Walking Man II : Giacometti

with Martin Collis

O Karma, Dharma, pudding and pie, gimme a break before I die: grant me wisdom, will & wit, purity, probity, pluck & grit. Trustworthy, loyal, helpful, kind, gimme great abs & a steel-trap mind, and forgive, Ye Gods, some humble advice - these little blessings would suffice to beget an earthly paradise: make the bad people good - and the good people nice; and before our world goes over the brink, teach the believers how to think. ~ Philip Appleman

 

ecently I've been walking to work which doesn't sound too challenging as my office is at home, but I've found that a 5 k morning circuit delivers me back to my desk ready to write. William James said, "The length of my walking is the length of my writing", so herewith about 5 kilometers worth (about 5000 steps). This morning, thoughts were streaming through my head like electrons in a linear accelerator, all I need to do now is commit a few to paper. When you start out on a walk you usually have no idea where your thoughts will take you, rather like a novelist who starts to write a book not knowing how it will finish. It's the same with 'Well', as I sit down to prepare an edition I have no preconceived ideas of what main themes will emerge. This spring, the emergent theme seems to be personal potential. When I speak of wonder in my presentations it's usually about the wonder of our remarkable and very flawed species. As this edition of 'Well' unfolded I realized it included glimpses of some extraordinary and at times heroic people taking on challenges and in doing so becoming accidental or incidental heroes and heroines. The spirit of runner/philosopher George Sheehan is a constant companion on my walks. "Each one of us is an experiment of one. Each is a unique, never-to-be-repeated event. Our talents vary. Our defeats are our own. Our environments offer special challenges. We evolve from a constant interaction between instinct and will, between emotions and reason, between environment and good fortune. Life, like it or not, is a handicap event and a winner may finish deep in the pack."

As an online magazine, 'Well' is big, but in the words of Bob Dylan, it's "Life and life only" with all its fame and foibles, mind and music, laughter and love, poetry, passion and people, all those wonderful people whose stories are scattered throughout this edition.'

Dr. Kenneth Cooper
The man who should have been Surgeon General

I recently shared a platform with Dr. Cooper at the Health Excellence and Fitness Symposium in Pensacola, Florida. It always amazes me when people in the wellness industry don't recognize his name. He is the man who gave us the word 'Aerobics', which was the title of his first book. He was the single most important person in popularizing jogging in the late 60's and the 70's. His Cooper Institute in Dallas produces more refereed publications on physical activity and wellness than any university or other institution in the world. He was ridiculed when he opened a preventative medicine practice in the 60's, but that same practice is now a major life changing organization with a big preventative medicine practice, residential centers for on-site education programs, a state of the art fitness center and the prolific research institute. [www.cooperinst.org]

Dr. Cooper has long been the personal physician for the Bush family and still looks after the medical and health needs of George W. Because of this association and his stature in the profession and because I knew he wanted the job, I expected Ken to be named Surgeon General (Don Ardell would prefer Wellness General) and was surprised when the post went to Richard Carmona. Ken was able to explain why when we spoke in Florida. He was offered the post but would have been required to sell all the components of The Cooper Aerobics Center in Dallas from which the name 'Cooper' would have to be expunged. He worked with a team of lawyers to try to create a blind trust, but the Department of Health and Human Services was adamant and their message was essentially, "Divest yourself of your life's work, (which your son, Tyler, will carry on) and then you can be our spokesperson."

This is a huge loss to the United States who could have had a dedicated, visionary Surgeon General. Ken still has the president's ear and is still an important voice in Washington, but at a time when North America is being ravaged by the twin pits of overeating and underexercising they need him as a leader. Canada did the same sort of thing when it failed to fund Participaction and thus lost Russ Kisby. It's a sign of mediocrity and modest minds when great people are overlooked for leadership positions.

In Florida, Dr. Cooper showed some persuasive slides illustrating a strong correlation between test results on the Institute's Fitnessgram and academic performance in school children. I'll be following this up in a future edition of 'Well'. He was also clear that C-reactive protein should be measured as part of a coronary risk factor profile. CRP and homocystein are two risk factors associated with heart disease of which researchers were largely unaware when conducting earlier studies.

When someone asked Ken how, at age 72, he can continue to look good, retain his boundless enthusiasm and work 12-hour days, his one word reply was 'discipline'. He runs or walks at least 15 miles a week without fail. Discipline is not a popular word in the best selling weight loss manuals, but without it few positive changes occur.

