2010 Weighty Matters Report on the Heart and Stroke Foundation

  by Yoni Freedhoff, Weighty Matters

COINCIDENT WITH THE PUBLICATION of this blog post there's a press conference going on at the Courtyard Marriott in Toronto where the Heart and Stroke Foundation is presenting their 2010 Annual Report on Canadians' Health. This year the report's called,

“A Perfect Storm of Heart Disease Looming on Our Horizon”

The report cites some genuinely grave statistics,

“Between 1994 and 2005, rates of high blood pressure among canadians skyrocketed by 77%, diabetes by 45% and obesity by 18% — affecting both younger and older canadians. Moreover, even younger age groups are experiencing increases in risk: among those 35 to 49 years of age, for example, the prevalence of high blood pressure increased 127%, diabetes by 64% and obesity by 20% — all major risk factors for heart disease.”

And Dr. Beth Abramson, a Heart and Stroke Foundation spokesdoctor, sums it up brilliantly,

“Canada is truly at a crossroads. As a society we need to decide if we are going to invest in making our society more heart healthy so we can reduce our future risk, or would we rather continue to pay for a healthcare system overwhelmed by cardiac patients.”

Like all of the Heart and Stroke Foundation annual reports this report ends with multiple calls to action with Heart and Stroke Foundation issued directives for the federal government, provincial governments and for all Canadians.

Conspicuously absent? A call to action with directives for the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

I guess that's where i'll come in. Think of this as the missing last page of the report (and certainly if heads remain firmly implanted in the sand, a new annual feature at weighty matters):

To the Heart and Stroke Foundation:
 

1. Rebuild the health check program.
    
   • Actually have the Heart and Stroke Foundation's health check program adopt the Heart and Stroke Foundation's own recommendation for a daily maximal intake of 1,500mg of sodium and adjust the program's criteria to bring them in line with the canadian stroke network and blood pressure canada's recommendation that maximal per serving sodium be 200mg.
      
   • Create more than just a yes or no seal of approval so that foods with check marks can actually be compared to one another as there are often far healthier choices to be made even within comparable health check'ed products themselves.
      
   
   • Evaluate all of the foods in the marketplace so that foods healthier but not a party to health check can be identified by consumers.
      
   • Eliminate health check products made with refined grains (whether they're “enriched” or not).
      
   • Eliminate beverages from the program. people should not be encouraged to drink their calories.
      
   • Eliminate health check products where sugar is added as fruit juice concentrate or puree and in so doing recognize that sugar is sugar.
      
   • Eliminate health check products containing processed and red meats and in so doing fall in line with organizations like the Canadian Cancer Society who unlike the Heart and Stroke Foundation, takes evidence-based nutrition seriously.
      
   • Expand health check's nutrient criteria to include the literally dozens of nutritional determinants of health its current iteration ignores (right now the majority of health check categories only evaluate 3-4 nutritional criteria in awarding the seal).
      
   • Eliminate restaurants from health check. the Heart and Stroke Foundation should be encouraging canadians to eat out less and cook with whole foods more rather than enabling canadians to eat out and feel a false security about their choices. “less bad” is in fact still “bad”.
      
2. Acknowledge the existence and importance of calories.
    
   • Immediately add a robust energy expenditure online calculator and caloric education and guidance section to the Heart and Stroke Healthy Weight Action Plan which currently has only the most rudimentary caloric guidance.
      
   • Issue a complementary report to go along with the “FAT — Saving a generation before it's too late” report on childhood obesity in ontario that actually discusses the impact of calories consumed on the etiology of childhood obesity given that in the report as published, despite it being about childhood obesity, calories — the currency of weight — aren't mentioned even once.
      
   • Add calories as a criteria to be considered for every product category in health check.
      
   • Never again release any type of tool or report having to do with obesity without explicitly including and discussing calories.
      
3. Call for a revision to canada's food guide.
    
   • The Heart and Stroke Foundation should call upon the federal government to immediately revise the Food Guide (reinforcing the Canadian Medical Association's call to have the Guide revised every 3–5 years to incorporate advances in our understanding of the impact of dietary choices on health) to provide useful guidance to canadians on sodium consumption and thereby be consistent with our best evidence on sodium.
      

