1.) Locally gown foods usually find their way to your table within 61 miles according to the Seasonal Foods document. Fruits that are currently in season include: pomegranates, cranberries, and persimmons.
2.) I think it is important for hospitals to incorporate seasonal/local foods into their menus for several reasons. They can help reduce transportation emissions by not shipping in fruit outside of a certain radius, they can support their local farmers and agricultural workers and invest back into their local communication, and they can expose their patients to real, wholesome, foods that are nutrient dense.
3.) Harvest Calendar: This calendar provided me with a very long list of produce that is currently in season in California. I was a bit surprised! I did not expect to see such an extensive list in early October - but there were upwards of 30 items listed!
4.) I had heard of obesogens before reading this article, but had only a vague understanding of what they were which was mostly due to their tell-tale name. The key new factor that I learned from this article was that obesogens are "dietary, pharmaceutical, and industrial compounds". I suppose I had not given much thought as to WHAT these things were - only that they were bad and had adverse effects on health and weight in both animals and humans. Still, I wasn't surprised that these things are manufactured as so many of the terrible things we ingest are manufactured by organizations making money on our failing health, growing waistbands, and desire for convenience and flavor.
5.) I chose to look at dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene.
What I found in the Journal of Environmental Health Perspectives was that this chemical pesticide is a DDT breakdown product and it has been linked to an increased BMI in children and insulin resistance in rodents. Most known obesogens (dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene included) are endocrine disruptors which means that they alter the bodies endocrine system function and can cause cancer and/or tumors. Animal studies have done a great deal to link dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene to obesity though, interestingly, the animals often have fewer fat cells but these cells are much larger in size than normal fat cells so the animals end up with a higher BMI than desired.
Holtcamp, W. (2012). Obesogens: an environmental link to obesity. Journal of Environmental Health Perspectives. 59, 100-111. https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.120-a62
Hi Alex,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing! To your third point, I totally agree. I started listing all of the seasonal fruits and vegetables, but then realized that there were just too many to name. I was also pleasantly surprised to see how many were on the list at any given time of year!
I was very surprised to see learn that a chemical can cause obesity! This whole time I am thinking it's linked to the food that one consumes and little did I know that a chemical can be the cause of it also. This was very new to me but I am happy that I learned about it.
ReplyDeleteResponse: Christina
ReplyDeleteSpeaking to your Blog's second bullet - I totally agree that obesogens are so scary! As someone who works in the fitness industry, I feel like these things should have emerged by now as mainstream education for trainers etc. who work to help people shed weight etc. The fact that chemicals can be taken in through things like drinking water is so disheartening! Imagine trying to lose weight by drinking water and even THAT is working against you! :(
Response: Brianna
I'm right in-line with your desire to see reduce their climate change footprint by shopping locally. I wonder how we, as upcoming public health actors, can help do this? I feel like hospitals might be receptive if we all wrote and signed a letter together? :)