Posts tagged health

Sleep is the golden chain that ties health and body together.
Thomas Dekker (1572-1632).
A Fast Food Burger Is 3 Times Larger Now Than in The 1950s from the Atlantic. Echoing my sentiments in this post, it is nauseating to see just how much our foods have grown. Even worse, there shows no signs of stopping. With trend lines this steep, are we too late to reverse the change? Of course, change is always hard to enact, especially one that forces us to deconstruct what we have grown accustomed to. However, we as a society have shown that when push comes to shove, we are capable of rallying to a great and worthy cause. With the mounting issue of obesity, I am hopeful that we will once again rise up to that challenge.

A Fast Food Burger Is 3 Times Larger Now Than in The 1950s from the Atlantic.

Echoing my sentiments in this post, it is nauseating to see just how much our foods have grown. Even worse, there shows no signs of stopping. With trend lines this steep, are we too late to reverse the change?

Of course, change is always hard to enact, especially one that forces us to deconstruct what we have grown accustomed to. However, we as a society have shown that when push comes to shove, we are capable of rallying to a great and worthy cause. With the mounting issue of obesity, I am hopeful that we will once again rise up to that challenge.

The Atlantic

Super-sizing Portions. You go to the market place, to the restaurant, to the coffee shop, and place your order. Over the years as you became older, bigger, and stronger, so too did the portion sizes of what you ate and drank. We hardly think of it as we transition from youth to adulthood, given how natural it seems and how logical it feels. Yet, as we slowly plateau at our peak years and as our body’s requirements level off, our meals and drinks have continued to grow up with or without us. In today’s Starbucks generation, a small size drink suitable for a child is 8 fluid ounces; the largest drink sizes available are upwards of 30. Sixty years ago, a regular cup of coffee for an adult would have been 6.5 fluid ounces, with the largest cups of that period, the “king-size,” irking out only 12, what we would consider to be a small-sized drink by today’s standards.  Of course, market growth has never been a homogenous distribution; some grew by even more extremes. Take for example the Original Hershey chocolate bar. When it was first introduced, it weighed only 0.6 ounce; now the range stretches from 1.6 to 8 ounces - over ten times larger than the original. Fast food and baked goods, including cookies and muffins have also grown up to 8 times larger. It is a scary trend when put into perspective of the growing obesity epidemic. Already, 26 percent of Canadian children between the ages of 2-17 years old are overweight or obese. Projecting this trend forward should it continue, we can expect 70% of 35-44 year olds in Canada to be overweight or obese in 20 years. So next time when you order something, ask yourself if it is the right portion size for you.

Super-sizing Portions.

You go to the market place, to the restaurant, to the coffee shop, and place your order. Over the years as you became older, bigger, and stronger, so too did the portion sizes of what you ate and drank. We hardly think of it as we transition from youth to adulthood, given how natural it seems and how logical it feels. Yet, as we slowly plateau at our peak years and as our body’s requirements level off, our meals and drinks have continued to grow up with or without us.

In today’s Starbucks generation, a small size drink suitable for a child is 8 fluid ounces; the largest drink sizes available are upwards of 30. Sixty years ago, a regular cup of coffee for an adult would have been 6.5 fluid ounces, with the largest cups of that period, the “king-size,” irking out only 12, what we would consider to be a small-sized drink by today’s standards. 

Of course, market growth has never been a homogenous distribution; some grew by even more extremes. Take for example the Original Hershey chocolate bar. When it was first introduced, it weighed only 0.6 ounce; now the range stretches from 1.6 to 8 ounces - over ten times larger than the original. Fast food and baked goods, including cookies and muffins have also grown up to 8 times larger.

It is a scary trend when put into perspective of the growing obesity epidemic. Already, 26 percent of Canadian children between the ages of 2-17 years old are overweight or obese. Projecting this trend forward should it continue, we can expect 70% of 35-44 year olds in Canada to be overweight or obese in 20 years.

So next time when you order something, ask yourself if it is the right portion size for you.

When the Chef Is Also a Doctor

To Dr. David M. Eisenberg, an associate professor at the Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health, flavor is a health issue. That’s why he has started teaching doctors how to cook.

We are just starting to learn about nutrition and diet in the context of child development. While lectures have tried hard to deliver the basics behind the nutrients we need, the reasons behind their importance, and how a nutrient’s overabundance or lack thereof impacts us, I feel that something is lost in translation. Clinically, how do we distill the science into a practical suggestion for patients? I think this doctor is onto something.

Discussion: Food Security

Topic: Are there determinants of healthy eating? What do you think they are? As a matter of personal reflection, how often do you think about the safety or nutritional value of what you eat and drink?

Discuss your thoughts here.

I would love to have some exercise equipment at the hospital, preferably a strength room.
Health and wellness-centric classmate’s response to a survey on what the class should do with the sum we have accrued through fundraisers in the past year.

Dear Future Self,

Remember the summer of 2011, when I began following through with an exercise regimen? The one that I had been putting off for a while? It has been coming along well. I feel great, I look more filled out, and I feel healthier overall.

But I am sorry that the downside to all of that is that I am eating a lot more and a lot more often. This must have been a pain in the clinical years. As the third year student said: “Eat when you can, sleep when you can.” I hope the increased appetite was not a bad thing. I apologize if the growling stomach ever hit you at the least opportune times.

On a similar note, I hope you are getting enough sleep. You better be taking care of yourself. That is my body too. 

Cheers,
(Past) Tom of the Medical State of Mind 

A well person is a patient who has not been completely worked up.

A resident’s answer to the question: what is a well person?

Clifton K. Meador, MD. The Last Well Person. New England Journal of Medicine 1994, 330(6): 440

nejm.org

A medical doctor uninterested in nutrition, in agriculture, in the wholesomeness of mind and spirit is as absurd as a farmer who is uninterested in health. Our fragmentation of this subject cannot be our cure, because it is our disease.
Wendell Berry

Life Expectancy

The overall trend of the world is that people are living longer, some more so than others. The data extends back to 1960, with some starting later when data became available, ending with the most recent data set in 2009. 

The major dips for some of the countries jumped out immediately. Historical data would suggest that they coincide with war, such as the Bangladesh Liberation War in the 1970s, the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, and the Rwanda Civil War in the 1990s. There is also a smaller dip for Iraq starting in early 2000.

It is an interesting look at life expectancy unfiltered by health determinants and markers. In the cases of conflict and other factors beyond our control, it shows us that even medicine at its best cannot overcome more powerful stressors. The question then is where will this trend take us in the future?