Pat Hartman | Childhood Obesity News

Selling Crap to Kids, Part 5

Pat Hartman January 23, 2024 No Comments

This sequence of posts is a historical overview of the food industry’s ambitious project of brainwashing children to nag their parents to buy them the worst possible excuses for food. In Part 1, we looked at the good guys’ decades-long effort to ban the advertising of such products on television, while manufacturers continued to ramp up the proportions of sugar and salt in their breakfast offerings.

Meanwhile, the cereal moguls commissioned studies designed to convince everyone that kids simply will not eat cereal unless it is heavily sweetened. And gosh darn it, as much as they wished that they could help reduce the amount of sugar eaten by kids, there was simply nothing they could do. Their hands were tied. Because in commerce, markets are propelled by demand. So it was implied and presumed that if children were denied sugar-laden breakfast food, millions of them would go on hunger strike and starve themselves to death.

Part 2 discussed the efficacy of creating advertisements where the products were endorsed by celebrities or cartoon characters, or celebrity cartoon characters.

For AlterNet, reporter Martha Rosenberg reviewed a study that had been published in the journal Pediatrics, in which children sampled graham crackers with popular cartoon characters on their packages and found that they tasted better than other crackers (identical down to the molecular level) that came in plain wrappers.

The same type of comparison test was run with identical gummy fruit snacks, some packaged in bland anonymity, and others presented in packaging bedecked with — you guessed it — popular cartoon characters. By now, the astute reader will have also guessed that the cartoon-packaged treats actually tasted better! What is more, the degree of preference was not just noticeable but academically defined as significant.

Part 3 of the sequence looked at the technique of promoting basically valueless junk as being somehow healthful. And strangely, although kids don’t care about that sort of thing, it seems that, nevertheless, they are likely to form a positive impression of a product based on ads that claim health benefits.

About a decade ago, matters had advanced to the point where the average American child encountered around 16,000 TV commercials per year, a large proportion of them touting foodstuffs. At the same time, a growing number of adults were philosophically opposed to the tactic of direct-to-child advertising. Some critics asked, “Should they be allowed to show so many of these ads to kids?” while others were like, “Should they be permitted to do this at all, even a little bit?” It was an uphill battle of course.

Part 4 touched on the cultural weirdness of designating children’s food, as separate and distinct from adults’ food. Sure, in the olden days of the human race, there was breast milk; and no doubt a certain amount of maternal pre-chewing of edible plants and flesh for the benefit of kids who didn’t have teeth yet. But children’s food? No such thing. And yet somehow, thousands of generations of young humans survived.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Americans Are Huge: 5 Surprising Reasons Why We May Be Getting Fatter,” AlterNet.org, 03/12/14
Images by Jose Melendez, mliu92, Miguel Pimentel/CC BY-SA 2.0

Anti-Obesity Medications and Functional Impairment, Continued

Pat Hartman January 18, 2024 No Comments

This is the continuation of an exploration of the possible negative effects of the new wave of weight-loss drugs, which began with a recent post.

Physical function limitations affect the activities of daily living (ADLs) such as bathing, dressing, eating, transferring, and toileting. Then there are instrumental ADLs, which include such survival skills as meal preparation, shopping for groceries, taking medications properly, making telephone calls, and managing finances. The activity categories are further sorted into more specific tasks, like raising the arms above shoulder level, climbing one flight of stairs without resting, and picking up a dime from a flat surface.

The viewpoint of another bureaucracy, the Social Security Administration, is somewhat slanted because its main concern is an individual’s capacity for gainful employment. The SSA is not very concerned about limitations that only affect one’s personal life, but in millions of cases it makes judgment calls about the ability to work, so its definitions carry a lot of weight.

The main work-related disabilities have to do with: “climbing and balancing; fine manual dexterity; hearing; kneeling and crawling, using an upper extremity, alternately sitting and standing; reaching and handling; stooping and crouching; seeing.”

Mental limitations encompass the ability to understand, remember, and carry out simple instructions. A person also needs to make work-related decisions, including appropriate responses to people and situations, and to be capable of dealing with change. Another category of limitations has to do with environmental conditions. For various reasons, it might be very dangerous for someone to work around moving machinery or certain chemicals, in an excessively dusty or noisy environment, or extreme cold or heat.