4. Buy a mirror.
    
   • Before criticizing federal and provincial governments, before chastising the public about their need to be more concerned about their determinants of health, the Heart and Stroke Foundation should take a good long look at themselves in the mirror. What might they see?

   Health Check'ed Slush Puppies?
   
   Health Check'ed vegetable juice with nearly a 3rd of their own daily recommended sodium maximum?
   
   A Front-of-package labeling program that thinks 3–4 nutritional determinants of food are all that matter?
   
   Partnerships with Boston Pizza that lead to the sale of heart shaped pizzas on Valentines day (a practice akin to a lung association having a day where they promote cigarette sales in 7-11s where part of the proceeds of smoke sales would go to them)?
   
   Reports on childhood obesity that don't mention the word calorie even once?

For such a proud and supposedly stalwart organization these glaring shortcomings besmirch their good name.

Perhaps Stephen Samis said it best in their own 2010 report,

“This is an embarrassment for all canadians”,

and while he wasn't referring to the mess i've highlighted above, he may as well have been.

Michelle Obama's Initiative to Reduce Childhood Obesity

THE AMERICAN FIRST LADY, Michelle Obama, has launched a nationwide campaign to tackle child obesity. One in three children in the US is overweight or obese and Mrs Obama says the issue threatens America's future. She is setting out an ambitious plan to try to solve the childhood obesity problem within a generation. The Let's Move campaign will seek to raise the nutritional level of school meals and improve access to healthier food in deprived areas.

Budget pledge

Mrs Obama has stressed that the campaign, launched recently, is not entirely hers. She has enlisted the help of politicians, entertainers and sports personalities to get the message across. Parents, businesses, schools and local government will need to increase their efforts in the area, she has said. Parents will be encouraged to enrol their children in extra-curricular sports and leisure activities.

Mrs Obama has herself performed a hula-hoop routine at the White House to try to increase the profile of exercise for children. On Tuesday she told USA Today: “I would move heaven and earth to give my kids all the chance in the world for them to be at the top of their game in every way, shape and form.”

In his budget proposal last week, President Barack Obama called for an additional $1bn to fund child nutrition programmes. In recent years US obesity rates have stabilised, but they remain significantly higher than in most other developed countries. A commentator says one in six children in the US is considered obese and today's children are predicted to live shorter lives than their parents.

Diet overhaul

But Mrs. Obama has been criticised for publicly discussing the issue in relation to her two daughters. She revealed how a doctor had raised concerns about the weight of her daughters—prompting the Obamas to cut down on sugary drinks and hamburgers in favour of fruit, vegetables and water. The girls were also banned from sitting in front of the television during the week.

Critics suggested it was insensitive for the president's wife to comment publicly on her daughters' weight. But by acknowledging the dietary challenge facing busy working families, Mrs Obama believes she can influence others—especially poorer Americans. She said last month that she wanted to make a difference.

“I want to leave something behind that we can say, because of this time that this person spent here, this thing has changed.”

Why Michelle Obama's Initiative to Reduce Childhood Obesity Will Fail

reprinted from Fooducate Blog

FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA has a legacy she wants to leave behind: drastically reducing childhood obesity. Yesterday at a Mayors Conference in Washington DC,  she announced a new initiative in this spirit, to be formally announced in February.

After presenting the dismal stats (around 18% of kids are obese), Mrs. Obama outlined what is to be a joint effort at the federal, municipal, and non-profit levels.

“The idea here is very simple: to put in place commonsense, innovative solutions that empower families and communities to make healthy decisions for their kids.”

The main points:

• improved school lunches
• more physical activity (including school phys-ed cut due to budget constraints)
• access to fresh and healthy foods in all communities (nutrition deserts are all too common in poor urban areas)
• nutrition education for kids and their parents.

