All That Sugar . . . All Those Soft Drinks . . . All That Money!

In a Blog Post (To Tax or Not to Tax—That’s a Big Question) dated June 1, 2009, we started with the following statement and questions:

Liquids make up about 22 percent of our daily calories. A study published in “Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association,” found those who drank just one soft drink a day—diet or regular—showed increased risk factors for heart disease. Here’s more: Women who drink two or more cans of diet or regular soda a day are nearly twice as likely to show signs of early kidney disease. And, any soda may increase your risk of metabolic syndrome. People who consumed just one diet soda daily had a 34 percent higher risk.

A 12-ounce can of sweetened soda contains 150 calories and 10 teaspoons of sugar. Is this tax-worthy? It’s a question we may be looking at. Here’s a question to go with it—Do we impose a “sin” tax on regular soda but not diet soda? And, if we’re in essence taxing sugar—what about candy, gum, ice cream, candy bars, pies, cake? (You get the picture.)

Now, here’s what’s new and eye-popping. Let’s look only at sugar-sweetened beverages—the numbers only grow from there. The Yale University Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity has gone further than asking thoughtful questions. The Center has developed a “Revenue Calculator” for soft drink tax revenue. The figures are truly amazing. Just a 1 cent tax per ounce on sugar-sweetened beverages (regular soft drinks, sports drinks, flavored water, fruit beverages, energy drinks, ready-to-drink coffee and ready-to-drink nondiet tea) in 2010 could result in tax revenues of $14,887,530,097 on the 11,630,882,889 gallons of the sweet stuff we drink. In one year.

Here in Texas alone, those figures translate to $1,187,823,885 on the 927,987,410 sugar- sweetened gallons of beverage we Texans consume. It’s pretty obvious that taxes on sugar-laden beverages can result in a great deal of revenue for cities, states and the nation.

Suddenly those Big Gulps really do have value. One more question—what do we do with it?

A Job Well Done

When Labor Day rolls around, most of our thoughts turn to the really important matters at hand: Where did the summer go? Will Monday's barbecue be the last till next June? Long gone are thoughts about the true meaning of this day to honor the nation's workers. Labor Day, being the first Monday in September, makes for a pretty good holiday. Before the “real” holiday season begins, it’s a nice break, generally observed with parades, speeches, barbecues, and picnics. It has also become the unofficial end of summer. In essence, while we have a holiday in honor of “the worker,” we celebrate Labor Day by not laboring.

It was just last Labor Day that we were looking at a grim economic picture. Just two weeks later, on September 15, financial giant Lehman Brothers went under, and it's still the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. Two weeks later, it was followed by lender Washington Mutual. That was not the end. Much has happened since the last Labor Day to Labor Day 2009. And much has happened since the first Labor Day was celebrated in New York City on September 5, 1882.

If you're like most people, you spend at least one-third of your life at work. This Labor Day, with the nation's eyes upon its workers, it's a good time for both employers and employees to evaluate what you do with that one-third of your life. Is your work personally satisfying? Do you take pride in what you do? Do you have a support network at work? Do you feel you are a valued employee (and if you’re the employer, do you demonstrate that you do indeed value your employees)? Do they know it?

Given the current economic conditions, debate over health care reform, job loss and job uncertainty, (this is where we tie this post into LoneStart Wellness) now would be a very opportune time for each of us to do everything in our power to ensure our individual and organizational long-term health and wellness. After all, we know healthy and well employees are happier, have more energy, give more to the job—and get more from the job. That investment in wellness is indeed a job well done, and a fitting way to mark Labor Day, 2009.

We’re headed in the wrong direction on this one.

Yes, we’re in the wellness business, and yes, this is our Blog. So, it will come as no surprise that we’re going to talk about wellness—and what we can all do about it on a personal level. To do this, we’re going to also have to talk about a pretty scary forecast. A study in the journal Obesity reports that in just over 20 years “the vast majority of Americans will be overweight or obese.”

Currently the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows about 66 percent of U.S. adults are overweight or obese. Dr. Youfa Wang, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore and author of the study says by 2030 that number will rise to 86 percent. If this prediction turns out to be on target, Wang and his colleagues estimate the additional overweight and obesity would add up to between $860 billion and $956 billion per year in health expenditures to treat these and the accompanying related chronic conditions (up from $147 billion in 2008). And this means $1 of every $6 spent on health care would be spent as a result of overweight and obesity.