Impairment claims and refutations

We have listed the broad categories of possible functional limitations upon the activities of daily existence, which may be physical, mental, or environmental. Other problems can affect a person’s ability to earn a living, depending on the field in which one has been trained and has successfully supported oneself. There are subtleties, less obvious skills — like the ability to hold onto and manipulate a small object, and to feel sizes, shapes, and textures — that might not affect a farm laborer but that would ruin the prospects of a surgeon.

All these many skills and abilities, it now appears, could potentially be affected by the new weight-loss drugs, in ways that will become increasingly apparent as time passes. A person’s RFC, or residual functional capacity, could be negatively impacted by these pharmaceuticals in ways that researchers are now only beginning to imagine.

When claims are made, one very problematic area is pain. Is it disabling, or merely unpleasant and inconvenient? Should people be permitted to collect Social Security just because they say they are in pain?

What if their pain, or any other physical function limitation, can be proven to result from using liraglutide, naltrexone-bupropion, orlistat, phentermine-topiramate, semaglutide, or setmelanotide electively, in a voluntary manner that is not medically necessary, but for cosmetic purposes — for instance, because they want to lose a non-life-threatening amount of weight? Such a development could provide numerous job opportunities for attorneys, and a whole new realm of problems for doctors and patients.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “What Are Functional Limitations & How Do They Affect Disability Benefits?,” DSSMD, undated
Source: “How Do Physical Limitations in Disability Claims Affect Disability Benefits?,” CarmichaelLawGroup.com, undated
Image by Stephen Cherniske/Public Domain

Anti-Obesity Medications and Functional Impairment

Pat Hartman January 16, 2024 No Comments

Over the past year or so, millions of words have been published about new products in the pharmaceutical industry. For a while, it seemed as if there might be no downside at all; that these awesome substances might be the first in the history of medicine to come unaccompanied by any ill effects. Then slowly, the miraculous illusion began to fade.

The honeymoon might be over, according to some signs, like for instance a University of North Carolina study that produced sentences like these:

Among individuals with obesity, participants using anti-obesity medications, compared with those not using said medications, were more likely to report physical function limitations… Older adults with obesity on [anti-obesity medications] had higher rates of self-reported limitations in function and were more likely to be treated.

In a piece by Jessica Nye, Ph.D., several drugs are mentioned by their generic names (liraglutide, naltrexone-bupropion, orlistat, phentermine-topiramate, semaglutide, and setmelanotide); none by commercial brand; but they include all the biggies. Dr. Nye writes,

Participants older than 60 years of age were evaluated for self-reported functioning and basic and instrumental activities of daily living… Older adults with a body mass index (BMI) greater than 30 kg/m2 are eligible to receive anti-obesity medications. However, this cohort of patients are also at an elevated risk for functional limitations and disability.

The report under discussion utilized data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys of 1999 to 2018. Included were very nearly 20,000 subjects, 55% female and 45% male, with a mean age of 70.3 years.

Some definitions

According to various authorities, physical function limitation includes “basic activities of daily living limitations,” “instrumental activities of daily living limitations,” and even “any impairment.” Knowledge of what is meant by these terms will come in handy, to understand the implications of these findings.

A different study in the same genre gives examples. Mobility limitations may include the inability to walk several blocks and/or climb a flight of stairs, the inability to get up from a sitting position or to stoop, crouch, or kneel. Similar limitations can affect the upper extremities, rendering the person unable to push or pull heavy objects or to lift more than a few pounds. In their studies of pre-diabetic patients, researchers assessed six geriatric conditions.

One would be cognitive impairment, ranging from mild and all the way to dementia. For individuals over 65, frequent or serious falls count. There is urinary incontinence serious enough to require the use of absorbent pads. Decreased hearing and/or vision that cannot be helped by the use of corrective technology, count as limitations; as does chronic pain.

