Reforming Your Healthcare Policy: Food for Thought
By Nancy Clark, MS RD CSSD
For Active.com
Healthcare reform is a hot topic these days, not only in the news but also (hopefully) in your personal life. You likely already know that by eating well, exercising at least 150 minutes a week, and not smoking, you can reduce the risk of an early death by 80 percent. (That's a lot, eh?!) But your friends and family may not fully appreciate how much slacking off, underexercising, and gaining undesired body fat too easily leads to negative health consequences that cost us millions of dollars.
Losing excess body fat is important because fat is an active tissue, not just a bank account of extra calories. Fat cells create an inflammatory response that contributes to heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Fat also produces a hormone, leptin, that affects appetite. Leptin sends signals to the brain to stop eating. Hence, the brain and the intestinal tract are highly connected. Unfortunately, the brain developed in ancient times when food was scarce and unpredictable. This might explain why the body stores fat easily, yet sheds fat with greater difficulty.
To address nutrition, obesity and health concerns, experts discussed the latest research at the 4th Annual Symposium of Tuft's University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy (Boston, Sept.’09). Perhaps this information will inspire you and your loved ones to take an active role in preserving your good health for a robust and lengthy lifespan.
Food Shopping Reform
Good nutrition starts in the supermarket. Unfortunately, you almost have to have a PhD in nutrition to know which groceries to buy. But this is changing. For example, the Smart Choices food ranking system (www.SmartChoicesProgram.com) is now is on the front of many food packages. This program gives a check mark to foods that meet certain criteria (rich in vitamins, fiber; low in sodium, added sugar, trans fat, etc.). Participation in Smart Choices is voluntary, yet many of the major food companies are participating.
Hannaford Supermarket has created a Guiding Star system that ranks foods according to the nutrients we want to eat more of (calcium, iron, fiber) and those we should eat less of (saturated fat, trans fat, sodium). Signs in the marketplace indicate if a food has one, two or three stars. Would you believe 77 percent of the foods in grocery stores do not qualify for even one Hannaford Guiding Star? This indicates how health-eroding our food supply is! Let’s hope that companies whose products fail to earn even one star might quietly start tweaking their recipes to create healthier products...
As a result of the Guiding Stars food ranking system, Hannaford customers are actually shifting their shopping patterns. They are now buying more of the best foods (nutrient-dense and locally grown) and less of the rest. The hope is better food labeling, along with consumer education, will help Hannaford shoppers shave off 100 to 200 calories a day. This small change can lead to losing 10 to 20 pounds fat in a year. This is a sure way to chip away at the obesity epidemic.
