AGRI-FOOD SUSTAINABILITY: Sustainable food certification gets 'REAL'

Sustainable food certification gets 'REAL'

By Sustainable Business News

Published December 06, 2013

Restaurants across the country soon will be able to let customers know how nutritious and sustainably sourced their food is thanks to the United States Healthful Food Council (USHFC).

Launched as a pilot in Washington, D.C., the Responsible Epicurean and Agricultural Leadership (REAL) program uses third-party audits to certify the nutrition and sustainability of foods served at restaurants, as well as from caterers and food-service operations.

The goal is to develop a nationally recognized mark of excellence for the food industry -- increasing the sustainability of foods served while addressing the causes of obesity, diabetes and other diet-related diseases. According to the USHFC, REAL signifies authentic, wholesome, nutritious and sustainable food.

What it means to be REAL 

Boston's REAL-certified John Hancock Building (Credit: Samuel Borges Photography via Shutterstock)REAL Certification, modeled on LEED certification for buildings, gives points based on nutrition and sustainable best practices. Auditors assess how many vegetables and fruits are included in menus, how much processed food is used, preparation methods, portion sizes, use of local and organic ingredients and leadership on best practices such as cage-free eggs and grass-fed beef. 

"It's been heartening to see so many chefs and restaurants not only enthusiastically open their kitchens to a voluntary nutrition and sustainability audit, but also to seek and embrace our recommendations for improvement," said Lawrence Williams, USHFC's CEO. 

Now that its pilot phase is over, the group is launching REAL certification in New York, Boston, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

In addition to a string of restaurants, recent REAL certifications include the John Hancock Building in Boston; the Clorox Company in Pleasanton, Calif.; Google San Francisco; and Union Pacific in Omaha, Neb.

Because sustainably sourced foods can cost more, the group is working to get discounts for suppliers' ingredients. "This will provide a net benefit to all involved: Restaurants will be able to access higher-quality ingredients at a discount, and suppliers can secure new business from REAL-certified restaurants," the organization said.

USHFC is also in discussions with restaurant review websites such as Zagat, OpenTable, Savored, Yelp and TripAdvisor to promote REAL certification.

The importance of sustainable certification

This is good news in a country where the correlation between access to healthy food and diet-related diseases is becoming increasingly apparent. Some 72 million Americans are obese, resulting in medical costs of about $147 billion a year, expected to more than double by 2020, according to the Center for Disease Control.

While USDA Organic certification helps people choose products wisely at the market, REAL certifies the provision of healthy, sustainable meals when people eat outside the home.

Restaurants are also working on their operations by recycling more and using recycled materials,composting and getting LEED certification.

The Chef's Collaborative has been working on these issues for more than a decade.

Learn more and find certified REAL restaurants here.

This story first appeared at SustainableBusiness.com. Cage-free eggs photo by Brent Hofacker via Shutterstock

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HEALTH ALERT: 3 FACTORS DETRIMENTAL TO OBESITY-RELATED HEART DISEASE

3 FACTORS DETRIMENTAL TO OBESITY-RELATED HEART DISEASE

Published November 25, 2013 in Food Product Design

Posted in News, Science & Research, Weight Management, Obesity, Healthy, Nutrition, Diet, Blood Pressure, Heart Health, Cardiovascular, Glucose, Cholesterol, International, Demographic, Cancer,Diabetes

BOSTON—High blood pressure, serum cholesterol and blood glucose explain approximately 50% of the increased risk of heart disease and three-quarters of the increased risk of stroke among overweight or obese individuals, according to a new study published in the journal The Lancet.

Researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), Imperial College London and the University of Sydney considered blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose in a pooled analysis of 97 prospective studies—which enrolled 1.8 million participants globally—to provide a comprehensive look at heart disease risk factors in overweight or obese persons.

They found high blood pressure, serum cholesterol and blood glucose explain up to half of the increased risk of heart disease and three-quarters of the increased risk of stroke among overweight or obese participants. High blood pressure poses the biggest risk of the three metabolic factors examined, accounting for 31% of the increased risk of heart disease and 65% of the increased risk of stroke among overweight or obese individuals.

"Our results show that the harmful effects of overweight and obesity on heart disease and stroke partly occur by increasing blood pressure, serum cholesterol and blood glucose," said senior author Goodarz Danaei, assistant professor, global health, HSPH. "Therefore, if we control these risk factors, for example through better diagnosis and treatment of hypertension, we can prevent some of the harmful effects of overweight and obesity."

Worldwide, obesity has nearly doubled since 1980, according to a previous study by the research team, and more than 1.4 billion adults ages 20 years and older are overweight or obese. Health 
consequences of overweight and obesity include heart disease and stroke—the leading causes of death worldwide—diabetes and several types of cancer. The researchers had also previously estimated that 3.4 million annual deaths are due to overweight and obesity.

