Michelle Ricker RDN

Category Archive: Blog Post

  1. Kale. Kale. Good for the Brain!

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    Could this explain my obsession with kale?! Seems my brain is guiding me in the right direction. Who knew?! Kale represents an important lesson for all of us eaters about the power of food choices to transform our health. My ultimate measure of a food is its power to support brain health, and it is clear that more kale in your diet means a happier, healthier, sexier you — all the basic signs that your brain is running well. “How does kale do this? What’s the miracle in that crunch? Let’s start with the power of phytonutrients, molecules in plants that do amazing things. One called sulfurophane travels from your kale smoothie to your liver where it amps up your body’s natural detox power. Another called kaempferol is truly the fountain of youth — it turns on the genes that promote longer life. (Move over red wine resveratrol.) Add to this mix carotenoids, which Harvard University just linked to one’s overall sense of optimism, and glucosinolates, a known cancer fighter, and it is clear that kale is good medicine.” And… “It is a key co-factor need to make the specialized fats called sphingolipids that create the structure of our brain cells, and it promotes brain cells being more resilient by influencing gene expression. Vitamin K is also needed for bone health, and kale happens to be a great source of another bone-builder. Studies of calcium absorption from kale have shown its absorption to be superior to milk! That’s because unlike many other greens such as spinach, kale has almost no oxalates that impair absorption. Kale also has a lot of protein for a leafy green. Add to this iron, folate, and vitamin B6, all needed to make brain molecules like serotonin and dopamine, and it is clear that kale is brain food.” Plus, can anyone claim ownership of this phrase “eat more” except for perhaps Hippocrates himself. (“Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food.) So take this as medical advice for your brain health: Eat More Kale America and know you are building a better brain. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/drew-ramsey-md/health-benefits-kale_b_3529768.html

  2. Let’s Move!

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    No… Really… Let”s Move! It”s a bit frustrating to me (and to Dr. David Katz as well as you will see below), that we have not taken heed to the research stating movement is beneficial for LIFE. There is conclusive evidence now that a person can be more healthy and live longer if they did at least 30 minutes of exercise daily. Remind me again, why we are not using the time we have kid”s undivided attention in schools to help them understand this?! Have I mentioned how much a love Dr. Katz?! Well, here is what he has to say on the subject: “We already knew that sitting too much shortens our lives; and that sitting a bit less each day can extend them. And still our prevailing cultural inclination is to send our naturally rambunctious kids to school and bolt them to chairs all day, until they grow up to become adults we can’t get off couches with crowbars. And if, along the way, that rambunctiousness mobile casino ever rebels against the incarceration- well, we’ve got medication for that. We already knew that sedentariness now counts as a leading cause of premature death globally. We already knew that lack of physical activity was established among the top three causes of premature death in the United States, and that going from sedentary to routinely active could reduce the lifetime risk of all major chronic disease by 50%. We already knew that routine physical activity also turns up on the very short list of factors that exert so profound an influence on medical destiny that they actually alter the behavior and expression of our genes, nurturing our nature at the level of DNA. We already know that 20 minutes of physical activity 5 times a week could defend a high percentage of at-risk kids from developing type 2 diabetes.” Let”s Move! 😉 http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130524194014-23027997-let-s-move-more-than-our-lips

  3. Hyperpalatable Food: 'Drug of Comfort'?!

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    Addiction to Highly Pleasurable Food as a Cause of the Childhood Obesity Epidemic: A Qualitative Internet Study Looking at Childhood Obesity as an addiction may be warranted. I do not believe that addition to hyperpalatable foods is the ONLY contributor to our childhood obesity epidemic. I do believe that our highly processed and technologically manipulated foods are playing havoc on our taste buds and our inherent satiation triggers. This study addresses some real issues of uncontrolled eating by our youth. We should sit up and pay attention… “Children have difficulty obtaining tobacco, alcohol, or drugs, but they have ready access to hyperpalatable foods. When bored, stressed, or depressed they may use such foods as a “drug of comfort,” which is more acceptable than tobacco, alcohol, and drugs of abuse.” “Given that childhood obesity interventions show