We eat more, we move less—and so do our children. The average American eats 50 pounds more meat and 20 pounds more cheese per year than they did in the 1960s. Nearly half of all American adults (4 in 10) report they are not active at all. Obesity has tripled among teens in the last 20 years. Nationally, obesity rates have nearly quintupled among 6 –to 11- year olds and tripled among children ages 2 to 5 since the 1970s. And, the doubling of obesity between 1987 and today accounts for 20 to 30 percent of the rise in health care spending.

Now, what might happen if we use this information to focus on how we can change those behaviors that got us to this point, to those that promote health and long-term wellness? Like we say when we address groups of employees or individual LoneStart Wellness participants, “Modest but meaningful changes lead to long-term and sustainable weight loss and wellness.” And just a few modest behavior changes can dramatically improve our collective health. We also point out that what we’re talking about is making “lifestyle changes that change lives.”

Predictions are possibilities—not guarantees. Will the forecast ring true? Will we do anything to keep it from happening? Will we finally take control of our own health?

Ah, Rats!

Fatty Foods. We know two things—many fatty foods are really tasty, and they’re really bad for us. Now, we know even more—eating fatty food seems to take a toll on short-term memory and exercise performance. We learned this from a study using rats, reported in the journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.

The study found that a fatty diet affected the brains and bodies of rats in just a few days, even before the extra pounds showed up. The theory is that a high-fat diet can trigger insulin resistance, so the body becomes less efficient at using the blood sugar (glucose) that’s important to brain function. The effects on exercise efficiency were thought to be due to the body’s reaction to high fat content in the blood by releasing certain proteins that make metabolism less efficient, thereby making muscles less efficient at using oxygen and fuel to create energy.

The study’s lead author, Andrew Murray, a lecturer in physiology at Cambridge University, said researchers also performed similar tests on healthy humans, and that the short-term effect of a fatty diet on humans “appears to be similar to that found in the rat studies.” Dr. Murray goes on to say that the impact of these findings is particularly relevant to those people who don’t worry about occasional binging on fatty foods—because they are physically active and exercise regularly. Evidently, that’s not good enough to ward off the short-term evils of a high-fat diet.

So, here’s the question. We’re all in this “rat race” together. Why would we want to deliberately limit our potential and performance?

Small Changes Add Up to Big Results

This isn’t huge news, but changes don’t always have to be big to result in significant improvement. On one level it’s about specifics, on another, it’s part of a belief system that gets to core values.

Sometimes there are simple things we can all do that make big differences in our own health and wellness—and yes, weight loss. Becoming just “a little more” physically active. Watching liquid calories. (We’ve posted on these before.)

This isn’t one of those thought-provoking, doesn’t it make you mad, did you know posts. We just want to share some information from LoneStart Wellness that can lead to some of these “wellness” changes—changes resulting from something as simple as recipe modifications.

The goal is to decrease calories and fats without sacrificing texture and taste, using simple techniques such as: When reducing salt in a recipe, enhancing the flavor with herbs and spices;

liquid oils can usually be reduced, so make-up the difference with other liquids such as broth, water, skim milk or low fat milk. And, in many recipes, butter and margarine can be replaced with healthy oils like grape seed, canola and olive oil.

Following are simple modifications to make your recipes heart healthier:

• Instead of 1 whole egg—use 2 egg whites
• Instead of bacon—try Canadian bacon
• Instead of ground beef—try ground turkey
• Instead of chicken with skin—remove the skin before cooking
• Instead of sour cream—try plain nonfat or low fat yogurt or reduced fat or no fat sour cream
• Instead of cheddar cheese—use extra-sharp cheddar but one-third the amount
• Instead of whipped cream—chill evaporated skim milk until almost frozen and then whip
• Instead of ½ cup shortening try 1/3-cup canola or olive oil (may not work in baking)
• When using prepared condensed cream soups—use 99 percent fat-free condensed soup
• When a recipe calls for sugar—you can usually cut it by at least one-fourth and not lose any of the sweetness

Each of these in and of itself isn’t a big deal. Together, and over time, they can become a big deal. If we look, we can all find ways to become more mindful of the choices we make—can’t we?