HOW TO PREVENT CANCERS

The health making headline this morning is the latest data out of the CDC indicating that obesity rates are continuing to rise across the country – topping 30% of the population in nine US states. Yet, just a few months ago, weren’t we celebrating the headline that obesity rates had plateaued and stopped rising based on data from the CDC?

In a word, yes.

How is this possible? Does it mean the CDC doesn’t know what is going on? Not at all! The data are based on two different sources of information under the purview of the CDC – the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The two studies, unfortunately, do provide different estimates of the prevalence of health behaviors (including physical activity) and health outcomes in the US. In part this is due to different sampling strategies. Simply put, they are both trying to sample a group of people representative of the entire US, but each go about it in different ways.

But the headlines surrounding the NHANES data that came out earlier this year masked the important data that the BRFSS data highlights today – that 30% of the US is obese. Whether or not the trends are going up or leveling off, that is an alarmingly high figure. And remember, that doesn’t include the percentage of the population who are overweight – which correspond to another 30-35% of the population.

For tips on making some of the healthy choices than can help with weight management, check out our tips on healthy cooking, eating fruits and veggies, being sedentary, being active, the context of weight loss and perhaps most important – making time for those healthy choices.

This week, the Wall Street Journal reported on the launch of a new scoring system in grocery stores developed by the company, NuVal, which worked with a panel of (reputable) nutrition and health experts to create a scoring system that can be used to evaluate the nutritional value of products. While creating a perfect scoring system isn’t going to happen, NuVal does a pretty good job. Here are a few of the reasons why we think so:

1) “Healthy” is a pretty ambiguous word these days and some food items or nutrients may be more or less beneficial depending on your goal. For example, lycopene may reduce risk of prostate cancer, but for the 50% of us (i.e. women) without a prostate, that may not be a real priority when making food choices. Despite the limitations inherent in any scoring or valuation system, NuVal is pretty good at highlighting items that would fall under the “healthy” category for just about any “health” outcome. Unlike, say, the manufacturer produced labels trying to entice me to buy sugar-laden cereals because they threw in a scoop of whole grains. For example, even though Kashi brand cereals all contain whole grains, the Strawberry Fields cereal gets a score of 11 as compared to the 7 Whole Grain Flakes that gets a 29.
2) It provides a sense of magnitude of “healthiness” (I’m starting to feel a bit like I’m diving into Colbert’s “truthiness” here, but stick with me). I think most people would accurately guess that shredded wheat (unfrosted) is “better” than cocoa whatevers, but I think seeing the difference between shredded wheat and a cereal plenty of people I know think of as being “okay” (certainly not the healthiest cereal in the aisle but not a demon either) like Life (91 vs 25) might push folks to reconsider the Life and look for a cereal with a bit more fiber. My guess is that it will also help many parents look a little closer at the items marketed to kids. There are plenty of kids yogurt products in my local grocery store with as much added sugar as a candy bar. For someone rushing through the store with a tired, hungry (and thus, cranky) kid, the single number in front of the shelf might push a healthier choice when full label reading isn’t feasible.
3) That said, I’m still intrigued by the system and curious how iceberg lettuce gets the same score as canned spinach. I think other shoppers will be too and hopefully their curiosity will get them to read the labels (does that canned spinach have added salt perhaps?)

I’m sure the NuVal system will continue to evolve and alternates are surely on the way. I can easily see someone combining the UPC reader app on my iPhone with an eating guide app. What do you think? Anyone have NuVal in their local grocery? Is a system like this helpful or do the “huh?” moments make you wonder about the whole thing? Would you rather have a topic specific rating system? Perhaps that eating guide app would let you pick your goal – cancer prevention, weight management, cardiac rehab or general health?