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    marginal online casino canada success rates with generally poor long-term results (Whitlock, O”Connor, Williams, Beil, & Lutz, 2010), and given that the impact of physical activity is in question (Metcalf et al., 2010), it may be sensible to add in substance dependence methods (addiction medicine) to weight management programs. Further, the reasons that youth seek comfort in pleasurable foods (i.e., to alleviate sadness, stress, and boredom) and thereby may

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    develop dependency, should be addressed. As one child concluded: “If parents took the time to actually listen to their kids … less kids would go to the fridge when they were depressed” (female, age 12, 5″3″, 186 lbs).” “Youth in this study appear to be victims of boredom, stress, and depression in an addictive, comfort food environment. Accordingly, it may be prudent to limit exposure and access by children to highly pleasurable foods (e.g., sugar-sweetened beverages, junk food, and fast food).” http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10640266.2011.584803

  4. Be a Committed Sardine

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    “Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world – indeed it is the only thing that

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    Compare the way a blue whale turns around (slowly) to how a school of fish turns around – specifically a school of sardines – which can have the same or even a greater mass than the whale, does the same thing. A school of sardines can turn almost instantly. What’s their secret? How do they know when to turn. Is it ESP? Do they use cell phones? Are the using the Internet The answer is simultaneously a little simpler and quite a bit more complex. If you take a careful look at a school of sardines, you’ll notice that although the fish all appear to be swimming in the same direction, in reality, at any time, there will be a small group of sardines swimming in a different direction, in an opposite direction, against the flow, against conventional wisdom. And as they swim in another direction, they cause conflict, they cause friction, and they causes discomfort for the rest of the school. But finally, when a critical mass of truly committed sardines is reached – not a huge number like 50 percent or 80 percent of the school, but 15 to 20 percent who are truly committed to a new direction – the rest of the school suddenly turns and goes

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  5. Is Obesity similar to Drowning?!

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    Wise words from Dr. David Katz on ‘Fixing Obesity’ ‘As a culture, we are drowning in calories of mostly very dubious quality, and drowning in an excess of labor-saving technology. I have compared obesity to drowning before, but want to dive more deeply today into the implications for fixing what ails us. The distinction between drowning in water, and how we contend with it, and drowning in calories and sedentariness, is the cause-and-effect timeline. In the case of water, drowning happens more or less immediately, and there is no opportunity to dispute the trajectory from cause to effect. In the case of obesity, there is no immediacy; the drowning takes place over months to years to decades. It’s a bit blurry. The only real distinction between drowning in water and drowning in calories related to causality is time. One hurts us immediately, the other hurts us slowly. The other important distinction is magnitude.

    People do, of course, drown, and it’s tragic when it happens. But obesity and chronic disease affect orders of magnitude more of us, and our children, and rob from us orders of magnitude more years of life, and life in years.’ And the take-away with all of this… Obesity is not complicated. And neither is fixing it. Hard, yes; complicated, no! http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130517131148-23027997-fixing-obesity?trk=eml-mktg-condig-0108-p1

  6. Food Addiction you say?!

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    Why YES – research is showing we are actually “addicted” to

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  7. Sad Situation….Obesity Stats

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    It is a sad state of affairs to see how large we have become. Now that 1 in 3 children are overweight or obese, our healthcare costs and risk for chronic disease only continues to rise as well. Something has to give here…and soon! Check out these daunting facts: 2.8 million people die every year as a result of being overweight or obese. Obesity is prevalent in developed countries like the US – where at present rates 43% of Americans are predicted to be obese by 2018 (3) – and costs $10,273,973 per hour and is predicted to cost $15,753,425 per hour by 2030. US healthcare costs are 42% higher for someone who is obese meaning that currently obesity already accounts for 10% of the US healthcare spending; this amounts to $147 billion annually. Smoking, by comparison, costs $96 billion. Obesity is already a global problem in both developed and developing countries and its health costs will impact all countries facing it. The economic impact will be much more damaging for those countries with lower incomes that are less able to afford the rising costs. We need to revert the global trend of increasing obesity and the resultant cost to life and the economy. Globally, obesity related illnesses count for as many deaths in young and middle aged adults as HIV/AIDS.(6) Diabetes, another diet-related disease, is also on the rise worldwide. Globally, 346 million people have diabetes with more than 80% of diabetes deaths occurring in low and middle-income countries.

