PROFNET EXPERT ALERTS: Health & Living

July 25, 2008 12:00 PM EDT

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    TOPIC ALERT

    Banning Fast-Food Restaurants (10 responses)

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    EXPERT ALERTS

    1.  Health: Healthcare Doesn't Have to Be a Crisis for Employers
    2.  Health: Beachgoers Feel Sting of Jellyfish Invasion: How to Treat Pain
    3.  Living: Germaphobes Rejoice in New Tech for Residential Swimming Pools
    4.  Living: Go Green: Meditate While You Move

BANNING FAST-FOOD RESTAURANTS

Following are experts who can discuss plans to ban new fast-food restaurants from opening in a 32-square-mile chunk of Los Angeles. The fast-food ban, which would last a year, taps into a tougher attitude toward fast food that is emerging at city halls around the country:

1. CONNIE DIEKMAN, R.D., director of university nutrition at WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY in St. Louis and immediate past president of the American Dietetic Association: "We need to change people's attitudes and behaviors, not just eliminate restaurants. People always want to make a change in healthy eating by making mandates or requirements. Logically, it seems like that's the way to do it. But what we really need to be focusing on is changing people's behaviors, which just isn't that simple. Moratoriums, laws and mandates aren't the solution to the obesity problem. We need to teach people about proper nutrition, encourage more grocery stores to provide healthier food choices in all neighborhoods and find ways to make physical activity accessible. While the concept of not opening any more restaurants does acknowledge that there is a problem, a better approach would be to talk to the current restaurants about providing more healthy options. The most powerful changes are the ones that involve the community as a whole because everyone has bought into those changes." News Contact: Neil Schoenherr, nschoenherr@wustl.edu Phone: +1-314- 935-5235 (7/25/08)

2. DONALD KOCHAN, associate professor of law at the CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY School of Law: "Zoning and regulation run amok. In a free-market economy, it is not the government's role to decide what and where certain services or products should be provided. It is the height of a paternalistic government to decide that consumers should be isolated from fast food simply because the government officials think they know what is good for them. Such a ban violates individual freedoms but also individual choice and individual responsibility. Pizza is probably bad for you most of the time -- should we allow government to create 'no-delivery zones'? This restriction is not only arbitrary and capricious, offensive to the market, constrictive of individual freedom, ultra vires and beyond the legitimate role of the government, but also just further evidence of the 'nanny state' out of control. Property rights have been under constant attack in recent years, and this is just another example of the government invasion." News Contact: Dennis M. O'Connor Jr., dennis.oconnor@paradigmshiftpr.com Phone: +1-781-530-3700 Web site: http://www.donaldjkochan.com (7/25/08)

3. CHARLES M. CLARK, JR., M.D., professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine at INDIANA UNIVERSITY-PURDUE UNIVERSITY INDIANAPOLIS and director of WHO/PAHO Diabetes Collaborating Center for Continuing Health Professional Education: "While a fast-food ban may not do any harm, I doubt that it will have any long-term effect. Mandating nutritional information and calorie content is more promising. In the long run, better nutrition and nutritional education in our schools will need to be the primary effort. We could also mandate that any meal served in a restaurant that has more than one-third of the daily basic nutritional needs be shared, if asked. People who are calorie-conscious will be asked to split the meal, thereby eating the correct amount of food. That would have the effect of cutting down the calories offered by the establishments." News Contact: H. Diane Brown, habrown@iupui.edu Phone: +1-317-274-7711 (7/25/08)

