Need to get your Cholesterol level up? Try this!

Give yourself a break from the worry of gougingly high fuel prices, and health care crises, and why not "treat" yourself to this giga meal.


This is a 10 inch "Munchy Box" described by Dr. Yoni Freedhoff at his Weighty Matters blog. Freedhoff is an obesity specialist and strong critic of Canada's food guide, and the health check program.
Got to go. Have a big walk to do. Don't mind though, knowing that I'll reward myself with poutine later is motivation enough.

ObeseCity

St. John's, proudly known as "The oldest city in North America", has a thriving, bursting economy, and lately, is known to have a bursting obesity rate of 36.4%, the highest among Canadian cities.

A University of Alberta researcher found that the rate is related to the proportion of fast-food outlets in the region. The Atlantic region had the highest in comparison to other Canadian regions.

In Quebec city the obesity rate is 17.3% and the # of fast-food outlets per 10,000 residents is 1.97. In St. John's the # of fast-food outlets per 10,000 is 3.54.

There are 100,646 residents in St. John's proper (1/5 of NL's population), and 181,113 (nearly 2/5 of NL's population) residents in the St. John's metro area (City of St. John's).     The following table is from the CTV story


That's a large proportion of people, and, potential health problems related to obesity. This is a concern, most importantly for personal health, but also for the health care system - it's medical staff and infrastructure, and the provinces health care budget.

While this study compared cities, there is no reason to believe that other areas of NL would have better rates.

Various factors are associated with Atlantic Canada's higher rate - socio-economic factors, weather, cost of healthier foods, and quite possibly an inadequate amount of education about the dangers in many foods. It would be an interesting idea to make more room in school curriculums for food and nutrition education, reinforced by healthier food choices in schools. (NL has the highest teenage obesity rate in the country as well)

Food and our body's food processing system is in a way like an engine, or a plumbing system. If you put harmful oils, pollutants, grease, and junk into it, the system can clog, and need to be cleansed (angioplasted, or snaked).

It's not easy to change eating patterns .. boy, it's not easy, but the more we learn about bad foods, and how it can affect our direct health and daily being, the better decisions we can make on what food we want our bodies to process.

This earlier blog post has information that was released a few months back on the relationship between cancer and weight. Another warns of dangerous sodium levels in food, and here is an analysis of Dr. Yoni Freedhoff's exposure of the misleading Health Check symbol.

Food and health education is a big part of individual health, and the health care system. Our province, schools, health and any individual or organization can promote more informed citizens to make healthy choices.

In the first half of the 1900s and before, people in Newfoundland and Labrador, did much more physical work than todays computer age workers. There wasn't much nutritional information going around, but people did eat plenty of organic food, which many grew themselves. Of course, there was lots of fat in meat, or salt meats, but people, perhaps unknowingly, were exercising as they worked, and burned off calories.

The province, and St. John's can help people by encouraging more physical activity. The trail system around the town and Mount Pearl is a great place for walkers, and more can be done.

Ottawa has the Rideau Canal where 1000s of people skate. The city is lucky to have a 7 km canal maintained in the winter for skaters. We have unsupervised ponds but there is a real threat of drownings. A public skating rink would be great for St. John's - a shallow water rink where families can go for general skating.

Unfortunately there are now few areas of the city where such a rink could be placed, as commerce is the first priority it appears. What little practical space is left for such an endeavor should be frozen (pun intended), and assessed to determine how the area could either just simply be flooded in the winter, or an actual open air rink with rink boards, benches, etc., could be constructed.

Winter is difficult for getting around. Sidewalks at the best of winters are hidden beneath tons of snow. It's not possible to keep them cleared constantly like during the last week's four major snowfalls. The city has been doing a fine job of keeping roadways cleared so far. However, better sidewalk clearing than has been witnessed in past years, needs to happen. It would mean safer streets, safe people, and importantly, contribute to lowering risk of obesity.

The Heart & Stroke Foundation Promotes Foods that Increase the Risks of Heart Attacks & Strokes

This symbol
is Misleading. It should be seen more as a warning than an endorsement of a food product.

When it is somehow allowed to be placed on an advertisement for a burger, a juice with much higher sugar levels than pop, then you know something's wrong.


The Heart and Stroke Foundation (HSF) promotes a Health Check program that is supposed to recommend food products that are beneficial, and not harmful to a person's health.

From the HSF article entitled, Judge a food by its label, is this statement about the Health Check symbol:

The Health Check symbol on menus is designed to help you make healthier meal choices when you are away from home.

On the contrary, and this is appalling, the Health Check stamp is getting stamped on products that are excessively unhealthy, and increase the risks of cancer, obesity, strokes, heart attacks, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome.

The HSF is a volunteer-based health charity, that is regularly seen in public ads. They have done great work in raising research funds - $90 million in 2005, and as it says on their splendid web site, they promote healthy living. It does not fit the image or the otherwise good work that this huge organization does, to be endorsing foods that cause the very illnesses they fight against.

