Because of the event sponsors, we also got to try some cool organic, locally grown and produced food.
The first speaker was Dr. Robert Lustig of UCSF and author of Fat Chance. He was one of two keynote speakers and did a splendid job of mixing science with fun in his presentation. These are the highlights of his talk:
- Today we are consuming about 1000 times the amount of sugar than 200 years ago
- The foods that cause weight gain are respectively:
- potato chips
- french fries
- sugar
- As I shared this with Matt, he said "Man, I'm hungry now." Sheesh!!!
- When reading nutrition articles or results from studies, first read the funding source (most are funded from the food industry and are biased)
- Sugar causes weight gain - it does not necessarily cause obesity
- People don't die of obesity - they die of diabetes and metabolic syndrome. We need to stop blaming obese people for healthcare costs. Data shows this is incorrect anyway:
- Not all obese people are sick. There are a good amount of non-sick obese people.
- Obese, sick people in our nation are about 57 million people (that's 80% of obese people which make up 30% of the healthcare costs). Normal weight people with metabolic dysfunction in our nation total about 67 million people (40% of normal weigh people which makes up 70% of the healthcare costs.
- Moral of this story = stop blaming overweight people for all of our problems
- Teens consuming sugar-sweetened beverages are four times at risk for heart attacks
- 13 percent of kids have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
- liver fat is the bad guy compared to belly fat (but all we hear about is how bad belly fat it)
- He showed a photo of a teen's liver damaged by sugar and a liver damaged by alcohol. They looked identical.
- Basically sugar is the alcohol of the child!
- He showed different maps of US showing a human correlation between the most obese states, laziest states, unhappy states, states with most diabetes, heart disease and soda per capita.
- The AHA recommendation for sugar consumption per day is 150 calories or 9 tsps of sugar a day.
- Most kids consume this at breakfast with a bowl of Fruit Loops and a glass of orange juice
- We currently consume triple the amount of sugar daily
- We will need a global policy to change sugar consumption
- He showed that eating an extra 150 calories per day increased diabetes prevalence by .1% but if those 150 calories were a can of soda, diabetes prevalence increases 11 fold!
- The curse of processed food is as follows:
- Not enough:
- fiber
- omega 3
- micronutrients
- Too much:
- transfat
- omega 6 fatty acids
- alcohol
- sugar
- The solution to every one of these curses above is REAL FOOD
Amazingly simple stuff people! Eat real food. Stop drinking soda and other unnatural sugar-sweetened juices.
The next speaker, Karen Brown, author of "Rethinking School Lunch", showed a wonderful example of how the Oakland Unified School District overhauled their school lunch program and built a district farm and relationships with local farmers where they grow the food for the school lunches. Amazing example of a community coming together to build a healthier environment for children.
She mentioned that California farmers produce about half of the fruit for the country. In their Oakland schools, they have "California Thursdays" where they eat only food made in CA.
The next session was about involving youth in the decision making process for building healthier communities at every step. One thing I don't think we do enough at work. But youth know youth. They have been at the forefront of change in this country. And youth also motivate youth.
After an amazing farm-fresh lunch, we heard from a psychologist who talked about the importance of staying emotionally tuned to children.
- She said parents should do checkins with each child ten times a day.
- Our brains needs love and non-judgement
- Every thought, emotion and behavior we have is a wire. And wires can be changed.
- Kids need to know their brain state.
- Brain state 1 = Joy (no need for outside rewards - like sugar or food)
- Need outside awards to feel better
- Train kids and parents to process their emotions effectively.
- Deep hurts and trauma can cause obesity especially in kids
The last speaker was the second keynote speaker and by far the most controversial. Todd Putnam - VP of Marketing for Bolthouse Farms (largest growers of baby carrots in the US). But he was the former VP of Marketing for Coca-Cola so a couple of the hippies had a heyday with him.
Here were his highlights:
- The healthy food companies are losing the war for attention spans especially at grocery stores.
- Nationally, fruit and vegetable consumption is down 7%.
- Cake consumption is up 21%
- Candy up 15%
- Cookies 11%
- Chips 11%
- The healthy food companies need to use more money, more innovation, more creativity in their marketing to increase consumer demand.
- We need to motivate with the heart like the junk food industry guys do. Their commercials are irrational and tied to puppies, babies, sex, etc...
- But marketing works if it's really great.
- Kids see 5,500 junk food TV ads per years but only 100 healthy food TV ad per year.
- The change that you make to a kids diet now will make monumental changes in the future.
- In most grocery stores, you can buy fresh dog food but you can't buy fresh baby food (at least not to scale)
- Compared to other generations, millenials are making more health conscious changes.
He then talked about something Bolthouse Farms are doing to make baby carrots more exciting for kids. See examples of their marketing below. They have pilot programs around the nation with things like baby carrot vending machines, changing the packaging to look like candy bars and chip bags. He also handed out sample of a new product called "Shakedowns" they are testing in Texas only with baby carrots and a little packet of seasonings that covers the baby carrots when you open the package. I tried "Chili-Lime" flavor but he said they are also trying Ranch flavor and S'mores. The calories content of the whole package is only 25 calories but they were delicious!
After they opened up for Q&A, then he got the aggressive hippies attacking him for working for Coca-Cola and asking him if his products for non-GMO. And then about random things like the technology his farmers were using. Ummm... he's in marketing. I thought he handled their tyrades with finesse and honesty.
Overall I left the conference with a renewed sense of understanding of the impact of excess sugar in our diets. And the need for us to all to ask more questions about the foods we are eating. Not that we need to feel guilty about eating a cookie but just the importance of natural foods making up a majority of our meals.
Take that as you will. I just want to share my knowledge to those who may have an interest.
Keri
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