4. DENNIS LOMBARDI, executive vice president of foodservice strategies at WD PARTNERS, a retail and restaurant consulting firm: "You can't regulate the supply side of a behavioral problem and expect results. This is a well- meaning, but misguided attempt to control social behavior, and it is as doomed to failure as prohibition was in the '20s. It's the consumer on a tight budget who is likely to suffer most when the city stops them from purchasing a salad from McDonald's or Wendy's. A better option may be to incentivize grocers and/or other kinds of restaurants to locate in the targeted area. We should want to encourage more choices for people, not less." Lombardi has more than 30 years of experience advising at the executive level of the foodservice industry. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and previously was an executive at Technomic. News Contact: Ann Rogers, Ann.Rogers@WDPartners.com Cell: +1-614-348-2958 (7/25/08)

5. ELEANOR KINNEY, J.D., MPH, professor of law at Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis at INDIANA UNIVERSITY-PURDUE UNIVERSITY INDIANAPOLIS and co-director of the law school's Center for Law and Health: "Our nation needs to address the obesity crisis sooner rather than later. Fast food is a major contributor, as are current practices of industrial agriculture and other factors. The challenge for public health law is to craft realistic legal and regulatory strategies to address the problem and still not trample on the personal rights of the public." News Contact: H. Diane Brown, habrown@iupui.edu Phone: +1-317-274-7711 (7/25/08)

6. DAVID ORENTLICHER, M.D., J.D., professor of law at Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis at INDIANA UNIVERSITY-PURDUE UNIVERSITY INDIANAPOLIS and co-director of the law school's Center for Law and Health: "Obesity is a serious health problem in the United States, and public policy needs to address the problem more aggressively. Regulation of the restaurant industry is important, but it must be accompanied by other measures to ensure that healthier food options are readily available to families. It's probably a useful experiment to see if a moratorium on new fast-food restaurants can make a difference, and by limiting the ban to new restaurants, there wouldn't be a meaningful infringement on individual freedoms." News Contact: H. Diane Brown, habrown@iupui.edu Phone: +1-317-274-7711 (7/25/08)

7. DENIS BINDER, professor of law at CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY's School of Law, has written about banning fast-food restaurants: "Those who daily eat junk food and then gain 100 pounds should not be suing fast-food restaurants, but look into the mirror to spot the responsible party. I'm waiting for the lawsuits against Coke and Pepsi for making victims fat. Marie Antoinette supposedly said, 'Let them eat cake.' We say, 'Let them eat cupcakes.'" News Contact: Dennis O'Connor, dennis.oconnor@paradigmshiftpr.com Phone: +1-781-530-3700 (7/25/08)

8. JACQLYNNE HART is president and founder of HEALTHWEALTH, INC., a corporate health consulting and presentation company. Hart works to empower individuals and the organizations for which they work to "live above the circumstances" of rising healthcare costs and increasing demands to impact the bottom line: "It's a person's choice what they eat, but banning fast-food restaurants would go far toward encouraging people to purchase foods in places that offer better choices. Where they would otherwise hit a drive thru, there's a greater chance they might walk to a restaurant that offers a wider variety of healthy menu options near where they work, or take their lunch and eat it in a park." Hart holds a Bachelor of Science in Education/English from the University of Texas at Austin, as well as graduate studies in organizational communication at Texas State University. She is certified by the American Council on Exercise as a group fitness instructor and by The Cooper Institute as a health promotion director, personal trainer, and special populations specialist. She holds a Group I insurance license, which enables her to view the impact of benefit costs from another vantage point. She is both a public speaker and trainer/coach who conducts seminars, as well as individual consultations on topics such as communication, education, health and fitness (both physical and fiscal). News Contact: Bretton Holmes, info@holmesworldmedia.com Phone: +1- 806-368-9194 (7/25/08)

9. VINCENT GIAMPAPA, M.D., world-renowned anti-aging physician and author of "The Gene Makeover: The 21st Century Anti-Aging Breakthrough": "We have seen that reducing caloric intake is an important anti-aging strategy. The more calories consumed from greasy food and excess carbohydrates from fast-food restaurants, the greater number of free radicals that will be generated as a normal by-product of metabolism. Free radicals cause the progressive deterioration of biological systems over time. It's the pre-eminent theory of how we age." News Contact: Shira Weiss, sweiss@weissmediagroup.com, or Ilya Welfeld, Phone: +1-917-282-9317 (7/25/08)