Sources:

• EurekAlert: Lowering 3 risk factors could cut obesity-related risk of heart disease by more than half

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What changes now that doctors have declared obesity a 'disease'?

• Doctors and public health experts predict that healthcare providers will do more to fight obesity now that the American Medical Assn. has termed it a "disease." (Chris Jackson / Getty Images)

By Anna Gorman and Melissa Healy

June 19, 2013, 6:20 a.m.

Does it really matter if the medical establishment calls obesity a “disease” instead of a chronic health condition or a disorder?

It’s a question doctors and public health experts are considering in the wake of Tuesday’s vote by members of the American Medical Assn. to upgrade obesity to “disease” status.

They believe that the answer is yes.

“This will make a difference” in the treatment that obese patients get, said Dr. Rexford Ahima of University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. “I would imagine it would cause the insurance companies to think again” about paying for weight-loss treatments, just as they do for smoking-cessation programs, Ahima said.

Harold Goldstein, executive director of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, agreed that it could prompt health insurers to expand coverage of nutrition counseling to help people who are overweight or obese. Calling obesity a disease also could boost efforts to remove junk food from schools and pass taxes on sodas, he said.

More broadly, Goldstein said, it “will bring additional awareness of the importance of the obesity and resulting diabetes epidemic and will encourage all of us to think about what we can do to change the culture in which we live.”

AMA declares obesity a disease

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says an adult is obese if his or her body mass index is 30 or higher. For the sake of comparison, a person with a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 is considered to have a healthy weight, while a person with a BMI between 25 and 29.9 is overweight.

BMI for adults is calculated by taking your weight (measured in kilograms) and dividing it by the square of your height (measured in meters). For those who prefer standard measurements, measure your weight in pounds, divide it by the square of your height measured in inches, and multiply the result by 703. You can also skip the math and find your own BMI by plugging a few numbers into this BMI calculator.)

Obesity in and of itself isn’t necessarily a health problem. But people who are carrying enough extra pounds to qualify are more likely to develop other problems that can be life-threatening, including type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke and certain types of cancer, among others.

The AMA vote could lead to more doctors taking obesity more seriously, said Susan Babey, a senior researcher at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

But as the AMA’s own Council on Science and Public Health noted, the new classification could have some drawbacks. Calling obesity a disease may suggest to patients that the problem can be fixed with medical treatment, Babey said. “There are things that we know help, but there is no single cure,” she said.

The new label also has the potential to make obesity more stigmatizing for patients, Babey added.

In a background report it prepared in advance of the vote, the AMA council warned that "'medicalizing' obesity could intensify patient and provider reliance on (presumably costly) pharmacological and surgical treatments to achieve a specific body weight.” It could also “detract from creative social solutions” to foster healthy behavior on the part of all Americans, the council wrote.

California Department of Public Health spokesman Matt Conens said it was too early to know how the AMA’s decision would impact his agency's work. But he said its staff would continue working to “raise awareness about the harm and dangers related to obesity.”

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HEALTH ALERT: AMA declares obesity a disease

AMA declares obesity a disease

Published in the LA Times June 19, 2013

The move by the American Medical Assn. board means that one-third of adults and 17% of children in the U.S. have a medical condition that requires treatment.

The American Medical Assn. voted Tuesday to classify obesity as a disease, a decision that should prompt doctors to get more aggressive about helping patients maintain a healthy weight. (AFP PHOTO/RONALDO SCHEMIDT / June 18, 2013)

• AMA to offices: Don't make workers sit all day!
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• Belviq, the new miracle diet drug? Fat chance.
• Most public elementary schools don't regulate access to junk food
• Obese patients may trust diet advice more from heavy doctors

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By Melissa Healy and Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times

June 18, 2013, 9:43 p.m.

The American Medical Assn. voted Tuesday to declareobesity a disease, a move that effectively defines 78 million American adults and 12 million children as having a medical condition requiring treatment.

The nation's leading physicians organization took the vote after debating whether the action would do more to help affected patients get useful treatment or would further stigmatize a condition with many causes and few easy fixes.

In the end, members of the AMA's House of Delegates rejected cautionary advice from their own experts and extended the new status to a condition that affects more than one-third of adults and 17% of children in the United States.

"Recognizing obesity as a disease will help change the way the medical community tackles this complex issue that affects approximately 1 in 3 Americans," said Dr. Patrice Harris, an AMA board member.

Tuesday's vote is certain to step up pressure on health insurance companies to reimburse physicians for the time-consuming task of discussing obesity's health risks with patients whose body mass index exceeds 30. It should also encourage doctors to direct these patients to weight-loss programs and to monitor their often-fitful progress.