(To be continued…)

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Anti-Obesity Medications Increase Risk for Functional Impairment,” EndocrinologyAdvisor.com, 10/19/23
Source: “Physical Function Limitations Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults With Prediabetes,” NIH.gov, 09/14/13
Image by Quinn Dombrowski/CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED

Start Making Sense

Pat Hartman January 11, 2024 No Comments

Lately there has been a revival of interest in a subject that many people, regardless of how well-intentioned, have trouble wrapping their heads around: the paradox of obesity and food insecurity. How can they both exist together?

According to government figures,

12.8 percent of American households (17.0 million households) were food insecure in 2022, meaning that they had difficulty at some time during the year providing enough food for all their household members because of a lack of resources.

Sadly, what a lot of it boils down to is a survival mode, “Get it while you can” philosophy. When it’s uncertain where the next meal will come from — let alone, next week’s groceries — a person tends to chow down on anything that happens to be available because it might be their last chance for a while.

The language has evolved. Instead of “poor neighborhoods,” we say “under-resourced communities.” Instead of “hunger” we say “food insecurity,” but it all boils down to the same thing, in the words of writer Ann Shovels:

[…] the state where there is limited, inadequate, or unreliable availability or access to obtain nutritionally sufficient and safe foods in socially acceptable ways.

Of course, that definition can be broken down even further. It is against the law, anywhere, to break into an establishment and steal food from the stockroom. But things are a little different in the tourist-friendly part of town, where restaurants feature outdoor seating adjacent to public sidewalks. After the customer has finished and left, it is socially acceptable for hungry people to swipe leftovers from the tables, as long as they aren’t too obnoxious about it.

There are people who depend on street scores for most of their calories, and there are even other people who will considerately leave a partly-eaten lunch on an accessible ledge, rather than stuff it into a trash can because they know this.

Challenges on every side

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) speaks of obesity in terms of the social determinants of health, “the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life.” According to the CDC,

Examples of social determinants can be job opportunities and income, access to education, healthcare, transportation, housing, and a safe physical environment, as well as the experience of structural racism.

A lot of factors figure into the ability to obtain food that doesn’t promote obesity. A person with no kids and a car is going to have better access to healthful groceries than a person with five kids and no car, that is for certain.

Now, suppose that a family member is too sick to be left at home alone. If no one else is available to cover for a while, the primary caregiver can’t go shopping. For many Americans, especially since COVID, the answer springs readily to mind: Have the groceries delivered, of course! But delivery of any commodity generally involves an extra charge.

Prosperous people forget that little detail, or maybe never know it in the first place, because their underlings handle such matters. A famous queen of France, when informed that the peasants didn’t have any bread, supposedly retorted, “I don’t see the problem. Just tell them to eat cake.”

To a sensible human, the logical flaw here seems obvious. If the lower class can’t afford plain old bread, they almost certainly can’t afford cake. But well-to-do people are often clueless about the challenges of the under-financed life. They just don’t get it.

All kinds of things can go wrong in families, and even if close friends and neighbors are willing to step up, they often can’t, because they are just as broke as the people they wish they could help.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Understanding the paradox of obesity and food insecurity,” CANR.MSU.edu, 12/22/23
Source: “Is Online Grocery Delivery Worth It?,” RamseySolutions.com, 1/24/23
Image by Michael Coghlan/CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED

Surprising News About Activity

Pat Hartman January 9, 2024 No Comments

We have learned many abbreviated, initial-defined terms for various conditions, and here are two more: MVPA and LPA which stand, respectively, for moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and light physical activity. These two are in the news because of a recent, rather surprising report.

But first, the startling background information:

Recent reports concluded that more than 80% of adolescents across the globe do not meet the World Health Organization’s recommended average of 60 minutes/day of MVPA. It is estimated that physical inactivity will have caused 500 million new cases of heart disease, obesity, diabetes or other noncommunicable diseases by 2030…

Part of the basic problem with studying this area is that BMI or body mass index “is a poor measure of obesity in childhood and adolescence since it does not distinguish between muscle mass and fat mass.” But it is relatively easy to obtain, and universally used in the absence of something better.

Here is a less-than-two-minute video explaining how a person’s body mass index figure is arrived at. The American Academy of Pediatrics has long recommended that children be measured by this standard when quite small, and whenever it is deemed necessary from then on. This is how they are determined to be obese, or at risk of obesity.