This is a great plan, and Mrs Obama deserves kudos for bringing childhood obesity to our collective attention. No doubt her status as the nation's number one mom, with personal experiences and challenges in feeding her family, make her one of the best champions for the cause.

However ...

I'm sorry, First Lady, your plan, while commendable, doesn't have a fighting chance.


Here's why:

It is far more profitable for America to “fix” obesity related ailments than to prevent them. A partial list of industries that stand to lose if people actually begin to eat right, stop gaining weight and stop getting sick:

• Junk food manufacturers (over 100 billion dollars in annual revenues)
• Weight Loss (tens of billions of dollars)
• Supplements (tens of billions)
• Healthcare (over 100 billion dollars annually in obesity related treatments)
• Fast food establishments (over 300 billion dollars)

• you.

You. A single consumer, without a lobby, without a voice, without a chance against the “machine”.

It sounds crazy, but if the First Lady's plan works and we actually slim down and become healthy, millions of jobs will be lost, the economy will take a severe step backward, and hundreds of politicians will lose important financial support from the lobbies representing companies in the aforementioned industries. Do you think they'll let that happen?

The food industry will outspend the government and nonprofits by several orders of magnitude to keep kids munching and slurping away at junk food. Yes, they'll donate a million dollars here and there to rebuild a school gym, or pay to create community nutrition groups. But then they'll go and spend billions on advertising junk food for kids on TV, the Internet, and through product placement in movies, video games, and more.

Sorry for the pessimism folks, but childhood obesity is a symptom of a far larger problem of unbalanced interests. Currently only shareholder interest drive business, with social, health and environmental costs totally externalized by corporations. Mrs. Obama needs help from her husband on this one. It's a biggie. Unless the government place the responsibility for obesity on the industry that created it, the results of the First Lady's efforts will be summarized by a good photo-op, some PR, and a few isolated “success stories.”

What to do at the supermarket

Not to end on a sour note, there is hope. If each of us, in his/her own small circle, takes action and starts to buy real food ­ mostly unprocessed, mostly from the supermarket perimeter, perhaps from local farmers on occasion ­ our collective actions will send a clear message to the food industry ­ give us real food.

A Snapshot of Hot Yoga
An Experience

 by Moira Gardener

HOT YOGA! What the heck it that? For those of you who have not heard of Hot (Bikram) Yoga it is simply what it implies. A Yoga practice of 26 moves performed in a studio that has been heated to 110 degrees F (43C). To experience what a hot yoga class can be like read on.

Every time a yogi or practitioner of yoga steps into the studio it is a new and different experience, just as each moment of life is new and different. This is only a sample of how one individual, a beginner like myself, experienced a yoga practice.

On this particular day I really didn't want to go, and I was using all the self-sabotage devices I have learned over years. You know the maybe tomorrow, I don't have time today, I don't feel like it (whine, whine, whine). Thankfully I went, making it just in time and found a place on the floor. I knew that I absolutely needed to be there, and as my body began to absorb the heat I relaxed. Yes — I was where I needed to be. I could let go of the churning thoughts of late and practice presence. I knew when I made it through the standing sequence I'd come home. For me it is always about getting through the standing series on these wobbly ankles. This was one of those practices that flowed, and the 90 minutes went to fast. The silent tears came and went leading to smiles. The let go let go let go ushered in being and ended with Namaste.

This was also new to me, the beautiful term Namaste. Namaste, as explained by one of my beautiful co-workers means that everything that is divine and beautiful in me honors everything that is divine and beautiful in you. I'm certain there is a lot more to this lovely thought, but this is the beginner version, as I presently understand it.

After this particular practice I stepped back yet once again to simplify, focus and move forward with assurance. This is only a snap shot of a single practice that is evolving and changing every time I step into the studio. I encourage the reader to find a fit and give it an honest persevering try. By this I mean more than a handful of times.

