Calling all carbs Dietitian hired to arrest officer obesity
Wed, 07 May 2008 01:06:50 GMT
By SHAYA TAYEFE MOHAJER, Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES - Rana Parker tells pudgy police they have the right to remain chubby, but it can and will be used against them on the streets of
Los Angeles. The dietitian lays down the law for recruits, veterans and top brass, letting them know that eating right can help them do a better job and could even save their lives.
"I joke with them that I'm not the food police, that I'm just here to give them information, education and hopefully give them motivation to help themselves," she said.
While overweight officers aren't unique to Los Angeles, the police department believes it's the first to hire a full-time diet coach. Parker joined in July, leaving behind decidedly less macho clients at Head Start, the federal aid program for children.
Faced with a need for more officers in recent years, the LAPD briefly relaxed body fat limits from a maximum of 22 percent for men and 30 percent for women, drawing recruits who mirrored a plumper American public.
By targeting recruits, Parker is trying to instill good eating habits before the rigors of the field make it difficult to find time for balanced meals. She's provided one-on-one counseling to about 90 recruits, taught a nutrition course to about 500 others and made presentations to more than 400 officers.
Though Parker's met some resistance to her belt-tightening measures, she's also found followers.
Recruit Ashley Goodroe has dropped four dress sizes since they started working together in September. Goodroe said the lessons she's learned include giving up sugary fruit punch and regularly eating breakfast. The hardest part was cutting back on the fat-laden weekly meal that takes her home to Georgia:
fried pork chops, collard greens and corn bread.
"I feel skinny," Goodroe, 23, said with a laugh. "I actually had to get my uniforms fitted again."
Doughnuts may be the punch line for many cop jokes, but they're not the problem, Parker said. Long hours and the on-the-go nature of police work make it hard to find time to eat well and stay in shape, she said.
"They may be sitting in their car and all of a sudden they need to go for a sprint, which might end in a fight as well," Parker said. "They need to be in good shape so their body can handle that kind of
stress."
But officers who don't plan their meals are reduced to nutritional bottom-feeding: drive-thru burgers, microwave burritos and greasy slices of pizza.
Parker believes officers can better take a bite out of crime if they aren't hungry on their shifts. She encourages stashing energy bars, fruit and peanut butter sandwiches in squad cars and desks, to stave off hunger when getting a full meal is hard.
Fit officers are more confident, project strength and give the department a good image, she added. A suspect may think twice about trying to outrun a physically fit officer.
Kevin Sommers, national chairman of safety and technology for the Fraternal Order of Police, applauded the LAPD for recognizing diet as an important issue.
"For the longest time in law enforcement we trained our people in policing, but we didn't teach our people about how to maintain their mental and physical well-being," he said.
Francisco Rubio Jr., a 30-year-old recruit, said diabetes and high cholesterol run in his family. But it was the recent death of a 40-year-old friend, an officer who had a heart attack on the job, that really drove home the need to get fit.
With Parker's guidance and a regimen that replaces sweets with fresh oranges and strawberries, Rubio has dropped from 195 to 175 pounds. He vows to be wary of the fatty food that lurks around every corner.
"What catches our eyes unless we discipline ourselves is pizza, hamburgers — all the food that's out there that's easy-access," Rubio said. "Now I tend to look at it as a heart attack waiting to happen."
Pandemic flu threat remains substantial health experts say
Tue, 06 May 2008 20:27:10 GMT
By ELIANE ENGELER, Associated Press Writer
GENEVA - The world still faces a substantial threat of a
flu pandemic and countries need to speed up preparations for a global outbreak, health experts said Tuesday.
"We can't delude ourselves. The threat of a
pandemic influenza has not diminished," said Keiji Fukuda, coordinator for the
World Health Organization's Global Influenza Program.
Fukuda spoke to a meeting of around 150 health experts from governments, WHO and other agencies to update WHO's
pandemic influenza preparedness plan.
Scientists fear that the H5N1 strain of
bird flu virus — which began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003 — could mutate into a form that spreads easily among humans, potentially sparking a pandemic that kills millions. So far, most human cases have been linked to contact with infected birds.
Fukuda said more than 150 countries had some kind of
national preparedness plans but some of them were merely a piece of paper acknowledging the risk.
He said it was crucial that all levels of society were involved in the preparations and that everyone knows where to go for information.
"If somebody is sick in the family for example and it's difficult to get to hospital, they need to know what sort of advice might be available," Fukuda told The Associated Press.
WHO says 382 people have come down with
bird flu since 2003, and that 241 of them have died.
Indonesia, with 108 of the deaths, is seen by experts as a potential hotspot for a pandemic.
WHO is updating its 2005 preparedness plan to include progress in research on flu viruses, stronger international cooperation and experience with human cases of bird flu.
"Our understanding of the virus, the effects on people, the epidemiology how viruses move around the world, is much greater than it was a few years ago and this continues," Fukuda said.
Stockpiles of antivirals have been built since 2005, he said. WHO has stockpiled a total of 5 million antiviral treatment courses ready to be handed out if a pandemic breaks out.
He said the development of a possible pandemic vaccine have made significant strides.
"A few years ago it would not have been possible to talk about pandemic vaccines," he said. "All of a sudden we have new things to work with."
Experience and research over the last few years have led experts to believe that it is possible to stop a pandemic influenza right at the beginning of the outbreak, said Fukuda, adding that they recognized it will be difficult.
Fukuda said WHO will take into account the revised
International Health Regulations in updating its
pandemic preparedness plan, which is expected to be published by the end of the year.
Max Hardiman from WHO's secretariat for the health regulations said the agreement, which took effect in 2007, should help the world to know about a pandemic outbreak as soon as possible.
The health regulations oblige countries to report
new disease threats with global public health significance, such as new flu subtypes. They also allow the WHO to act on credible information sources, rather than being reliant strictly on official government channels.
Hardiman said measures to contain a pandemic should avoid unnecessary travel restrictions.
Under the health regulations countries are putting in place measures to curb the spread of a pandemic, he said. These include assuring access to medical centers, control of airports and other points of entry and preparations to isolate sick people and quarantine contacts.
"One day we will face a pandemic but we don't know when," Fukuda said.