The universities of Bristol, Exeter, Colorado, and Eastern Finland all collaborated on a study of activity levels, whose results were published toward the end of last year. It is described as “the largest and the longest follow-up objectively measured PA (physical activity) and fat mass study in the world.”

For 13 years, it measured everything about its subjects, and we do mean everything:

Waist-worn accelerometer measures of sedentary time, LPA, and MVPA, and DEXA-measured fat mass and skeletal muscle mass were collected at ages 11, 15, and 24 years. These children also had their fasting blood samples repeatedly measured for, e.g., glucose, insulin, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglyceride, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein. In addition, blood pressure, heart rate, smoking status, socio-economic status, and family history of cardiovascular disease were measured and controlled for in the analyses.

Overall, it was determined that moderate-to-vigorous physical activity “had minimal or no effect in reducing childhood BMI-obesity.” But guess what does have an astonishing effect? At least three hours per day of light physical activity, which includes walking, household chores, slow bicycling, swimming, and dancing. This much LPA “promotes healthy heart, lowers inflammation and lowers cholesterol levels among children, adolescents, and young adults better than MVPA.”

So, rather than recommending an hour a day of moderate-to-vigorous activity, all advice-giving entities — “public health experts, health policymakers, health journalists and bloggers, paediatricians, and parents” — should switch to specifying at least three daily hours of light physical activity.

In other words, kids don’t need to be out there thrashing around and getting sweaty. They just need to be moving consistently, like they used to do when walking to and from school, weeding kitchen gardens, rounding up animals from the fields, and biking around the neighborhood tossing rolled-up newspapers onto porches.

As it turns out, and as many grouchy elders have maintained all along, indulging children with soft privileged lives of leisure and passive entertainment does not, in the long run, do them any favors.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Light physical activity shows great promise in reversing childhood obesity caused by being sedentary,” Bristol.ac.uk/news, 12/18/23
Source: “Calculate BMI — The Body Mass Index Formula,” YouTube.com, undated
Image by Dave Schappell/CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED

Better Every Time

Pat Hartman January 4, 2024 1 Comment

Let’s take one more look at some possible responses to the winter holiday season, for two reasons. First, it’s never too early to start planning for next year. Not necessarily the specifics, but the generalities. While the difficulties and mistakes are still fresh in our minds, let’s make some “Notes to Self” that will come in handy next time. And second, there are family gatherings all year round — vacation trips, weddings, graduation parties — and many more occasions when we want things to go smoothly and create precious memories for everyone involved.

All these festivities have three traits in common:

1. The possibility that something will go wrong
2. Food
3. The potential for things that go wrong to cause stress, and for the stress to bring on compulsive overeating

What we want to do is prevent, sidestep, avoid, evade, circumvent, and dodge trouble — all of which are preferable to letting trouble sneak up, and then trying to alleviate it by self-medicating with alcohol, drugs, or food. If those steps seem to work at all, the effect is only temporary. Soon, we feel even worse about ourselves and the world than before.

Meaningful steps

When some big event is coming up, get enough sleep. Plan errands for fewer trips and maximal effectiveness. Make sure the child-care arrangements are airtight. Analyze the worst stress points and neutralize them. Eat for health, not “rewards.” Remember, there is never as much preparation time as you think there is. Don’t just stand there like a dummy and let it take you by surprise!

On gift-giving occasions, be really careful about giving people clothes. One weight-related mistake could traumatize a child for years. In fact, no matter how impersonal it seems on the surface, with a gift certificate or a prepaid debit card, you simply cannot go wrong.

A really good thing to remember not only during holidays but all year, is to give people credit for the nice things they do. It’s lazy and ungenerous to think “They know we appreciate them.” This is not something that should be taken for granted. Say it out loud, preferably in front of witnesses. The private expression of gratitude is lovely of course, but turning it into a performative act makes it extra special.

It will not be necessary to hire a sky-writing airplane or build a stage and rent a microphone, but do try to create a memorable moment. Your thank-you card, displayed on their mantelpiece, is a public endorsement and a vote of confidence, tangible evidence that your friends are valuable members of the community.