  8. Obama Administration releases National Prevention Strategy

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    This is fantastic news! A consistant message of ‘Prevention’ vs ‘Chronic Disease’ will be the driving force behind behavior change in our society. We are people that love immediate gratification. When given action items to be done right now, we are way more apt to follow through than if we are to plan for future events. Bring on a National Prevention Strategy…

    The National Prevention Strategy includes actions that public and private partners can take to help Americans stay healthy and fit and improve our nation’s prosperity. The strategy outlines four strategic directions that, together, are fundamental to improving the nation’s health. Those four strategic directions are: Building Healthy and Safe Community Environments: Prevention of disease starts in our communities and at home; not just in the doctor’s office. Expanding Quality Preventive Services in Both Clinical and Community Settings: When people receive preventive care, such as immunizations and cancer screenings, they have better health and lower health care costs. Empowering People to Make Healthy Choices: When people have access to actionable and easy-to-understand information and resources, they are empowered to make healthier choices. Eliminating Health Disparities: By eliminating disparities in achieving and maintaining health, we can help improve quality of life for all Americans. http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2011pres/06/20110616a.html

  9. I'm the Feature in PreventObesity Newsletter!!

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    Hey…. look at me! Movers and Shakers Health and Hip-Hop One PreventObesity.net Leader Uses Rap and Computer Games to Teach Kids about Proper Nutrition and Exercise Before Beyonce moved her body to get kids active, registered dietitian Michelle Ricker used rap music to teach kids about healthy habits. Beats about beets? Rhymes about lunch time? We’ll jam. A nearly 20-year nutrition veteran, Ricker runs the consulting firm New and You, which has taken her to schools around the globe to teach students about health basics. But forget typical nutrition charts and dull lectures; Ricker thinks creatively when it comes to teaching her students about good nutrition and the importance of physical activity. Ricker used rap and hip-hop as a teaching technique for youngsters in Portland, Ore., engaging them by coming up with sweet rhymes that also drive home lessons taken directly from U.S. Department of Agriculture nutrition guidelines. Last summer, she traveled to Seattle to be a nutrition expert for the Let’s Move Apps for Healthy Kids competition, which saw groups of gamers competing to design the best software tool or game to teach kids to eat better and be physically active. Ricker even traveled halfway around the world to Jerusalem, where she worked on a project with OPENmotion Environments, a group that created “movement oriented environments that encourage active use and participation by children.” In her role, Ricker helped a group of art and design graduate students work with elementary-aged kids to create playground structures out of organic materials, such as branches. “They went and got the branches at this dump in Israel, and they brought them back to the school,” Ricker recalls. “It was this real nice integrated system, and the kids got to move and enjoy and understand that they can make something out of online casino nothing.”

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    Michelle Ricker poses with some healthy treats. Ricker didn’t begin her career expecting to launch a rap career or turn sticks into organic playgrounds. Rather, she began in the field of kidney dialysis. (She still works on dialysis issues by assisting with

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    the development of new technology designed to help dialysis patients who suffer from malnutrition.) But Ricker found herself driven to work on prevention and began working with kids. She became a lecturer, appearing at forums nationwide to talk about good health. She founded New and You to help schools, businesses and other organizations tackle childhood obesity in a variety of creative ways, including through the use of technology. “In order to make change, and change the way we’re going to have to change our lives, it really starts with kids,” Ricker tells The Inside Track. “I really feel like it’s just something that inherently drives me. I know whenever I work with kids directly, it just brings this huge happiness for me. Seeing that light click for them, it’s really big.” Part of Ricker’s mission is to reshape the messaging that reaches kids. Advertisers target them with unhealthy products, and kids think those are the products they need. “We’re giving kids conflicting messages, like, ‘In order to be super cool, you have to eat this sugary cereal,’” Ricker says. “Well, not really.” Ricker thinks that progress can be made by taking small steps to improve children’s health, including through better nutrition in schools, increased activity and better messaging, so kids learn from an early age what’s healthy and what’s not. “Obviously, it’s a process. I do feel like the awareness, especially that [First Lady] Michelle Obama has brought in, it’s fabulous,” Ricker says. “I feel like right now, there’s so much momentum.” http://www.preventobesity.net/Inside-Track-June-2