September 2009 Archives

The exercise community is up in arms over a recent Time magazine cover story on the relationship between exercise and weight. The gist of it is captured in this excerpt: "People who regularly exercise are at significantly lower risk for all manner of diseases -- those of the heart in particular. They less often develop cancer, diabetes and many other illnesses. But the past few years of obesity research show that the role of exercise in weight loss has been wildly overstated."

I, too, was surprised by the article and its provocative headline "Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin.'' It took me a couple of close reads to make sense of the piece. The author points to a phenomenon known as compensation to account for the extra calories people consume after vigorous exercise, which can in fact cancel the benefit of calories burned. What the article neglected to report, however, is that obesity research is quite clear on the central role of exercise in maintaining weight loss once it has been achieved.

The most important information in the article actually comes in the last paragraph: "The problem ultimately is about not exercise itself but the way we've come to define it. Many obesity researchers now believe that very frequent, low-level physical activity -- the kind humans did for tens of thousands of years before the leaf blower was invented -- may actually work better for us than the occasional bouts of exercise you get as a gym rat."  This is an important distinction.

As I have mentioned before in this space, one of the hats I wear is that of CEO and president of the American Council for Fitness & Nutrition (ACFN), a nonprofit organization committed to helping Americans understand the benefits of eating healthfully and being more active. ACFN's Healthy Schools Partnership project demonstrates that teaching our children to balance physical activity (calories burned in living an active life) with food (calories consumed in a healthy diet) is the long-term answer to weight management for  the population as a whole. What underpins the success of the ACFN program is the integration of registered dietitians into the physical education classroom to teach the principal of energy balance. We believe this model will play key role in creating positive outcomes on both side of the balance equation -  energy in and energy out - and that adds up to healthier kids.

Maybe the Time headline should have read, "Why Over-Exercising Won't Make You Thin But Daily Physical Activity Balanced with Consuming the Optimal Number of Calories Will." But that wouldn't have been a grabber, would it?

Nationally syndicated Washington Post columnist Sally Squires recently named the  most important nutrition stories of the last two decades.

·        MyPyramid

·        Nutrition Facts Label

·        Health benefits of fish

·        "Healthy" dietary fats

·        Health benefits of whole grains

·        Diet to lower blood pressure and cholesterol

·        Health benefits of alcohol

·        Eating a variety of foods for optimal health

·        Fresh and organic foods

As Sally points out in her article, these stories have one important thing in common: They focus on solutions. I would add two comments to that observation: By in large, they are science-based and have evolved from the work of registered dietitians. What would you add to Sally's list?

Just in case you are wondering if one person really can make a difference in the health of American families, let me introduce you to Jenny Steinhaus, MS, LN, and to Preston Maring, MD.

Jenny, who is president of the North Dakota Nutrition Council and a veteran Food Stamp Nutrition Education Program educator, developed Music & Movement: Nutrition in Action, an eight-session nutrition education curriculum for children age 4 to 8 that incorporates music and physical activity. Jenny believes that, at least for right now, hers is the only nutrition education program for youngsters that uses music as an integral component.

Each 30-to-90-minute lesson includes a story, physical activity, music and a seated activity. Jenny also developed snack suggestions, additional learning activities and a parent handout with recipes to accompany each lesson.

Because OB/GYN physician and surgeon Preston Maring believes a good diet is the most important aspect of preventive medicine, he created Kaiser Permanente's Friday Fresh Farmers Market at the Oakland Medical Center. Dr. Maring says eating from a farmers market is a excellent idea not only because it's good for you, but also because it's good for the environment and for the family budget. Dr. Maring's idea has spread to more than 30 Kaiser facilities in six states.

He is also working to create a distribution system that delivers produce for patient meals from small family farmers and to bring fresh, local, sustainably farmed fruits and vegetables to cafeterias at Kaiser Permanente and other workplaces in the region.

Both Jenny Steinhaus and Preston Maring took an idea and made it happen. They used their knowledge, training, creativity and, most of all, their passion, to make a difference above and beyond the demands of their normal professional responsibilities. This is how change happens. If you have an idea you would like to share, please let me know. I am looking forward to showcasing other nutrition innovators here.