now this would just suck.
oh, happy heart day by the way! be sure to keep your ticker healthy. (don’t forget the obvious – eat well, in moderation, and exercise often.) they’re a precious commodity you know.
oh yeah – eat yourself some dark chocolate too.
<3
additional resources: go red for women : healthy fridge : nutrition data
so i pretty much stole this from Sandy at Junk Food Science. just trying to get the word out. it makes sense; Mississippi is one of the most obese states in the country.
ridiculous or necessary? discrimination or discipline? you decide. (thanks to Sandy!)
It has actually happened. Lawmakers have proposed legislation that forbids restaurants and food establishments from serving food to anyone who is obese (as defined by the State). Under this bill, food establishments are to be monitored for compliance under the State Department of Health and violators will have their business permits revoked.
House Bill 282 was introduced in the 2008 Mississippi legislative session on Friday by Representative W.T. Mayhall, Jr., a retired pharmaceutical salesman with DuPont-Merk. Its co-authors are Bobby Shows, a businessman, and John Read, a pharmacist.
The full text reads:
HOUSE BILL NO. 282
An act to prohibit certain food establishments from serving food to any person who is obese, based on criteria prescribed by the state department of health; to direct the department to prepare written materials that describe and explain the criteria for determining whether a person is obese and to provide those materials to the food establishments; to direct the department to monitor the food establishments for compliance with the provisions of this act; and for related purposes. Be it enacted by the legislature of the state of Mississippi:
SECTION 1.
(1) The provisions of this section shall apply to any food establishment that is required to obtain a permit from the State Department of Health under Section 41-3-15(4)(f), that operates primarily in an enclosed facility and that has five (5) or more seats for customers.
(2) Any food establishment to which this section applies shall not be allowed to serve food to any person who is obese, based on criteria prescribed by the State Department of Health after consultation with the Mississippi Council on Obesity Prevention and Management established under Section 41-101-1 or its successor. The State Department of Health shall prepare written materials that describe and explain the criteria for determining whether a person is obese, and shall provide those materials to all food establishments to which this section applies. A food establishment shall be entitled to rely on the criteria for obesity in those written materials when determining whether or not it is allowed to serve food to any person.
(3) The State Department of Health shall monitor the food establishments to which this section applies for compliance with the provisions of this section, and may revoke the permit of any food establishment that repeatedly violates the provisions of this section.
SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2008.
Should this pass, scales will appear at the door of restaurants, people with BMIs of 30 or higher won’t be allowed to be served. And to comply with government regulations, restaurants will have to keep records of patrons’ BMIs.
Is this a tongue-in-cheek bill, meant to point out how absurd the war on obesity has become? Or do lawmakers actually believe the myths that gluttony is the cause for obesity and that it is the government’s role to force people to eat and live how it deems best?
I called lead author, Rep. Mayhall, and asked if this was serious legislation or tongue-in-cheek to make a point. He kindly took a moment to answer my question while the legislature was in session. He said that while, regrettably, he doesn’t believe his bill will pass, this is serious. He wrote it, he said, because of the “urgency of the obesity crisis and need for government action.” He hopes it will “call attention to the serious problem of obesity and what it is costing the Medicare system.”
So, yes, this is for real and these elected officials actually believe this stuff.
The time is now for all Americans who value their freedom to eat, look, breathe and live their lives how they choose to unite!
life lesson #2: if you are recieving some sort of health care or nutritional support from the government, expect a bit of a wait. THAT IS JUST THE WAY IT IS. we don’t want to keep you any longer than you want to be here, honest.
and no offense, but PLEASE REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR CHILD/BABY when you get them recertified (that or bring a referral form from their doctor). contrary to popular belief, it’s very difficult to take their weight and height if they aren’t physically present. you may already know their height and weight perfectly, but a parent’s memory is not tangible and thus does not work with county policy.
thirdly, i cannot give you any random infant formula. you need a prescription from your baby’s doctor. THAT IS JUST THE WAY IT IS. (don’t get me wrong, though. i’ll issue them a month’s worth if the baby truly needs it. i’m no scrooge.)
it’s not that our clients are stupid, not by any means. it’s just that they tend to forget. a lot. it gets irritating, and becomes time consuming. ah well, maybe it’s just me. i’m kind of cranky. rawr.
i guess this equalled out to three life lessons.
Posted in health, nutrition, seriousness
magic vegetables! omg!!!!!!!!!!!
courtesy of modcloth.com.