Dr. Yoni Freedhoff is a specialist in obesity and weight loss. He was consulted by journalist Wendy Mesley for last weeks broadcast of Markeplace, which reported on sodium in food.

His blog, Weighty Matters, gives the scoop on the Heart and Stroke Foundations Health Check program. This current blog post is spreading the word about the revelations posted at Weighty Matters. Dr. Freedhoff's evidence-based information backs up his assertions that the practices of the Health Check program is unethical and misleading. (for future reference check his November, 2007 archives)

The criteria for a food product getting the coveted Health Check stamp is that the product has to meet the Canadian Food Guide standard. There's a big problem - the Food Guide that is still being used is 15 years old, has been criticized as deficient, and therefore, drops the standards so that many unhealthy meats, drinks, and children's food products, can get the Health Check symbol.

In light of the major study released just over a week ago that showed the relationship between red meats, high sodium level, and cancer, many of the foods that are endorsed by the Heart and Stroke Foundation are detrimental to one's health.

As Dr. Freedhoff points out,

"Health Check, the Heart and Stroke Foundation's program that with their little logo, steers patients to products in a manner that they promote as,"

when you choose foods with the Heart and Stroke Foundation Health Check symbol, it's like shopping with their dietitians.

This is what people want to hear alright. People want to trust national health organizations.

Health Check's CEO Sally Brown, pointed out that "products must comply with nutrient criteria based on Canada's Food Guide."

That sounds great too.

Unfortunately, what sounds good is not what it seems. The Canada Food Guide that Ms Brown refers to is the 1992 Canada Food Guide. That, according to Freedhoff, "even Health Canada recognized as being deficient and behind the times."

A revised version was released in February of 2007 - "slightly less woefully deficient" (Dr. Freedhoff).

You would think that the criteria has also changed for applications for products to get Health Checks. The Heart and Stroke Foundation site says that the criteria will be revised and they hope to finish their revisions "in the next few months." It's 9 months since, and no revised criteria.

Why the hesitation? Work overload? Laziness? A cozy relationship with big meat and food companies? Money? Possibly. This is interesting - the Health Check program generates over $3 million annually.

From the good doctor's blog:

Perhaps it is that $3,000,000 annually, a $3,000,000 that has explicitly purchased the Health Check seal, that prevents Sally Brown from explaining how it is the Heart and Stroke dietitians are unable to state that in fact red meat's not healthy, that refined flours lead to metabolic syndrone, that sugar contributes to calories which contributes to obesity, that using cartoon characters to promote nutritionally deficient foods to children is wrong ...

Even though there is a small print disclaimer on ads, saying "this is not an endorsement", the Heart and Stroke Foundation actually brags about it.

With ground beef burgers being one of the most popular meats in the summer months, having the Health Check symbol in place now helps consumers understand that lean and extra lean ground beef can be part of a healthy diet.

The Health Check symbol is a powerful label, with magnetic product-selecting effects on the consumer. Food companies know this. In fact, in a 2004 research study, an HSF dietitian, Carole Dombrow said,

65% of consumers recognized the Health Check logo as meaning the food is
'nutritious', 'healthy', good for you', or 'approved by the Heart and Stroke Foundation.' Sixty-eight percent agreed with the statement: 'I can rely on Health Check to help me make healthy food choices.'

Here's an example of one the "healthy food choices" that Health Check endorses for kids:
Disney's Buss Lightyear Milk Buddies - a sugar sweetened milk beverage.


It has 22 grams of sugar per serving along with 140 calories. That' 5.5 teaspoons of sugar per 200 ml. Drop per drop it's the same amount of sugar found in Coca Cola and almost double the calories. For an obesity specialist like Dr. Freedhoff, calories and sugar are key players in diabetes and obesity. For more examples and detail, see his post on how Health Check sells junk food to children.

Just over a week ago when the World Cancer Research Fund released the results of an extensive report which recommended no more than 500 grams of red meat a week, not surprisingly, the Big Meat industry complained about it.

In his blog post, Why the Food Guide Matters Part II, Dr. Freedhoff points out, they turned to Canada's Food Guide to defend their product.

"Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide continues to recognize red meat in the diet. The Food Guide recommends 1 to 3 servings of Meat & Alternatives per day."

Again, that guide is outdated, but still used as criteria to allow food products to get the coveted Health Check symbol.

The informative Weighty Matters blog reveals much about the HSF and the Health Check program. Dr. Yoni has written letters to them in protest, outlining specifically the harmful food products they put their label on. He continues to discuss openly with HSF representatives this whole issue, and demands answers - but the answers do not justify the actions. The HSF and Health Check are being exposed, and will lose the public's trust if they continue to promote foods that lead to strokes, heart attacks, diabetes, cancer and other medical problems. Right now the Health Check symbol is very misleading, and that has to change.