Well, after reading that terrible diary by someone on John Conyers staff, I am really worried. These are the efforts our best hope for single payer makes? This Conyers diary scares me as well as what Paul Krugman's been saying. Dear Mr. Conyers and Professor Krugman, I will consider your complaints about Sanjay Gupta right after you tell me who the current Surgeon General is, and what he's done in the last eight years. That's right. It's not a cabinet pick. The fact that we all know who Gupta is, is an instant benefit.
I'm not saying SG is not important, I'm the guy who wrote the diary how The Surgeon General Can Fix This Economy. I just think that the Surgeon General is not going to stand in Conyers way, if he actually has a chance of getting HR 676 passed. (Which he doesn't) That's just simple, if he were on track to get HR 676 passed he wouldn't be so concerned with Daschle + Obama's pick for SG.
Let me add that I'm not Pro-Gupta, I'm just pro-reality. Reality is this place where we consider that the Surgeon General works for the President, and can be fired at any time. If the nation demands HR 676, and Gupta stands in their way, he's gone. (Not that I see Gupta doing that).
How the Surgeon General Can Fix the Economy Part Two;
Yahoo has a front page story running right now about the recession weight gain. I call it the Receshman Fifteen.
DALLAS (Reuters) – Americans may reduce the amount they spend on food in response to a sour economy but some experts fear they may pick up weight in the process...
They fear that as people cut food spending they will cut back on healthy but relatively expensive items such as fresh fish, fruit, vegetables and whole grains, in favor of cheaper options high in sugar and saturated fats.
"People ... are going to economize and as they save money on food they will be eating more empty calories or foods high in sugar, saturated fats and refined grains, which are cheaper," said Adam Drewnowski, the director of the Nutrition Sciences Program at the University of Washington in Seattle.
This can surely be seen in the ever escalating profits of McDonalds.
The cost savings of eating meals with questionable ground meat and nutrition free refined corn 'sugar' is unquestionable. It is a constant struggle to find healthy food, and it's also quite expensive. I know it is possible to eat healthy at home, but that takes preparation, planning, time that many working people don't have or don't want to commit 3 times a day.
and the proof is in the pudding.
Chief Executive Jim Skinner said in October that the world's largest hamburger chain "continues to be recession resistant" after it posted a better-than-expected third-quarter profit, helped by a 7 percent jump in global sales...
By contrast, other chains associated with healthier eating such as Austin-based grocery retailer Whole Foods has seen its fortunes sag with the economy.
Whole Foods, which thrived prior to the economic crisis by selling organic, natural and gourmet food at premium prices, has been hit as cost-conscious consumers trade down to lower-priced stores.
In November it said that sales at established stores were up 0.4 percent in the September quarter, compared with an 8.2 percent rise in the year-earlier period.
I saw yesterday on Yahoo Finance that Whole Foods was listed as bearish. And there couldn't be a better stock to own than McDonalds. :sigh:
Continuing the yahoo article..
"Things are going to get worse," he told Reuters in a telephone interview. "Obesity is a toxic result of a failing economic environment."
Drewnowski's own research has highlighted the link between income and obesity.
"In Seattle we have found that there are fivefold differences in obesity rates depending on the zip code -- the low-income zip codes have a much higher proportion of obese people," he said.
He added that studies in California suggested that a 10 percent rise in poverty translates into about a 6 percent increase in obesity among adults.
The rate of new cases of diabetes soared by about 90 percent in the United States in the past decade, fueled by growing obesity and sedentary lifestyles, U.S. health officials said in October...
America already tops the global obesity scales. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over one third of U.S. adults -- more than 72 million people -- and 16 percent of U.S. children are obese.
The unfolding recession could inflate U.S. waistlines further as more and more people fall onto hard times and seek cheaper food.
"The reality is that when you are income constrained the first area you try to address is having enough calories in your diet. And cheap sources of calories tend to be high in total fats and sugars," said Eileen Kennedy, the dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University outside Boston.
High Fructose Corn Syrup, which is in nearly everything at McDonalds, has NO nutritional value. The company that mass produces this product, Archers Daniels Midland, has it listed separate from products with nutritional value.
I think there's no better person than Sanjay Gupta to communicate these problems to America. Of course, this is not his natural inclination. His is to work on the other side of the food accounting equation. He wants us to exercise more. Sanjay Gupta wrote in Time Magazine
A new study found that inner-city kids living in neighborhoods with more green space gained about 13% less weight over a two-year period than kids living amid more concrete and fewer trees. Such findings tell a powerful story. The obesity epidemic began in the 1980s, and many people attribute it to increased portion sizes and inactivity, but that can't be everything. Big Macs and TVs have been with us for a long time. "Most experts agree that the changes were related to something in the environment," says social epidemiologist Thomas Glass of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. That something could be a shrinking of the green.
I take offense to the Big Mac comment. People tend to look to fat as the reason why they're fat. I think (as you can tell from my user name) Sugar plays a much larger role
In Table 202 of its 2001 edition, the Statistical Abstract of the United States states that per capita consumption of caloric sweeteners (cane and beet sugars, honey, molasses, maple syrup, corn sweeteners, etc.) was 158.4 pounds in 1999. The breakdown was
* corn sweeteners, 89.1 pounds
* cane and beet sugars, 67.9 pounds
* all others, 1.4 pounds
This is up from 155.1 pounds in 1998, 149.8 pounds in 1995, 136.9 pounds in 1990, 123.0 pounds in 1980, 122.3 pounds in 1970, and 97.6 pounds in 1960.
And the 2006 number is up to 180 pounds of Sugar per American consumed. Things haven't been as static as Sanjay would like to believe in the last 50 years. And our government has known it for quite a while. George McGovern brought it up in 1977
Sugar consumption is actually a stronger risk factor than any of the more famous ones listed above. A 1977 U.S. Senate Health Committee report cited the connection between sugar and heart disease, and called for a 40% reduction in sugar consumption in the U.S.(McGovern et al, 1977) The report, which died a quiet death and is now out of print, was the last nutrition report ever issued by the Senate.
I see an amazing possibility for Surgeon General Sanjay Gupta. With his fit-nation stuff and his PR/MD qualifications he can do much to promote physical fitness and nutrition. I watched the Michael Moore controversy, and frankly Sanjay came off as the adult, and Mike came off as a guy who couldn't stand to be corrected on any point. Gupta's critique was minor and Moore flipped his lid. I see that Conyers is upset about his legislation's potential, and so am I. I just don't think his efforts to tar Gupta are smart politics. And I think Krugman, while right about the notion of village behavior, is wrong about the application of it. Gupta wasn't picked because he's an insider, establishment guy. He's picked because he's world renowned and would bring some attention to the usually clandestine position. Of course there is correlation between being insider/establishment and being world renowned, but that's not Sanjay's work. I'm with Paul Krugman 100% on Economics/Foreign Policy, and he has been screwed by village behavior, but I differ on this 'fight'.
Please check out my original article that includes a seven point plan that the Surgeon General could jumpstart to help fix our economy.