|
|
|
Independence, MO —
Whether its the posting of calorie content on restaurant menus or knowing the strong percentage of sugar content in soft drinks, Americans are starting to take account of what their diets consist of, according to local experts in Independence.
In the spring of 2011, the city received significant grant funding to start the initiative Building a Healthier Independence, which aims to make it safer and easier for citizens to be physically active, make healthy food choices and reduce tobacco consumption.
As part of the healthier food choices component, local business owners are looking at whether locally owned restaurants should include calorie counts on their menus. Federal law requires restaurant chains with 20 or more outlets to post calorie counts on food items.
Locally, 73 percent of surveyed Independence residents said they would like to see nutritional information posted in dining establishments, said Sarah Conrow, an Independence Health Department public health specialist who is working with nutrition/calorie postings.
With so many of our citizens wanting access to this caloric information, we hope our citizens are taking action in the fight against obesity, Conrow said.
Dr. Bridget McCandless, an Independence-based internal medicine specialist, agrees, saying many people would look for healthier options if they knew the caloric values.
It might make people more interested in sharing portions or taking half of a serving home, McCandless said. If you wanted to reward yourself with a dessert but found out that the piece of turtle cheesecake cost you 870 calories, you might think twice.
On whether the posting of calories is actually helpful, McCandless said she is encouraged by the increase in health awareness taking place, adding that the more information people have, the better choices they are able to make about their food and drink consumption.
More people are concentrating on how they can be healthier, she said, and a key part of that is understanding what and how much one eats.
Similarly, McCandless said consumers are starting to notice more of the effect that soda consumption can take, adding, Soda really is as terrible as health experts have been saying.
Soda offers no nutritional value and is gone in seconds, McCandless said, meaning that because the calories dont make a persons body feel any fuller, the body doesn't adjust accordingly.
These large sugar doses affect the amount of insulin the body produces and actually make a person hungrier, she said.
Even if people are overwhelmed at what their daily caloric intake means, a simple solution exists, McCandless said: Walk, walk, walk. According to one online calculator, anywhere from 90 to 360 calories are burned for every 30 minutes of walking, which depends upon how much someone weighs and how fast a person walks.
There is nothing fancy or expensive about this, McCandless says of the exercise, which has been shown to dramatically decrease the risk of breast cancer, heart disease, falls in later life and Alzheimer's disease.
Why wouldn't you wake up tomorrow and say, I would like to avoid diabetes today, so Im going for a walk? she said. Even if you can't do much today, every step counts.
Whether its the posting of calorie content on restaurant menus or knowing the strong percentage of sugar content in soft drinks, Americans are starting to take account of what their diets consist of, according to local experts in Independence.
In the spring of 2011, the city received significant grant funding to start the initiative Building a Healthier Independence, which aims to make it safer and easier for citizens to be physically active, make healthy food choices and reduce tobacco consumption.
As part of the healthier food choices component, local business owners are looking at whether locally owned restaurants should include calorie counts on their menus. Federal law requires restaurant chains with 20 or more outlets to post calorie counts on food items.
Locally, 73 percent of surveyed Independence residents said they would like to see nutritional information posted in dining establishments, said Sarah Conrow, an Independence Health Department public health specialist who is working with nutrition/calorie postings.
With so many of our citizens wanting access to this caloric information, we hope our citizens are taking action in the fight against obesity, Conrow said.
Dr. Bridget McCandless, an Independence-based internal medicine specialist, agrees, saying many people would look for healthier options if they knew the caloric values.
It might make people more interested in sharing portions or taking half of a serving home, McCandless said. If you wanted to reward yourself with a dessert but found out that the piece of turtle cheesecake cost you 870 calories, you might think twice.
On whether the posting of calories is actually helpful, McCandless said she is encouraged by the increase in health awareness taking place, adding that the more information people have, the better choices they are able to make about their food and drink consumption.
More people are concentrating on how they can be healthier, she said, and a key part of that is understanding what and how much one eats.
Similarly, McCandless said consumers are starting to notice more of the effect that soda consumption can take, adding, Soda really is as terrible as health experts have been saying.
Soda offers no nutritional value and is gone in seconds, McCandless said, meaning that because the calories dont make a persons body feel any fuller, the body doesn't adjust accordingly.
These large sugar doses affect the amount of insulin the body produces and actually make a person hungrier, she said.
Even if people are overwhelmed at what their daily caloric intake means, a simple solution exists, McCandless said: Walk, walk, walk. According to one online calculator, anywhere from 90 to 360 calories are burned for every 30 minutes of walking, which depends upon how much someone weighs and how fast a person walks.
There is nothing fancy or expensive about this, McCandless says of the exercise, which has been shown to dramatically decrease the risk of breast cancer, heart disease, falls in later life and Alzheimer's disease.
Why wouldn't you wake up tomorrow and say, I would like to avoid diabetes today, so Im going for a walk? she said. Even if you can't do much today, every step counts.