Steve Nash

I had to admire my friend Steve Nash's decision to make a thoughtful and low-key statement regarding his feelings about a possible war in Iraq and war in general. At the NBA All-Star game Steve wore a T-shirt with a discreet "No War. Shoot for peace" logo. Steve was very clear that this was not an anti-American gesture, pointing out that his own country, Canada, is far from perfect. He feels there is still room for more discussion regarding alternatives to a war. In this he has the support of Winston Churchill who once said that, "Jaw, jaw is better than war, war." Most high profile athletes with big endorsement contracts are advised to tip toe away from controversy so Steve's decision to express himself was a significant and courageous gesture.

Sometimes what we need is perspective and thanks again to Don Ardell for including the words of Carl Sagan along with a picture of the tiny, pin prick dot of Earth as seen by Voyager 1 at a distance of 4 billion miles.

"We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam. The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

Injuries

I have a pain in the arch of my left foot which I've come to think of as my 'arch enemy'. It's never easy to deal with injuries. At first, I ignored it, but it got worse. I got the obligatory x-ray, which showed nothing. I finally went to a podiatrist, which was a cosmic waste of time and money. I had the first appointment of the morning, but had to wait 20 minutes to see 'the doctor'. I'd filled out a form prior to my visit, which he clearly hadn't read. He gave a cursory look at my feet and then proceeded to tell me what I already knew. I had pronounced forefoot varus, my left ankle was inflexible etc. Without looking at the site of the injury he quickly got into his sales pitch for othotics and orthopaedic shoes ($700/pair). He then told me that I shouldn't even think of running on feet like mine and that he'd given up jogging 10 years previously and was much happier. (I was tempted to tell him to inform his face). It was clear to me that this was a man with no empathy and no concept of high level performance so I foolishly paid my $45 and went on my way. In retrospect, I should have declined to pay and said why. The foot still hurts, but I don't think my jogging days are over just yet.

"I run so I do not lose the me
 I was yesterday and the me I might become tomorrow."
 ~ George Sheehan

There are certain fundamental things in delivering a professional service

Be punctual, or if you are delayed, apologize and explain why. Be prepared and don't waste the client's time and money asking about things which are clearly documented. Be empathetic. Listen to your client or patient's concerns and desires and, where realistic, work towards making them a reality. Be very, very careful that the client doesn't feel perceived as a good potential cash cow, rather than someone whose problem needs to be addressed as expediently and inexpensively as possible.

Big is Not Better We're developing a drive-through lifestyle where we want things big, in a hurry and for 99 cents. Everything is bigger whether it's SUV's, cookies the size of small pizzas, Grand Slam breakfasts, Big Gulps, TV screens and portion sizes in general. The concept of the biggie size leads to biggie butts and biggie thighs. It's all so obvious you could inscribe it on the head of a pin, but that won't stop countless academicians writing papers, politicians wringing their hands, bariatric surgeons performing new and improved stomach stapling techniques and every pharmacological and naturopathic huckster peddling weight-loss products.

For a well researched and thoughtful commentary on childhood obesity, I strongly suggest reading Mary Eberstadt's "Child-Fat Problem." This is a lengthy article that deals with the multi-factoral nature of the increasing numbers of overweight children in the USA and throughout the world. Parts of the article might step on a few toes and deal with politically delicate areas; but I feel its intent is to give an honest appraisal of factors impacting childhood obesity.Mary Eberstadt is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and a consulting editor for the Institutions bi-monthly publication, 'Policy Review' .

Dr. Atkins

He's back. The old doctor doesn't go away and small studies are now being reported that suggest the Atkins diet just might work. I'm often skeptical of newspaper summaries of experimental data where the headline doesn't always seem to match the results. However, when I saw the report of a study conducted by Drs. Gary Foster, Samuel Klein and James Hill I took notice, for they include past and present presidents of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity. I have often quoted James Hill in previous issues of 'Well' as he runs the National Weight Control Registry. Gary Foster admitted that one of the reasons they studied the Atkins approach was to 'show that it didn't work'. What they found after 3 months was that the Atkins group lost 8.6kg. (19 lbs) while the high complex carb group lost 4.1 kg (9 lbs). But what about coronary risk factors? The Atkins group LDL's (bad cholesterol) rose 7 points, but the HDL's (good cholesterol) rose and impressive 12 points. The high carb group had a slight decrease in LDL's and no change in their HDL's . The largest difference was in triglycerides. The Atkins dieters dropped 22 points while the high carb group didn't budge. The Atkins weight loss was not simply dehydration, as critics often contend, since dieters in a separate study also lost twice as much body fat on an Atkins type regimen. Despite these results, many of the researchers who did the studies are reluctant to recommend the Atkins diet for now, saying they know too little about its long-term effects. A large new study just underway could settle those doubts. The federally sponsored project will randomly put 360 overweight men and women on the Atkins plan or the US Department of Agriculture's standard high-carb, low-fat diet, then watch them in painstaking detail for at least two years. "It's difficult to swallow," says O'Brien, "but the data are the data, even if they go against 30 years of dogma."

