Are popular burgers "Happy Meals"? Fat chance!!

It's almost an insulting and cruel joke to name greasy fries, sugar-rich drinks, and high fat & sodium/white flour burgers as a happy meal, but it makes McDonald's happy anyway. Don't mean to beat up on poor ol' Mac coz they are not in the health field, and are giving the public what the public continues to want. It's up to us as individuals to make healthy choices and eat well. But all fast food consumers would benefit from more knowledge of what they are eating.

Obviously there are 1000s of junk food diners and the sky's the limit on invented menu offerings. However, the more we question what's in the product, the more informed we are. Note: am not using the word "food" here, as it's hard to imagine that a lot of this stuff qualifies for that label. Case in point: MacDonald's Happy Meal. This headline was attention-getting last week: "McDonald's Happy Meal resists mold for six months!"

Now I am not an nutrition expert, but doesn't real food get moldy, shrivel, and rot? Even plastics exposed changes its colors. But take a look at this photo comparison of a happy meal on day 1 and at 6 months, left on a shelf. There is hardly any difference. McDonald's Happy Meal resists decomposition for six months

So this is only one meal from one place, and just what the blazes is in that? Can it be of any benefit to your body? Perhaps if you are sodium, sugar, or fat deprived, then yes.

It's recommended that adults get no more than 1500 mg of sodium a day. If you really are not getting enough salt in your diet, then try this salt blast - the infamous
Double Down burger from KFC, with its 1740 mg of sodium, 540 calories, and 30 grams of fat. I bet that will never ever rot.


Even if there were any living organisms in it, they probably all perished from cardiac problems. This double-trouble burger is pretty much the same as many other fast food offering in terms of fat and calories, but the sodium level makes your heart stop a while.

Too bad that products like this are so popular, and ultimately create unhappy experiences at the hospital. But it does not have to be, it's a free choice world, and it's a matter of which ones we make.

Good luck to Yvonne Jones

Liberal leader Yvonne Jones announced Friday that she has breast cancer and will undergo surgery on Monday. Having survived cancer and it's side effects, I want to wish Ms. Jones, and every cancer patient strength to deal with it physically and mentally.

Progress has been made on many cancer fronts, but it is still far too common, and still we also have long wait times for certain preventative tests like mammography. In addition, our main hospital still has staff shortages which makes it challenging for cancer doctors to properly care for their patients. However, we always hope it can only improve, one would think, with all the errors and criticisms of it in the last few years. For now, I hope Yvonne Jones will have a successful surgery and use her strength of character to return her to a good health. As some commenters at CBC's site advised, conserve your strength and put politics on the back burner for as long as it takes to get well.

Want to reduce hospital wait times? Hire more clerical support! Soon!!

Eastern Health is apparently making some headway with hiring nurses, that's great! Now please focus on hiring more secretarial help! There are long wait times and delays in large part because doctors do not have adequate and in some cases, any office help. This is truly a ridiculous and unacceptable situation.

This is not opinion, this is fact! Eastern Health, at least, can reduce wait times by simply hiring more secretaries. Imagine this: a doctor is on the 5th floor of the Health Sciences Centre, and while attending to immediate patients, is also thinking of distance patients who require urgent treatment advice. The doctor cannot give an immediate treatment regimen because the patients' records are down several levels of the health science complex, and there is no one to communicate patient records to the doctor. So to get the latest record of patients from some other part of Newfoundland and Labrador, the physician has to take the elevator down several flights, walk through corridors to reach their office. Then, they will have to dig out the files (or order them from another part of the hospital), maybe do some faxing, phoning, researching, or emailing, and then repeat for any number of other patients who are out of town. Meanwhile, seriously ill patients up on the floors are wondering where the doctor is.

This Is the present situation, and it is dangerous for patients and doctors. They often are responsible for 100s of patients from across the province, but then to not have adequate clerical help on top of that will take valuable time and energy away from important patient care. As well, doctors may not be able to take extra patients because they cannot adequately treat them, due to the extra demands on their time.

Eastern Health really needs to address this issue. There is a high turnover rate in clerical positions, and they also need to put in place plans to more efficiently replace workers who once in a new position, need to take maternity leave. We hear about nursing and other health worker shortages, but the problem with office help is also critically important. If it is not addressed it will lead to more stress on doctors, health care professionals, and patients. If the clerical support shortage is addressed, then there is a better chance of timely patient care.

Cutting Cancer Risk, and Health Costs

It's the kind of news there ought to be more of ... by controlling lifestyle habits, we can prevent cancers from occurring by one third. This week's announcement of a study showing the relationship between weight and risk of cancer, is very positive for anyone, and positive for governments' budgets.

