serving large portions of energy-dense foods at meals equates to substantial extra calories consumed by U.S. preschoolers, and have shown that mothers who drink milk at mealtimes are more likely to serve their young daughters milk with meals, resulting in a positive impact on the girls’ milk consumption, calcium intake and bone health.

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