I haven’t posted an environmental health article in a while so I wanted to share a clip recommended to me. Josh Fox was interviewed about his documentary “Gasland,” which details the potential effects that natural gas drilling has on the U.S. water supply.
About this video
(source: PBS)
In the debate over energy resources, natural gas is often considered a “lesser-of-evils”. While it does release some greenhouse gases, natural gas burns cleaner than coal and oil, and is in plentiful supply—parts of the U.S. sit above some of the largest natural gas reserves on Earth. But a new boom in natural gas drilling, a process called “fracking”, raises concerns about health and environmental risks.
I’m glad to introduce a guest blogger, Kyle Simpson, who writes for Medical Billing and Coding Schools where you can find more information about a career in medical billing and coding. His following article give a more health-focused list of items for my bucket list. Enjoy!
Image source: www.yobazzip.com
By: Kyle Simpson
If you don’t know what a bucket list is then you have apparently been living under a rock for awhile (see 2007 movie The Bucket List starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman). It is basically a list of all the things that any given individual would like to accomplish before they die. Some popular entries include such diverse activities as: fall in love, start a business, write a book, join the Peace Corp, go skydiving, visit Paris (the city, not the heiress), attend a Mardi Gras celebration, save a life, and so on and so forth. Everyone’s bucket list is different, but they almost always involve travel, love, success, and excitement or adventure (and usually at least one thing that is truly crazy). However, these lists rarely include health-related items. Sadly, most people are not that concerned with becoming a truly healthy (physically, mentally, spiritually, or otherwise) individual before they die. But here are few health-conscious items that you may want to consider when making your own list.
Learn yoga in India. This fusion of mind and body is a useful tool in two ways. It is a physical activity that keeps your body strong and flexible and it also helps to calm and focus your mind. So go to the source to learn ages-old techniques that will keep you centered while you marvel at the strange and beautiful world we live in.
Survive in the wilderness. You don’t need to go Into the Wild to commune with nature. A simple camping trip will suffice. Just make sure you leave the bells and whistles at home (especially electronic devices). Forget the tent and opt for just a sleeping bag to truly appreciate the scope of the night sky. And bring your fishing gear instead of hauling a cooler full of meat. Fish is never as good as when you catch it fresh and fry it up immediately. Lastly, leave your Coleman stove and flashlights at home. Use your campfire to cook old school and read by the softly flickering firelight. You’ll return home relaxed and ready to take on the world.
Go vegan. Try out a vegan diet for awhile. Learn to live without animal products (meat) or byproducts (dairy) and see how you feel. Even better: go organic. A diet high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and nuts is going to make you feel alert and energized, especially if you know it lacks the chemicals and growth hormones found in many of the foods you normally consume. Give it a few weeks and see how it changes your life.
Posted July 14, 2010 by Ali Al-Rajhi under Guest Bloggers
Co-creator of the philanthropic FEED bags, Ellen Gustafson says hunger and obesity are two sides of the same coin. At TEDxEast, she launches The 30 Project — a way to change how we farm and eat in the next 30 years, and solve the global food inequalities behind both epidemics.
About Ellen Gustafson
(source: TED)
Ellen Gustafson co-founded FEED Projects in 2007, creating an immensely popular bag whose profits are donated to the UN World Food Program (WFP). As a former employee of the WFP, she supported their mission to provide school lunches in developing countries so that children could receive both the nutrition and education they need. FEED has also created special bags and a new fund to address the crisis in Haiti, helping the children they once fed at school to rebuild their schools.