As I noted in my diet article in "Well" Fall 2002, it's intriguing how critical the nutrition establishment has been of Atkins without ever doing their homework.

The Speakwell cat, Roxy, eats an Atkins type diet and is almost 20 years old.

McDonalds

Old McDonald had some stands Ee I Ee I Oh. And they played havoc with my glands Ee I Ee I Oh. With calories here, calories there, Here a shake, there a fry Everything is supersized.

I always feel a bit 'healthier than thou' writing about McDonalds which, because of its size, is a metaphor or symbol for the fast food industry which has changed the way many people eat. But I can't resist a few observations.

The last few months have not been a vintage time for McDonalds. In January they reported their first ever quarterly loss and share price has gone from nearly $50.00 USD in 1999 to about $12.50 today. Their stock is being battered like that of United Airlines. (Maybe it's fear of frying). Their response is predictable and Larry Light, head of Global Marketing, has been having brainstorming sessions with McDonald's top advertising agencies from around the world. It's all about money and image.

The root of the problem is that McDonalds, like many other multi-nationals, feel they have to grow bigger and more profitable every year and ultimately this is impossible. It is the philosophy of the cancer cell.

McDonalds has had to deal with a number of problems other that its falling stock price and decrease in same store sales.

1. The Law Suit. One of those apparently frivolous lawsuits of the "McDonalds made me fat" variety got a very interesting response in Federal District Court from judge Robert W. Sweet. In his 64-page ruling he disallowed the complaint as it stood but suggested a different strategy might be successful. Referring to some products as "McFrankenstein" foods, Judge Sweet (I love these names: Larry Light, Judge Sweet, sounds like something you put in your motel coffee - 'Sweet and Light') said that if the plaintiff could prove that foods were altered during processing to such an extent that the result could be a health hazard beyond the comprehension of the average consumer, then the case might be worth pursuing. Quoting from the New York Times, "The judge ran down the ingredients of several McDonalds products, including Chicken McNuggets. Chicken McNuggets, rather than being chicken fried in a pan, are a McFrankenstein creation of various elements not utilized by the home cook. A Chicken McNugget is comprised of, in addition to chicken: water, salt, modified corn starch, sodium phosphates, chicken broth powder (chicken broth, salt and natural flavoring (chicken source)), seasoning (vegetable oil, extracts of rosemary, mono, di- and triglycerides, lecithin). Battered and breaded with water, enriched bleached white flour (niacin, iron, thiamine, mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), yellow corn flour, bleached wheat flour, modified corn starch, salt, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, calcium lactate), spices, wheat starch, dried whey, corn starch. Batter set in vegetable shortening. Cooked in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, (may contain partially hydrogenated soybean oil and /or partially hydrogenated canola oil and/or cottonseed oil and/or corn oil). TBHQ and citric acid added to help preserve freshness. Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an anti-foaming agent."

2. The French Factor. The McDonalds head office produced reams of disclaimers when McDonalds France in an advertisement in Femme Actuelle suggested that, in view of concerns about childhood obesity, children should only eat in their restaurants once a week. It must all be part of that anti US French strategy. Several US Government organizations have struck back by renaming 'French fries', 'Freedom fries'.

A recent study out of Minnesota yielded the following information:

Average Calories Consumed by Children per Day

No Fast Food	1900
Fast Food 2 times a week	2100
Fast Food 3 times a week or more	2700

3. From Golden Arches to Fallen Arches. McDonalds just can't seem to get it right. They supersize everything and charge less, with .99 cent meals in the US and $1.69 meals in Canada. They frantically open new outlets around the globe at the rate of over 5 a day. They try a 'lighter menu' with little success and their tie-in with Disney has led to some unwanted merchandise with Happy Meals, as a number of recent movies have flopped. They've tried greeters a la Wal-Mart and are now offering 24-hour pick-up windows. They've tried almost everything except great food.

As a service to 'Well' readers, I tried their McVeggie Burger and salad. I had hopes for the burger as it was supplied by Yves Veggie Cuisine of Vancouver who have done well in the burger and hot dog look-alike business. It was a boring burger substitute, tarted up with the usual McDonalds pickles, iceberg lettuce, pepper and ketchup. Let's face it, McDonald's burgers, be they meat or veggie, are really condiment delivery systems. I noted the disclaimer, "During preparation, the McVeggie Burger may come into contact with meat and/or chicken products." My salad just didn't look like the salad in the 'Lighter Choices' promo poster, but then the flowers in my garden often don't resemble the pictures on the packet. I passed on desert but can share with you the comments of Tralee Pearce of the Globe and Mail, "The new Fruit 'n' Yogurt Parfait, made with creamy Danone vanilla yogurt, goopy strawberries and blueberries, and topped with airy granola, is a complete hybrid of junk food and health food. It replicates the format with a mere 155 calories and 2.5 grams of fat."