10. ELANA AMSTERDAM, food writer, healthful lifestyle advocate and creator of ELANA'S PANTRY: "The potential legislation in Los Angeles to ban fast-food restaurants is somewhat frightening in an Orwellian way. The best way to make fast-food restaurants 'disappear' is to stop patronizing them. They only stay in business when people consume their product. Really, this type of situation (national crises of diabetes, obesity and other health epidemics) calls for education on the dangers and high cost of fast-food consumption, as well as alternative foods that are quick, easy and nutritious." Web site: http://www.elanaspantry.com (7/25/08)

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EXPERT ALERTS

1. HEALTH: HEALTHCARE DOESN'T HAVE TO BE A CRISIS FOR EMPLOYERS. DEBBIE PADELLO, director of human resources at ALTRES HR, has been in the "people business" for more than a decade: "The word 'crisis' gets tossed around frequently about healthcare, especially when it comes to employers. Many business owners are feeling the squeeze between the rising costs of providing healthcare benefits and a reduction in available services. The state of our healthcare system is not where we know it needs to be, but until the grassroots demand for change reaches a tipping point, employers and individuals can take steps in the right direction. Here are five practical options that business owners can explore to reduce the overall costs of healthcare: 1. Create safer work environments. 2. Implement wellness programs. 3. Offer an Employee Assistance Program (EAP). 4. Create a great place to work. 5. Consider outsourcing HR administration." News Contact: Emmanuelle Sailor, ems@hastingsandpleadwell.com Phone: +1-808-393-6295 (7/25/08)

2. HEALTH: NY/NJ BEACHGOERS FEEL THE STING OF JELLYFISH INVASION: HOW TO TREAT THE PAIN. JON THOMPSON, director of the Southeast Texas Poison Center at the UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDICAL BRANCH in Galveston, has more than 28 years of experience advising patients with jellyfish stings and can offer the most effective ways to lessen the burn: "Ordinary household white vinegar is the most effective treatment for jellyfish stings, but rubbing alcohol plus unseasoned meat tenderizer or baking soda, the 1-to-10 dilution of bleach, and even lime or lemon juice can help. Don't rub, as this may further activate the stinging cells, and be sure to remove the tentacles using a paste of baking soda or sand and scraping lengthwise using anything with a straight edge. Follow with another splash of vinegar." News Contact: Olivia Goodman, olivia.goodman@gabbe.com Phone: +1-212-220-4444 (7/25/08)

3. LIVING: GERMAPHOBES REJOICE IN NEW TECHNOLOGY FOR RESIDENTIAL SWIMMING POOLS. KAREN RIGSBY, technical specialist for BIOGUARD, a premier pool and spa-care product supplier: "Parents, the elderly and those who have compromised immune systems are acutely aware of germ dangers lurking around summer fun activities. Now we have an additional tool to keep the backyard pool safe for us and our children. Ultraviolet light technology is now being used to assist the primary sanitizer in providing an additional layer of protection against potentially harmful organisms like bacteria, viruses, cysts and protozoa. This technology improves bather safety from chlorine-resistant organisms such as cryptosporidium and giardia." (7/25/08)

4. LIVING: GO GREEN: MEDITATE WHILE YOU MOVE. ELLIE PETERSON, inspirer and president of ELLIE'S MEDITATIVE MOVEMENTS, a company that has created an exercise technique that combines different exercise movements with positive affirmations, allowing individuals a way to take personal responsibility in addition to their environmental responsibility: "We need to meet our physical, emotional and spiritual needs every day. In our busy and demanding world, meditating while moving can provide the self-support we are looking for to create positive changes in our lives. Taking care of oneself and our environment protects our universe." Web site: http://www.meditativemovements.com (7/25/08)

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