Posted in food, silly, vegetables
By Karen Springen | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Dec 11, 2007 | Updated: 5:56 p.m. ET Dec 11, 2007
Fannie Charles, 46, lives six miles from the nearest grocery store in rural Orangeburg County, S.C. She doesn’t own a car, so she pushes a cart along the side of the highway. (There are no sidewalks.) It’s difficult, since she weighs 240 pounds and suffers from asthma and type 2 diabetes. That’s why she usually goes only once a month. About once a week she supplements her grocery-store purchases with pricier, less healthy food from the convenience store, just a mile and a half away. At both places she forgoes fruits and leafy greens. “They’re too expensive,” she says. Skim milk is often unavailable. “I get the whole milk, or I’ll get a little can of Carnation evaporated,” she says. Though she often worries about going hungry, she is obese. “I’m stressed. That’s why I’m eating a lot,” she says. “And I’ve got to eat what I have.”
life lesson #1: if you’re housesitting, make sure you either have the house key on you at all times, or that both locks on the door are UNlocked so you can enter easily. if this is not the case, make sure NOT to leave a pot on the boil just in case the door locks behind you and you don’t have the house key on you. if you do happen to leave a pot on the boil, make sure to freak out for a couple of minutes, sprint to the closest neighbor’s house and find out if they have a spare key. if this is NOT the case, ask, not in a begging manner, to use their phone in order to call the owner of the house and ask what to do. proceed to call as many local locksmiths as possible and urge them to hurry, in case the pot of water boils down and the house sets on fire. freak out for another couple of minutes, rambling about fire trucks, while half-listening to the nice neighbor’s wife reassure you that “it happens, honey. why, it happened to me just the other day…”. continue to call the house owner and keep them updated. apologize profusely for being irresponsible. don’t forget to compliment neighbor’s wife on their lovely home.
at some point, be sure to remember that it’s actually possible to shut off electricity in the house. sprint back to the house’s garage, find the main control panel, and switch off every single switch you see, except for probably the one that provides light for the garage, so you can see. flip all switches back on except for one labeled “kitchen stovetop.” have said neighbor barge in with a flashlight, screwdriver, and crowbar. have said neighbor give you a lesson on jimmying a lock (while not damaging the door). calm down house owner’s yappy poodle. give said neighbor HUGE bear hug. proceed to call both locksmiths and cancel their locksmithing. offer to pay for the bill one locksmith charged the house owner; keep offering for about five to ten minutes. blink in amazement as house owner says that she still wants you to housesit for her.
hang up, give said neighbor’s wife huge bear hug. remove boiling pot and discard water. be sure to clean the entire house. eat popcorn for dinner.
i think i saw this on Oprah or something.
Happy late turkey day people. Tryptophan and carbs! Naps for everyone!
So it came to my realization that I am an adult. The current job I hold actually pertains to my career, and what I studied 4/5/5 ½ years for. I have people who see me called clients. And these clients actually listen to what I’m telling them (well, most of them). They view me as an expert on stuff (well…most of them). They think that I know what I’m talking about, nutrition-wise (well… ok i’ll stop). In short, I am responsible for these people.
Do you know how terrifying that is?
I’m surmising it’s this way for anyone who becomes an expert at something, especially when it has to do with the health and well-being of other people – such as doctors, airline pilots, etc. it’s easy to come to such a conclusion regarding those occupations, but it’s different when you reach such a conclusion about yourself. To be honest I’m not sure if I want to be responsible for the health of others. But then again, I shouldn’t have chosen a major that pertains to health care, right? I think I’ll come to terms with this soon enough. As an unknown preacher in the 4th century said – “the greatest tragedy of life is to have no burden to carry.”
I’m still not entirely certain about what the future holds for me, but I have a vague idea of the path I’m striving for (well…I at least have the road map for said path). Every time I look into the eyes of a child that comes into my office – the sweet/polite ones that listen to their mama, not so much the other ones who are too busy obliterating my office and trying to climb the bookshelf to reach and eat the rubber food models – I catch a fleeting glimpse of what God wants me to do with the knowledge that I stayed up late many a night for. I definitely want to enter proactive, holistic health care. It’s obvious that America’s health care focuses too little on this, but more on therapeutic care – care for after the damage has already been done due to lack of nutrition education, lack of financial support, or just lack of giving a care. With children, WIC is able to create a good foundation early – not just physically but also mentally, starting with a pregnant mom eating well, (thus giving her unborn child nutrients towards the development of a healthy brain and other organs), and later on teaching said child proper and optimal nutrition habits.
There are a lot of statistics that I’m too lazy to cite which support the fact that WIC, and programs similar to it, have resulted in healthier kids. The point of WIC is to prevent such problems as diabetes, obesity, heart disease, cancer, and a plethora of others from ever happening to these kids – or at least lessen the risk. I have it under good authority that their lives will be much happier if they aren’t diabetic or anything like that. There are times where my job becomes rather mind-numbingly tedious, but it helps to think about this proactive idea every now and then.
Posted in career, health, life, nutrition, seriousness
this is why i get paid the big bucks.
so yesterday was an insane day:
a child wet herself (and my carpet) in my office.
a 2 month old infant seriously ripped one in my office; i am amazed at how much methane gas that little body was able to produce. (the infant was male; maybe it’s a guy thing, starting from conception)
another infant spit up all over my desk.
two siblings, ages 3-4, destroyed my office with hurricane force. seriously. i couldn’t see the floor. they didn’t have manners either (oddly enough, out of everything, that’s the only thing that really bothered me).
also, today, the air conditioning has died in my office. and on a daily basis, i get to raise my voice and speak over a cacophone of children while hoping to counsel their parents/guardians/foster parents on good nutrition - even the slightest bit.
what else would you expect from working with children? i love my job. XDDD
