Genes v Jeans: A very cool event is happening on campus this month, but I have mixed feelings about the message in the message. The idea is that if your pants do not fit, you should just get rid of them. I believe that if our clothes make us uncomfortable - no matter the size of the person - they should be tossed. Clothes that lower your self esteem are not clothes you want to spend the day in. Wonderful idea - lose the jeans. But in the flyer about the event the message is that you can't change your genes but you can change your jeans. IF this is meant to encourage self acceptance it is good, if it is meant to accept being overweight or obese - that isn't a healthy message. Sorry - I know that some are concerned about encouraging low weight eating disorders, but they are rare in the grand scheme of things and healthy weight programs have not been found to increase eating disorder or distorted body image.
Hot Bulbs: I have managed to change most of the bulbs in my apartment to the CFLs. The other night I turned on the hall light to change those, and immediately thought, "Oh you don't want to take them out or put them in with the switch on!" and turned it off. I immediately got up in the chair to unscrew the bulbs and they were HOT - so I sort of get how the old bulbs baked cakes for me as a child and increase my power bill as an adult.
Cellphones and the Brain: I blogged about cell phones and radiation several times over the last year or so. In fact, I found that my phone was one with high SAR and decided to get a different type. Below is what I wrote in Odds and Ends for December 2009. This week more news came out but it was equally inconclusive - the brain reacts to the cell phone - ok. It is still wise then to use a headset and not hold the phone to your head - try texting :)
From December 2009 Cell Phones: This week CNN ran a story about the possible risks from using cell phones. This is not knew news and hearing about it again startled me. Why were they bringing it back up? I wrote about this in a blog in 2008 http://yourhealtheducator.blogspot.com/#uds-search-results. Surely Dr. Gupta didn't just now find out about it. Seriously, the issue of SAR is the same as before and some devices emit more of this non ionizing radiation than others ( a heat that the scientists are not in consensus about with regard to harm, but it is not the same radiation we get from XRAYS), and the concern is life time use of these devices, esp. because some people allow very young children to have cell phones. I know that when I heard about this over a year ago, I changed my cell phone for one that had a lower SAR (specific absorption rate) and then forgot all about it. Unfortunately, a few weeks before Sanjay announced on CNN that the worst emitter of SAR was a black berry curve, I bought one. So anyways, this to me is just more support for texting.
Pot Liquor: I have been reading community assessments which capture the eating and cooking preferences of African Americans - not all black people are the same of course, but several different studies have included a discussion on soul food. Soul food is comfort food and I think that all ethnicities have such dishes. I am Italian and my grandparents came from Italy to the USA. We have traditional meals that are not necessarily healthy, but they nourish our souls and we only eat them on occasion. Black Americans remind me of Italian Americans. Today I saw a reference to pot liquor- pot liquor is the broth or juice that is left over after slow cooking vegetables - my dad would call it stock. Some black Americans will drink the pot liquor or feed it to infants believing (probably correctly) that it contains the nutrients from the vegetables. Pot liquor - pretty darn cool.
Helmet Laws: Doing some writing for my professor these days and that always involves looking up more information. I learned yesterday that 22 states in the USA have mandatory helmet laws - state wide, but with different age limits and that over 200 cities or counties also have them. The bicycle helmet safety institute has a cool map and lots of data on this issue, in case you are interested. To note, in 2008 91% of the 714 bicycle related fatalities involved persons NOT wearing a helmet and 13% of the dead were under the age of 16.
Obesity and Love: The CDC recently released an MMWR which focused on health disparities. An MMWR is a morbidity and mortality weekly report. The one released January 14, 2011 had a special section on obesity. Obesity prevention and informed eating is my research area of interest. I am very mindful of the difference in rates of obesity and its adverse health consequences (heart disease, stroke and diabetes) between blacks and whites. For this reason, I saved the entire document to my computer but printed and reviewed the obesity section. I am not going to tell you all the numbers but suffice it to say, we are an overweight country and blacks bear more of the burden than do whites -this is not because of individual short comings - but environment, access, opportunity etc. Anyway, the report is about differences amongst all ethic groups and this statement pertained to the culture of the Mexican American community but it is very much pervasive throughout much of America - the statement was this, ".. such as equating overweight with healthiness in children or the use of food treats by parents as tokens of love and caring, might influence childhood obesity..."
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