If you are a host…

Beforehand, please be clear about the ground rules concerning allergies, intoxicants, smoking, pets, and any other areas of potential difficulty. If shoes are not worn in the house, warn visitors to bring along an alternative, like slippers that harmonize with their glamorous holiday attire. Or maybe offer paper shoe covers, guaranteed to look awful with anything. And please provide a chair just inside the door, so they don’t have to hop around just to change their shoes.

If you prefer no political conversation, guests should be warned. (And good luck enforcing that!) At the most extreme level of holiday peace-seeking, sometimes hosts just need to realize there are certain people they shouldn’t invite, and guests need to face the fact that there are certain places they shouldn’t go. It is sad, but to be realistic about this issue is certainly better than clashing with people and stockpiling more unpleasant memories for future years.

This shouldn’t even need to be said, but please don’t push guests to eat or drink. Please take a “No, thank you” or an “I’ve had enough” at face value, graciously, and don’t press for an explanation or apology.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!
Image by Sari Montag/CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED

Holidays and Their Aftermath

Pat Hartman January 2, 2024 No Comments

We got stressed out, we ate too much, we drank too much, and now we don’t feel very good about ourselves. The basic line of reasoning here is that an awful lot of harmful behavior is caused by stress — so let’s do what we can to minimize stress. Even though we have messed up during this holiday season, something of value can be salvaged. We can put a little thought into how to avoid repeating this hackneyed plot.

Lies we tell ourselves

No names will be mentioned, but some of us do have a tendency to misuse our brains. For instance, we employ them to think up excuses for ourselves, little stories we use to wiggle out of responsibility for things we shouldn’t have done, or things we should have done but didn’t.

Even though there were plenty of sweets all over the house, we let the kids open the huge gift tin of caramel-coated popcorn. Why? Because it was easier than getting into a dispute about it when everybody was having a good time. (Note to self: Sign up for a parenting class.)

Blaming the holidays themselves is a popular cop-out. For the person who prefers to make excuses, this one will always be available, because New Year’s Eve will not be canceled any time soon. All the excuses will be around for a long time, so the only thing to do is make sure we are not around for them. We can make ourselves unavailable to the excuses. When they bang on the door, don’t answer. Recognize them, identify them, reject them.

Painful revelations, fertile imaginations

For many of us, what this all leads up to is the stark truth that we had better not use the holidays as an excuse to slip, backslide, fall off the wagon, take a cheat day, or in any other way let our addictive disorders get the upper hand. In the context of childhood obesity, the most pervasive addictive disorder is overeating.

The unmonitored brain has a way of manufacturing excuses for anything. “Just this once” is a universal favorite. “It could have been a lot worse” is a strong contender. “It’s not that big of a deal” is an all-time chart-topper.

Rationalizations are a dime a dozen. We’ve got a million of them. In this media-saturated age, excuses have become both easier to fabricate and more difficult to rationalize. We don’t need to go back to school to figure out this stuff, or spend a lot of money. We don’t even need to embarrass ourselves by in-person asking a competent adult. We can just turn on YouTube and type in “stop making excuses,” and harvest literally dozens of viable ideas.

Okay, some self-help gurus don’t make sense to us. We don’t like their style, or they’re just not speaking our language. However, it behooves us to keep looking. One of the most useful things a person can do is to dedicate a fair amount of time to seeking out advisors whose words resonate and whose suggestions make sense and are doable.

This suggestion gets the New Year off to a great start: Take a look at what BrainWeighve is all about. The possibilities for exciting benefits are many. One enthusiastic reviewer says, “If the average person is unable to find inspiration here, I’ll eat my hat.”

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Image by Emily Moe/CC BY-ND 2.0 DEED

Spare Yourself a Ton of Grief

Pat Hartman December 29, 2023 No Comments

What drives people to overeat? For the most part, stress. Therefore, anything that alleviates stress is worthy of attention. Life is famous for one thing: throwing us into unforeseen crises after the unanticipated emergency. When was the last time even a single day went by without some disheartening dilemma?

Like the photo on this page, stress is just a big box of awfulness, waiting for its chance to drop down and crush us. And yet, we find it all too easy to believe that stuffing a few hundred extra calories into our mouths will somehow alleviate this doom. How we sell ourselves this obvious fallacy is an eternal mystery.