It had been suspected that too much fat in our foods and bodies, too much alcohol, and not enough exercise could lead to a higher risk of cancer developing. This study (here's a related CBC video interview), is significant. A team of nine independent scientists from around the world, analyzed 7000 other related studies, over a period of five years - very comprehensive.

The main findings in the study were:

• excess weight increases the risk of cancer
• the consumption of alcohol, red meat and processed meat also elevates cancer risk.

Specifically the report recommends:

• (Limiting intake of cooked red meat to about 500 grams (1.1 lbs) per week)
  
• Limiting intake of high-fat and sugar-rich foods that are low in fibre, including most fast food
  
• Avoiding completely bacon, ham, sausage and luncheon meats
  
• Limiting alcohol to no more than two drinks a day for men and one drink a day for women.
  
• Limiting consumption of salt
  
• Eating mostly foods of plant origin
  
• Being physically active every day
  
• Breastfeeding

The study had new recommendations for body mass index (BMI).
The BMI is an indirect measure of body composition, based on your height and weight.

It was surprising. According to one of the lead scientists, Dr. Phillip James, the leaner the person, the better (with limitations). His suggested weight to height ratio may seem alarming to many people. As Peter Mansbridge pointed out to him in an interview, people who appeared slim and healthy, were still over the suggested BMI number. Here is a tool to measure your own BMI. (This works in Firefox, and if it does not for IE, try this link: ) A normal BMI is between 18.5 - 24.9, i.e., the BMI with the least risk of developing cancer.

Another health news item that got wide attention in the past two weeks concerned sodium in food. A coalition of 17 health groups in Canada called for reduced sodium levels in packaged food.

(from CTV's web site) In a National Sodium Policy statement, the coalition urges the federal government to:

Set graduated targets for sodium levels according to food categories;

Monitor and report on progress by 2012 and 2016

Establish effective monitoring systems to track sodium levels in the diets of Canadians

Educate Canadians on the health risks of high dietary sodium and how to reduce consumption

Provide incentives to the food industry

Ensure health professionals understand the need to reduce dietary sodium and educate their membership about health risks and how to reduce intake

This is in the right direction. The story revealed that Canadians are getting far too much sodium in their diets. The recommended level for a person to get each day is no more than 1500 mg. Unfortunately, many get double that, many men, triple that. High sodium levels have been linked to coronary problems. If you don't already read food nutrition charts, it is truly worth your while to take a look at the next can of soup, pizza, beans, or any product. The sodium levels in some of these is already startingly high. A 240 ml can of Campbell's chicken soup has 890 mg of sodium - over half of the recommended amount.

News items like the above are so welcome for the publics knowledge. More credible information like this on other foods, preservatives, colorants, and any dangerous ingredient needs to be repeated to the public. Changing dietary habits is not easy, and can take years for some to learn and make healthier lifestyle changes, so the health news and messages need to be promoted more, and continually over time.

This will save lives, and save the troubled health care system millions. It's a win-win situation for people and government.

There has been criticism from Canadian & American meat associations because of the potential affect the news could have on the beef, and pork industry. In the end, it will be peoples' deitary habits that determine how well any product sells. Things probably won't change much overnight for sales of these meats. In the future, however, meat producing companies may have to be content with lower sales at least domestically, but they can always look to exporting more internationally.

For consumers, continue reading the nutrition charts on food products, get more knowledgeable about what's in processed foods, and what you're feeding your system. Is it good or harmful? Garbage in, problems later. There are 1000s of studies done every year on food effects, they may be commissioned by food companies themselves, or by an arbitrary health association, or by government. The study referenced in this post appears to be very credible, and a cut above the rest.

The federal government in particular might want to consider putting more money into public service health announcements promoting healthy living, preventative lifestyles. The investment now, could very well save $100s of millions in the future.

Emergency Room for Error

Facetiousness aside, there apparantly are serious problems now at the emergency room at the Health Science Complex - read the previous blog post link. Of course, health care problems are an eternal problem facing society, but what can government do? It's only the 10^th straight year that there have been obese surpluses, almost $14 Billion in the most recent fiscal year. Can we not afford to properly staff hospitals and emergency rooms?

Situation Critical!

This is a link to Geoff Meeker's blog post. Today he shares a letter "delivered to him in the night" by an anonymous health care worker from the HSC emergency room unit. The letter describes in shocking detail, stressful and dangerous ER situations at the Health Sciences Centre. Staff are overworked, waiting times are very long, and more patients are sent back to ER from other hospital sections. The pressure on the ER medical team is immense, and their pleas fell on deaf ears at higher levels of HSC exec. Here's the blog post and letter.