At TEDxEast in May 2010, Gustafson launched The 30 Project — an effort to address the world’s hunger and obesity problems as a holistic global food issue. In her new venture, she hopes to stimulate a movement that will change our food and agricultural systems over the next 30 years so that healthy, balanced meals are available to all. Before her efforts to fix the world’s food issues, Gustafson’s primary concern was international security. She wrote and edited pieces on international terrorism for ABC and was a research associate at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“To provide opportunities for students to put theory into practice, nutrition education should go beyond the classroom” –W.T. Yeung, PhD
Comic source: www.tuberose.com
There are an endless number of research conducted which focuses on understanding how the today’s youth make dietary decisions. I have interpreted a consistent theme in most of these studies: That simply educating students about proper nutrition and partaking in some form of physical activity is not enough. Take for example a studied conducted by Yeung et al (2010) that sampled 836 students (age 11-18; 41% male & 59% female) and looked at perceptions of body weight and image, their eating attitudes and behaviors, eating habits, food knowledge, and perceptions and mastery of cooking skills. The study concluded that despite a majority (94%) having studied food and nutrition in their curriculum, felt competent in making healthful food choices (67%), learned to cook (86%), had “food label-reading skills” (75%), and the majority (92%) knew the benefits of exercising, less than half ate breakfast every day and fruit and vegetable consumption was below recommended daily intakes (RDI).
I strongly believe that there needs to be a radical change in how we implement dietary education. Our youth need to develop long-term focus in their dietary habits, i.e. life-long work on the process to improve their nutrition and physical activity…not a focus on instant results and diet-trends. How can this be achieved? I can share my personal experiences in what has allowed me to improve (and continue to improve) my overall dietary habits.
Stock up well: The easiest way to influence your child as a parent is to stock your pantry and fridge with healthy foods. It’s surprising how quickly kids will adapt their diet based on what is provided at home. Yes, you might be indirectly forcing you’re kid to choose an apple over processed apple sauce, but someone needs to crack the wipe to get them on the right track.
“The Sauce is the Boss”: Cooking is still an important process in teaching proper nutrition. A study (HERE) by the University of Minnesota found a direct influence of family meals have on influencing adolescents to eat a healthy diet. The most enjoyable process of cooking, I believe, is preparing the sauce. Using a different sauce creates a different experience even for the same meal. Getting your child to start cooking is one thing…but to get them hooked, then teaching them a handful of simple sauces is the way. HERE is a list of simple sauces that can be taught. Also, what about giving your child the responsibility to preparing a complete meal for the family every now and then…the parent should help, of course. Another benefit for making sauces…you can easily incorporate several veggies in a batch of your favorite sauce (e.g., tomato sauce for a pasta meal).
Posted July 5, 2010 by Ali Al-Rajhi under Author's Post
I work in a nutrition department that has begun to look at sustainability within our agricultural system. So what does it mean to be truly sustainable? I was curious too and happened to find the following article…enjoy!
What does “sustainable agriculture” truly mean—and what should it look like? The outlines of this long-running debate will be familiar to many. One side argues that modern, industrialized farming, for all its flaws, has mostly been a force for good, vastly improving yield, reducing food-borne illness, and saving the world from Malthusian disaster. Building upon this foundation, modern farming should be science-based and highly capitalized, employing the arsenal of innovations in chemistry, biotechnology, and satellite systems—from biotech seeds to laser-leveled fields. The other side rebuts that given the enormous environmental and social costs of intensified agriculture, a paradigm shift is needed: one that takes a whole-systems approach based on traditional knowledge, alternative agriculture, and local food system experience.
Posted June 18, 2010 by Ali Al-Rajhi under Industry
Ali Al-Rajhi writes with the purpose of informing individuals in the Public Health field about pressing issues in environmental health, public health policy, epidemiology, and behavioral health. Learn more here.
What does “sustainable agriculture” truly mean—and what should it look like? The outlines of this long-running debate will be familiar to many. One side argues that modern, industrialized farming, for all its flaws, has mostly been a force for good, vastly improving yield, reducing food-borne illness, and saving the world from Malthusian disaster. Building upon this foundation, modern farming should be science-based and highly capitalized, employing the arsenal of innovations in chemistry, biotechnology, and satellite systems—from biotech seeds to laser-leveled fields. The other side rebuts that given the enormous environmental and social costs of intensified agriculture, a paradigm shift is needed: one that takes a whole-systems approach based on traditional knowledge, alternative agriculture, and local food system experience.