Let’s consider some concepts that will come in handy every single day. The previous post mentioned expectations, but barely scratched the topic’s surface. First of all, an expectation is like a fairy tale for grownups. Imagine a business owner with an ironclad contract in hand, drawn up by an all-star team of cutthroat lawyers, and signed by all the right people in all the right places. Naturally, this executive has sky-high expectations for the results.

And yet, another tycoon can come along with an even larger team of even more merciless lawyers, and blow that first contract right out of the water. It happens every day. Given the right circumstances and the wrong motivations, any contract can be transformed into a mere sheaf of paper, more useful in a toilet stall than anywhere else.

Stress prevention 101

In real life, an expectation is just an imaginary contract, an agreement a person pretends that the world has promised to honor and fulfill. An expectation is an idea about how things ought to be, but life on Earth has shown time and time again that “how things ought to be” is simply not a valid concept. A person may believe all day long that they can jump off a tall building and float, because that’s how things ought to be, but it’s never going to happen no matter how sincere the expectation is. Even if the action were repeatable, it would end the same way every time. In a universe ruled by gravity, expectation is not a viable currency.

Sure, many times things will turn out like we expect, and there is a lot we can do, through preparation and hard work, to make that happen. Our expectation may be fulfilled ten times in a row, or 20 times. But it is never guaranteed. Thinking that we are entitled to have things turn out like we want, believing that our expectation ought to be met, is an underhanded psychological trap we set for ourselves, to give ourselves a justification for bringing home a large pizza and a gallon of ice cream.

What are we dealing with here?

On this planet ruled by human nature, expectation will not even guarantee you a cup of coffee. The more stringent our ideas are about how things ought to be, the more disillusionment we experience, and the more we attempt to eat the resultant feelings. In human interactions, every expectation is a resentment waiting to happen. Each time we hold an expectation about what someone else will say or do, we invite another rebuff. And each time we do that, we secretly, sneakily, grant ourselves an excuse to do something stupid — like gobble down a few thousand calories.

A huge part of stress avoidance is the factor known as expectation management. Bear in mind that your expectations are not pertinent to anyone else. They apply only to you, and any attempt to extend them to others will probably bring disappointment. Of course, the flip side is, that unless you have given your word to deliver a certain result at a specific time, you are under no obligation to fulfill the expectations that exist in anyone else’s mind.

A very useful resolution not only for the new year but for this holiday season we are in right now is to clear our subconscious minds of expectations, and instead listen to others with an open heart and a willing ear.

How about this for an expectation that will never disappoint? “It’s going to be interesting.”

Image by Sergio/CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED

Eliminate Stress, Create Love

Pat Hartman December 28, 2023 No Comments

Almost every helpful hint that has been mentioned here in a specific winter holiday context is perfectly adaptable all year round, and this is especially true of the caveats for hosts and guests. We have previously quoted Amy Meyers, M.D., who has a lot to say about expectations, and every bit of it is worth repeating and elaborating upon.

First, “Anticipate something will go wrong.” An important gift that you ordered will not be delivered on time for the birthday. The furnace will conk out and everyone will have to eat dinner in their overcoats. Let’s not depress ourselves by imagining the myriad possibilities. All we can do is our best, with a smile on our face, and the anticipation of making this into a funny story some day in the future. If nothing does go wrong, that’s just an extra bonus! But something probably will. Having a reasonable expectation of it will help alleviate the sting just a bit.

Think ahead

Next, Dr. Meyers recommends another reasonable expectation: that after a big event, whether you hosted or guested, you will probably feel “rode hard and put away wet” or some other version of exhausted. So, best not to schedule anything too strenuous, like a meeting with your tax advisor, for the next day. Clever planning can go a long way toward preserving sanity.

And remember: Other people’s vague, unvoiced notions about what you are supposed to do are not your concern, no more than your own inchoate expectations of their behavior. “Roll with the punches (metaphorically speaking, of course) is always a good rule. As a concise and universal principal, Dr. Meyers has this to say:

Focus on what you can control — your time and yourself.

Now, how about some details in the realm of stress prevention for yourself and others? When preparing to host an occasion, sanitize and organize the inside of your refrigerator. Everyone expects countertops and sink areas to be reasonably clean, but a pristine fridge interior will make a lasting positive impression.

