Friday, September 21, 2007
85% Undernourished
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today released the results of a recent telephone surveyed involving 356,112 people which found that less than 15 percent of the population were actually eating enough fruits and vegetables and getting enough exercise. And this government survey only used five servings of fruits and vegetables as the target goal (the new HHS recommendation is actually nine).
The exercise questions were on moderately intense exercise for at least 30 minutes a day, five days a week, or vigorous exercise for at least 20 minutes a day, three days a week.
The survey found that only 14.6 percent of those surveyed were getting both enough exercise and enough fruits and vegetables. This broke down into 16.6 percent of women and 12.4 percent of men.
Sorting the results by ethnic group, the researchers found that American Indians and Alaska Natives scored the best, with 19.6 percent of women and 17.5 percent of men getting enough vegetables and exercise. In contrast, only 17 percent of white women, 14.8 percent of Latino women and 12.6 percent of black women met the government standards, along with 12.6 percent of white men, 11.7 percent of Latino men and 11.2 percent of black men.
This report underscores the need for any new government healthcare plan to focus on lifestyle improvements including daily exercise, improved dietary habits and daily supplementation with a full-spectrum multiple to address nutrient deficiencies associated with DNA breakage, innapropriate gene transcription, and the progression of chronic degenerative diseases, on which 75 percent of our healthcare dollars are spent according to the most recent statistics.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
19 comments:
A focus on disease prevention and the individual's responsibility should take center stage in the healthcare plans put forth by 2008 Presidential hopefuls.
Good for you for daring to present issues which must gain bipartisan support.
Thanks Dr. St. Claire,
We must all step up to the plate and present dependable information and dare to voice our opinions on healthcare when so many decisions that affect the welfare of the entire country are being discussed and debated by the people who will become our leaders in 2008.
This new CDC information on dietary intake is not much of an improvement over our 10 year old UC Berkeley study which found only 10-12 percent of the population eats five fruits and vegetables a day.
Our attempts to educate the public about the importance of diet and exercise do not seem to be working.
I agree with you Diane-we are not doing a good job of educating the public about staying healthy and aging well.
Calorie restriction is proving to delay aging in every species we test here in the Sinclair Lab-that means we need to focus on eating nutrient dense foods and consuming fewer calories.
Do we have the ability to make nutrient dense low calorie food as affordable as calorie dense junk food?
It is disturbing to find out that less than 15% of the population eats five fruits and vegetables a day, since it takes that many to reach the current RDAs, which are based on keeping us alive, not keeping us healthy.
I hope the government will use this information to stress that everyone consume a better diet, gets more exercise, and take a daily multiple since there are so many good ones on the market.
PS - Thanks for the Friday Pearls and the blog information. I pass your information on to the patients in our clinic.
This new CDC data shoots holes in the idea that the average person does not need to take dietary supplements.
It's also additional proof that the dumbing down of the country is NOT serving us well in any area, including lifestyle habits.
The new information published by the CDC suggests that the country eats fewer fruits and vegetables in 2007 than they did in the Healthy People 2000 survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
That survey found that 20 percent of the population ate five servings of fruits and vegetables a day.
This information is one of the leading health indicators and it must be addressed if we expect to lower the amount of money we are spending on degenerative diseases.
On the question asked by Anonymous
Nature did a fabulous job of creating affordable nutrient dense foods with fruits and vegetables-unfortunately we destroy a lot of those nutrients by picking produce when it's green, keeping it in cold storage and using chemicals to ripen just before shipping to markets.
That's why supplementing with a daily full-spectrum multiple makes sense in the real world.
Wow.....the goverment should jump all over this. More goverment education would save a ton in healthcare spending.
Joe
It's good to see that the CDC is continuing to study dietary trends in the US, but who listens?
I read in your web site that I should be taking broad spectrum nutritional supplements, but many doctors say that the dietary supplement companies don't have the science to back up that advice.
My doctor told me that "any vitamins are OK, but won't make much difference."
Very useful information. I am glad that your company is making the public aware of this
I agree with Diane Kennedy, RN, PhD who wrote that supplementing with a daily full spectrum multiple makes sense in the real world.
And to Charles Tanner, the science is there, and we publish scientific references to all our products and our advice on our www.biosyntrx.com web site.
If you are interested, look up the science behind our products on the web site, or sign up for our Friday Pearls. It's free.
I think that no matter how often you tell people to eat healthy they are not going to listen. I know I need to eat better but I don't. I know I need more excercise but I don't have the time. But I do take Oculair and ZoOmega-3 so I am getting some nutrition. I think the government and doctors need to inform people about vitamins.
Mr. Tanner, You need an attitude adjustment!! The educated public is listening more and more and they are not at all happy with medical doctors who don't bother to try to understand nutrition science.
I speak with patients every day who don't discuss diet or nutrition with their physicians because they know doctors are pretty much uninformed about this area of health and disease prevention.
I asked my Mom's retina specialist doctor which vitamins I should be taking to help prevent AMD and he basically blew me off by saying all vitamin supplements are a waste of money.
After he left the room, his assistant apologized for his rudeness and suggested that I start reading your Friday Pearls.
I try to send them on to all my family every week, but some weeks I forget, or don't understand the subject.
There are a lot of thing I will never discuss with my doctor because he has been brainwashed by the pharmaceutical companies to write scripts for everything. I don't want any more drugs unless they are my last hope; VIOXX almost killed me!
Here is an idea: let's start a campaign to get congress to pass a bill that forces the pharmaceutical companies to air a prime time public service diet and exercise spot every time they air a drug spot.
Lauren,
I'm delighted to hear that you take Oculair and ZoOmega-3 every day. However, Biosyntrx formulations are more effective for those who choose a lifestyle that also includes good dietary habits and adequate exercise.
Those who are truly serious about preventing degenerative diseases give up saying, "I don't have time to eat right or exercise" and they somehow find the time to eat a balanced diet, including fish a few times a week; exercise daily, and take a full-spectrum multiple for insurance.
It's becoming fairly clear that most health status is about making good lifestyle choices and taking a lot more responsibility for ones own well being.
Beverly,
I too read the Friday Pearls and find them to be fascinating! Sometimes the information is over my head, but most of the Pearls provide me with great information on recent studies that I would never go looking for. You can subscribe to them so they are automatically emailed to you every Friday. In fact, your friends and family can do the same it's really easy. Just go to the Biosyntrx website and type in your name and email address…that’s it!
Post a Comment