Of course, the inevitable happened, while I was purchasing my veggie burger I was approached by someone who had heard one of my presentations. " I didn't expect to see the Wellness guy in McDonalds." I told her I was "doing research for my newsletter" and sounded totally unconvincing. I felt like a priest in a whorehouse.

Do I think the struggle at McDonalds is some sort of watershed in public food choices? In some cases, yes, there are a growing number of people who associate McDonalds with boring, high calorie foods, which don't help with weight control. But remember Wendys is gaining market share and the two giant donut sellers, Tim Hortons and Krispy Kreme are growing exponentially. Krispy Kreme has been one of the most successful IPO's of the last 3 years with the stock currently trading for $35 USD. They plan to open 77 new outlets in 2003. (It's an odd company name as their signature Hot Original Glazed doughnut is neither crisp nor creamy.) Krispy Kreme stores across North America produce more than 5 million doughnuts a day (more than 2 billion doughnuts per year). The Krispy Kreme web site boasts some astonishing and maybe frightening statistics which include:

Every week they make enough doughnuts to reach from New York to Los Angeles. Every year, they use up two Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of chocolate. Every year, they use about 1 million pounds of sprinkles. Collectively, Krispy Kreme's stores could make a doughnut stack as high as the Empire State building (that's 1,454 feet or 443 meters) in only two minutes.

Even the most basic McDonalds burger offers way more nutrition that a donut. In case you're feeling sorry for McDonalds, last year their global sales were around 41 billion dollars.

It might be a bit extreme, but I talked to a woman in Pensacola (the city that sounds like a soft drink) who had taught her children that Ronald McDonald was some sort of evil clown from whom they should stay away.

The States of Obesity

The most recent CDC (Center for Disease Control) graphics of obesity show that 1 in 4 people in Mississippi are now obese with a BMI of 30 or over. The CDC slides are frightening graphic evidence of the epidemic of obesity that's sweeping the continent and is now killing over 300,000 Americans each year.

[Click here to open a separate window displaying the CDC slides for 1990,1992,1994,1996,1998,2000, 2001] An Orange Alert indeed.

New Book

In past issues of 'Well', I've recommended 2 excellent books that help make sense of our losing battle with obesity. These were "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser and "Food Politics" by Marion Nestle. Now there's a third must read book, "Fat Land" by Greg Critser.

If you want to really understand why Americans are becoming the fattest people on earth, you need to read Greg Critser's 2003 book, "Fat Land". He relates the development of high fructose corn syrup and the availability of cheap palm oil to the whole concept of supersizing and producing food which was great for shelf life but less so for self life. It's a dazzling piece of work written with wit and insight and supported by very sound research.

Critser also writes persuasively about the 'dumbing down' of physical activity and how there has been a lowering of standards and expectations about the quantity and quality of exercise we need.

He's not afraid to deal with the delicate matter that there are socio-economic factors associated with fatness and that while much research concerns the middle class and the wealthy, more of the problems are found among the poor and disenfranchised.

It's a terrific book, with a sociological perspective, which separates it from the other two. Check it out at amazon.com

It's Not Such a Small World After All

A March 17th 2003 article from Food Navigator.com updates the global obesity picture.

As western nations draw up strategies to combat the growing number of starving people in the developing world currently standing at a staggering 800 million and growing -- a British based group warns this week that, at the other end of the spectrum, up to 1.7 billion people worldwide could be overweight or obese. But, this is not just a problem for developed countries -- obesity is hitting the developing world.

Professor Philip James, chairman of the International Obesity TaskForce, said the revised figure was 50 per cent higher than earlier estimates meant that most governments were simply ignoring one of the biggest risks to health affecting the world's population.

The updated estimate takes into account a new recommendation from a WHO expert group, which concluded that obesity-related health risks increase among Asians from a lower body mass index threshold because of their special vulnerability to weight-related disorders.(Lancet, Vol 360 July 20 2002) If the proposal were adopted as a new benchmark, it could add another half billion to current estimates of the world's overweight population.

Professor James notes:
"It is clear that extreme forms of obesity are rising even faster than the overall epidemic and we are witnessing a real health tragedy unfolding. In the USA the percentage of black women with morbid obesity - a BMI of 40 or more - has doubled in less than a decade to a rather disturbing 15 per cent. Overall 6.3 per cent of US women - that is one in 16 - are morbidly obese.

"We are seeing a rapid increase in morbid obesity in Europe too, although with smaller percentages. The data for England show that morbid obesity in women increased 180 per cent while rising three fold among men in less than a decade!"