And then, clean up as you go along. It should be a process, not an event. Leaving a big mess for yourself to deal with the day after will just make you want to lie down for a two-week nap.

More bright ideas

Writer Samantha Lande reminds us to scrub any and all bathrooms, and offers explicit instructions, especially for people who were raised in households where this basic function was neglected.

Here is a fabulous tip for the sort of big dinner where people will be taking leftovers home. Get hold of some securely closing containers, the disposable kind, so your guests will not be weighed down by the obligation to return them. This is the type of low-key, unspectacular, considerate action that identifies you as an exceptional host. Better yet, if you’d like to be remembered as a treasured, stress-preventing guest, bring along an assortment of these containers as a gift for your hosts.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Tips for Gut-Healthy, Stress-Free Holidays,” AmyMyersMD.com, undated
Source: “8 Things to Clean Before Company Comes,” AARP.org, 12/07/22
Image by Pat Hartman

The Holidays, You, Me, and Others

Pat Hartman December 27, 2023 No Comments

Once a person has grasped the unlikelihood of super-heroic transformation, at least one corollary becomes obvious. In union there is strength. A good rule is, “Support other adults who struggle to create nice experiences and pleasant memories for children.”

The holidays really shine most for kids and elders. All of us who fall in the vast middle ground between the extremes need to just shoulder the burden of making sure that those two demographics have a good time. Nobody said it was fair. But in recompense, the emotional rewards can be spectacular.

Making a lovely and memorable holiday does not mean having the most gaudily decorated house on the block, or buying the most expensive gifts. It means the things Childhood Obesity News has mentioned, like, “Don’t talk about someone’s physical characteristics in their presence. Or behind their back.” And this is particularly true of children. As the well-known Pink Floyd song goes, “Leave those kids alone.”

‘Tis the season to be what?

Between October and February, mental health crises abound, creating psychological burdens in individuals that can’t help but be contagious among family and friends. If we can navigate those hazardous waters, we will probably be able to handle the rest of the months like pros. It comes as no surprise to learn, the strategies that make things go more smoothly over the winter holidays will actually improve life all year round.

What can one do for oneself and others? For starters, empathy is all-important. If you, as a person in pretty good emotional health, can see a negative side to festive get-togethers, just take a moment to reflect on how horrendous these gatherings can be for someone who struggles with serious difficulties.

In this portion of the calendar, all the substance-based problems grow exponentially worse. Adults have alcohol and drugs to contend with, and so do some teenagers. Humans of every age have food issues. With the addition of holiday stress, any life that is a barely controlled mess the rest of the year is poised to blossom into a full-fledged nightmare.

We need to take special care of ourselves, and of the people who have only a tenuous grasp on sobriety, or reasonable eating, or whatever. In fact, it never hurts to just go ahead and be especially considerate to everybody, because who knows what inner sorrow or fear or personal disaster they might be dealing with? Just because they don’t talk about it does not mean it isn’t there, lurking in the background. And guess what — everybody has some kind of Achilles Heel. For far too many of us, that vulnerable spot is our relationship with food.

The most powerful tool for our defense is the mind. Your mind, if not reasonably trained and disciplined, can definitely make a fool out of you. Conversely, it can rescue you from making a fool out of yourself.

Here is a helpful mantra: “The only one who can change things is me, and the best time to do it is now.”

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Selling Crap to Kids, Part 5

Anti-Obesity Medications and Functional Impairment, Continued

Impairment claims and refutations

Anti-Obesity Medications and Functional Impairment

Some definitions

Start Making Sense

Challenges on every side

Surprising News About Activity

Better Every Time

Meaningful steps

If you are a host…

Holidays and Their Aftermath

Lies we tell ourselves

Painful revelations, fertile imaginations

Spare Yourself a Ton of Grief

Stress prevention 101

What are we dealing with here?

Eliminate Stress, Create Love

Think ahead

More bright ideas

The Holidays, You, Me, and Others

‘Tis the season to be what?

Profiles: Kids Struggling with Weight

The Book

About Dr. Robert A. Pretlow

Presentations

Food & Health Resources