Jul
11
2011
Hello my fans and yes, we are getting fatter. A report released this past Thursday, July 7th, 2011
F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future*, reveals that the obesity rates across America are increasing. That’s right, there are more obese individuals in 16 states than in 2010. And there was no state in the United States, that reported a decline in obesity rates. Yes, we are all getting fatting-well most of us!
Here are the percentage of obese adults in all 50 states-see it for yourself**:
|
State
|
%
|
|
State
|
%
|
|
Mississippi
|
34.4
|
|
Maine
|
26.5
|
|
Alabama
|
32.3
|
|
Washington
|
26.4
|
|
West Virginia
|
32.2
|
|
Florida
|
26.1
|
|
Tennessee
|
31.9
|
|
Alaska
|
25.9
|
|
Louisiana
|
31.6
|
|
Virginia
|
25.9
|
|
Kentucky
|
31.5
|
|
Idaho
|
25.7
|
|
Oklahoma
|
31.4
|
|
New Hampshire
|
25.6
|
|
South Carolina
|
30.9
|
|
New Mexico
|
25.6
|
|
Arkansas
|
30.6
|
|
Arizona
|
25.4
|
|
Michigan
|
30.5
|
|
Oregon
|
25.4
|
|
Missouri
|
30.3
|
|
Wyoming
|
25.4
|
|
Texas
|
30.1
|
|
Minnesota
|
25.3
|
|
Ohio
|
|
...
Posted in: Editor's Page, Home
Mar
28
2011
As you all know, my pal Nerdel and I are big supporters of the Presidents Challenge and First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move programs. The intent of both of these fantastic programs is to get all Americans, young and old, into better shape. Both programs encourage you to eat healthier meals and snacks at school, at home, at work and whenever you go out to eat! And both programs emphasize the need to perform some type of physical fitness activity each and every day. The Presidents Challenge program has many individual activity categories based on age and lifestyle and you can earn many cool awards and medals by registering your fitness performance.
Here’s a little history: On September 14th, 2010, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius along with the co-Chair of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition-Dominique Dawes and Let’s Move Executive Director Robin Schepper, launched the Million PALA (President's Active Lifestyle Award) Challenge. The goal of the Million PALA Challenge is to get 1,000,000 youth and adults, from all over the United States, to sign up and participate in the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award (PALA) over the year. The ending date is slowly approaching-September 2011.
How does the Million PALA Challenge work? “The Presidential Active Lifestyle Award, or PALA, can be earned by taking part in 60 minutes of physical activity for kids ...
Posted in: Editor's Page, Home
Mar
12
2011
I Just got back from the March 4 Hunger which took place on a beautifully cool morning on the Broad-walk in Hollywood, Florida. Over 400 runners, walkers and joggers took part in this great event which raises money for Feeding South Florida. People from all over the country including vacationers, residents, boot camp workoutsters , and kids ran walked and jogged the 5K (3.1 mile) course in temperatures starting in the fifties and ending in the 60’s. With the ocean breezes, salt air and sunshine, the conditions couldn’t have been better!
Feeding South Florida is an amazing not-for-profit organization that is devoted to “empowering and assisting people in need and improving their lives”. They provide food and other grocery products to the hungry and educate the community to fight hunger and poverty. With one in six adults and one in four kids in the United States alone in the hunger column daily this organization has its work cut out for it. The poverty numbers have increased over the past few years with this current economic slow down. Almost 60 million Americans are at the poverty level. There are over 21 million kids (children 18 and under) at the poverty level. In Florida alone, there are over 1 million children( 18 and under) and 2 million adults (age 19 and older) in the poverty classification.
In 2009/2010, Feeding South Florida provided over 24 ...
Posted in: Editor's Page, Home
Feb
11
2011
Well, there it is my friends. The reports are finally out-over a half billion of us-that’s right us-the people and residents of planet Earth, are obese. And this represents a doubling since 1980. These studies, led by researcher Majid Ezzati of the Imperial College of London and Harvard University, were published recently in the Lancet journal. And you know what happens with 500 million people with obesity? You are right again-a rise in the secondary medical problems that result from the obesity like heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Can you imagine a rising population of people with heart problems and diabetes? Our medical system will be overloaded with new patients. Not to mention-seeing many young obese individuals that develop secondary problems earlier and prior to adulthood. It’s catastrophic. What can be done? Cutting portion sizes and increasing exercise will help. Our medical treatment for elevated blood pressure and high cholesterol is getting better. But that won’t stop the tidal wave of kids and adults that will develop these problems. Maybe we should all feel better that we can treat these secondary problems effectively. But we really need to focus on primary prevention. We need to start the nutrition and fitness education at an early- preschool age and continue this until adult hood. We need to teach our young generation of kids how to eat, what to eat that ...
Posted in: Editor's Page, Home
Jul
26
2010
I was running on the treadmill last night and listening to a news story about a research study that showed the benefits from “light or moderate intensity physical activity.”* It made me think about all the times I have recommended to my friends and readers of this column, that all you need to start with is ten minutes of exercise a day (read “Take Ten”). The results are now proven scientifically: even a low level (low intensity) of exercise, over a small amount of time, can be helpful at improving your life* in quantity and quality. So then I started to think about whether we can correlate this to eating and did some preliminary research into the calorie restriction concept. From very early studies in mice and monkeys*, calorie restriction has led to longer life spans and has delayed the onset of many chronic diseases (e.g. cancer, heart disease and stroke).
In the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent estimates, there are over 36 million people over the age of 65 and about 200,000 people over the age of 100. And according to the United Nations, by 2013, there will be over 3 million people in the world over the age of 100. So our population is growing and living ...
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May
08
2010
I wonder if many of you feel like I do when I go out to a restaurant for dinner that having a large main course is not exactly what I really am in the mood for ? I guess this started recently for me. I look at the menu and can’t quite find the right choice. Then I look back at the appetizers and say-hey how about if I order two appetizers. They look much more appetizing anyway-maybe a salad and soup or a shrimp cocktail. But then the guilt hits-I say to myself-how will everyone react when I don’t order a main course? Will they be upset that I went against the grain? Will the waiter be upset? I just don’t want a big, bulky main course-I don’t! So there! So I wait until the person taking my order gets to me and I lower my voice to a whisper and say,” I’ll have the salad and the vegetable soup.” Then I hear the response in a booming loud voice so all at the table can hear,” is that all you want?” “ Yes, that’s it.” I realize that this becomes a complicated order for the staff. What do they bring first? Do they bring one of the appetizers for the main course or both at the same time? I try to make it easy and tell them exactly ...
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