The federally funded Medicare program, which insures an estimated 13 million obese Americans who are over 65 or disabled, already covers the costs of "intensive behavioral therapy" for obese patients, as well as bariatric surgery for those with additional health conditions. But coverage for such obesity treatments has been uneven among private insurers.

Insurers who are members of the California Assn. of Health Plans cover many services to treat medical conditions associated with obesity, including bariatric surgery anddiabetes, said President and Chief Executive Patrick Johnston.

The AMA's decision essentially makes diagnosis and treatment of obesity a physician's professional obligation. As such, it should encourage primary care physicians to get over their discomfort about raising weight concerns with obese patients. Studies have found that more than half of obese patients have never been told by a medical professional they need to lose weight — a result not only of some doctors' reluctance to offend but of their unwillingness to open a lengthy consultation for which they might not be reimbursed.

Past AMA documents have referred to obesity as an "urgent chronic condition," a "major health concern" and a "complex disorder." The vote now lifts obesity above the status of a health condition, disorder or marker for heightened risk of disease — as high cholesterol is for heart disease, for instance.

"As things stand now, primary care physicians tend to look at obesity as a behavior problem," said Dr. Rexford Ahima of University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. "This will force primary care physicians to address it, even if we don't have a cure for it."

The new designation follows a steep 30-year climb in Americans' weight — and growing public concern over the resulting tidal wave of expensive health problems. Treatment of such obesity-related illnesses as cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and certain cancers drives up the nation's medical bill by more than $150 billion a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Projected increases in the obesity rate could boost that figure by an additional $550 billion over the next 20 years, a recent Duke University study concluded.

In laying out the case for and against the redefinition of obesity, the AMA's Council on Science and Public Health argued that more widespread recognition of obesity as a disease "could result in greater investments by government and the private sector to develop and reimburse obesity treatments."

The Food and Drug Administration, which has approved just two new prescription weight-loss medications since 1999, would probably face increased pressure to approve new obesity drugs, spurring new drug development and more widespread prescribing by physicians, the council noted.

"The greater urgency a disease label confers" also might boost support for obesity-prevention programs such as physical education initiatives and reforms to school lunch, the council added. In addition, it speculated that "employers may be required to cover obesity treatments for their employees and may be less able to discriminate on the basis of body weight."

But the council also said that making obesity a disease could deepen the stigma attached to beingoverweight and doom some patients to endless nagging — even if they were otherwise healthy or had lost enough weight to improve their health.

It might also shift the nation's focus too much toward expensive drug and surgical treatments and away from measures to encourage healthy diets and regular exercise, the council wrote in a background memo for AMA members.

Dr. Daniel H. Bessesen, an endocrinologist and obesity expert at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, called the AMA's shift "a double-edged sword." Though the semantic change may reflect "a growing awareness that obesity is not someone's fault," he worried that "the term disease is stigmatizing, and people who are obese don't need more stigmatizing."

melissa.healy@latimes.com

anna.gorman@latimes.com

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Obesity Across America’s College Campuses

By Tatiana Shams-Costa on April 19, 2013

Obesity in America is rampant; 35.7 percent of all Americans adults are obese or overweight according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and 17 percent of children and teens are obese. However, despite the well-know dangers obesity can cause in people’s health like diabetes, stroke, and even cancer, no one is immune to this epidemic—not even college students.

Because of the freedom that college-life may represent, including being away from home, hectic schedules, and an even busier social life packed with sports and events, some students may find that it’s challenging to live a healthy live-style while flying solo. Myth or not, the Freshman 15 is something students may face during their college years.

A study conducted by the CDC in 2005 revealed that 3 out 10 college students were overweight or obese. Also, many of these students didn’t exercise or ate enough fruits or vegetables—all necessary for keeping a healthy weight. To make matters worse, social disparities like race, sex, accessibility to healthy food choices and adequate exercise facilities can also have an effect in college students to become obese or overweight, according to a study published by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. 

America’s Health Trends went around Quinnipiac University’s (QU) campus and talked to students about their eating and exercise habits, important tools against obesity. We are happy to report that we came across a couple of people who were truly engaged in fitness and healthy eating.

Samantha Bookbinder, QU Senior

“I go to the gym probably about once or twice a week. When I was a freshman I actually lost weight and I think it has to do with the meal plan because you don’t have another cafeteria—like an all-you-can-eat cafeteria like other schools.”

Christa Romano, QU Junior

“I’m a student athlete so that requires a lot of working out and fitness. I also try to eat healthy throughout the week and I also try to plan my meals, so I know what’s in them. I can control my portion size and know what’s in my food.”

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Posted in: Obesity | Tagged: college students, freshman 15, obesity, obesity in America's college, obesity in school, overweight

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