Namaste

The McHealth Check? The Heart and Stroke Foundation heads to McDonald’s!

 by Yoni Freedhoff, Weighty Matters 
  visit Weighty Matters blog

OF COURSE! Because Canadians don't eat out often enough, right? Certainly health authorities should be doing whatever they can to encourage Canadians to eat out more often, right? Clearly it's not enough that food dollars spent outside the home have risen nearly 20% since the 70s to a whopping 54%, we should be aiming higher, right? Oh, and eating out being a seminal component of our rising obesity rate, who cares, right? Certainly not the Heart and Stroke Foundation, and really, who better to champion eating out than their atrocious Health Check program?

You know the program. It's the one that has less stringent criteria than the almost instantaneously laughed out of business Smart Choices program in the States. It's the one that gives its seal of approval to restaurant meals at fast casual restaurants like Boston Pizza to entrees that have up to 960mg of sodium (and that's the new “stricter” criteria) or nearly 2/3 of the Heart and Stroke Foundation's own daily recommended 1,500mg maximal sodium intake. It's also the one that Heart and Stroke Foundation Registered Dietitian Carol Dombrow proudly reports,

“When you see the Health Check symbol on a food package or restaurant menu, you know the Heart and Stroke Foundation's registered dietitians have evaluated this item and it can contribute to an overall healthy diet. Look for the Health Check symbol to help you make wise choices.”

Well guess what? Health Check's coming to a McDonald's near you.

Yup, the brilliant dietetic brain trust over at Health Check is about to roll out Health Check'ed items at McDonald's, Tim Horton's, Subway and other fast food restaurants.

Genius! What better way to promote health than to give Canadians a reason to feel good about eating industrially processed food-like substances rather than cooking with real whole foods?

I know, you think I must be making this up. Sadly I'm not. A few days ago I took a survey from the Heart and Stroke Foundation about their involvement in restaurants and came across question #7 (click the picture below to see it all blown up).

Here's what it reported/asked (emphasis mine),

“The Heart and Stroke Foundation is extending its Health Check program to Quick Service Restaurants, such as McDonald's, Subway and Tim Horton's. Healthy meals will be identified on the menu with the Health Check logo. Brochures explaining the program and the nutrient requirements will be supplied, and training will be provided to restaurant employees.

Do you foresee any major obstacles to the success for this program?”

Nope, I don't see any major obstacles. You see the Heart and Stroke Foundation is clearly comfortable pimping out their good name to pretty much anyone who asks, and given how pathetically underpowered their inclusionary nutritional criteria are, that opens up the door to healthy eating titans like McDonald's to help line Heart and Stroke Foundation pockets.

Outraged? Think the Heart and Stroke Foundation should be going out of their way to encourage cooking with whole foods, not eating out? Think it obscene that Heart and Stroke Foundation Health Checks will soon adorn the menu at McDonald's? Please don't stay silent, not this time. This time, if you're a concerned allied health professional, a concerned parent, or just plain concerned, please take just a few brief moments of your time and click here to send an email to Sally Brown, the Foundation's CEO, Stephen Samis, the Foundation's Scientific Director, Terry Dean, the General Manager of Health Check and copied on the email will be Health Check's Technical Advisors and Health Check's Strategic Advisory Panel.

I can only hold out hope that Health Check's partnership with McDonald's will do to them what Smart Choices' partnership with Froot Loops did—expose the Health Check program for exactly what it is—an irresponsible program that confuses and misinforms Canadians about what is and what is not healthy.

Social media folks—please tweet this (retweet button below), blog about it, link to it and just plain make noise. I haven't seen the Checks in McDonald's yet and maybe, just maybe, enough noise will make it through the few feet of sand the Heart and Stroke Foundation folks have shoved their heads into and knock a tiny bit of sense into them and put an end to this madness before it formally begins.

Don't want to do any of that? Well then why don't you at least keep your eyes open for Heart and Stroke Foundation, and apparently fast-food loving, registered dietitian Carol Dombrow eating at McDonald's and making the “wise choices” the program she proudly shills for is soon going to be encouraging everyone to make.

Filet-O-Fish anyone?

[Hat tip to blogging friend and registered dietitian Vincci who pointed me to the survey via her blog C'eci n'est pas un food blog]