UC Blog
Corpulent coverage continues on Dr. Regina Benjamin
UC Berkeley nutritionist emeritus Joanne Ikeda drew some attention from the media when she was quoted referring to President Obama's pick for Surgeon General, Regina Benjamin, as "fat." Later, she regretted using a term many consider pejorative, but her frankness - a trait much appreciated in the news media - supplied other opportunities to make her point.
For example, Ikeda was quoted extensively by the Washington bureau reporter of the Alabama Press Register, a newspaper in Benjamin's home state.
She said any debate about Benjamin's appointment should focus on her qualifications for the job.
"I think it's a shame that here we have someone who has a strong value system in terms of helping people ... and instead we're focusing on something as silly as her weight," Ikeda told the Press-Register.
The reporter asked Ikeda if she believes Benjamin would be taking criticism if she were a man. Ikeda pointed to former Vice President Dick Cheney, who remained portly throughout his eight-year tenure despite having previously suffered several heart attacks, the article said.
"Did anyone ever make a comment about Dick Cheney?" Ikeda was quoted. "Largeness in men is equated with power and strength."
(In this article, more dignified euphemisms for fat - "overweight" and "above her ideal body size" - were used to describe the Surgeon General-designate, and the terms "portly" and "largeness" in the part about Cheney.)
Joanne Ikeda
Groceries cost more for the poor
The Fresno Bee devoted more than 2,000 words on Saturday to a sad but real paradox in the San Joaquin Valley. Low-income people pay more for their food than people who make more money.The prime reason: low-income areas aren't served by large supermarkets, forcing people with limited transportation to purchase staples like bread and milk at corner markets and convenience stores.
The first expert cited in the lengthy piece was UC Cooperative Extension nutrition, family and consumer sciences advisor Connie Schneider.
She said poor people know they are paying exorbitant prices for food at small stores, but the next opportunity to shop at a supermarket could be weeks away.
"When you're hungry, you're looking at something to fill a stomach," Schneider was quoted.
Fresno Bee writers Barbara Anderson and Bethany Clough delineated the fallout from inadequate access to healthy food:
- The risk of obesity and chronic illnesses, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, increases, straining health-care resources
- Children without proper nutrition become sicker, stay sick longer and miss more days of school
- Lower academic performance leads to higher dropout rates and to more adults without the skills necessary to secure well-paying jobs
The story seems to have struck a cord with area readers. As of Monday morning, 25 comments had been posted, many of them expressing frustration at being faced with a problem that has no easy solution.
Wrote one: "Maybe the two writers of this article could open a grocery store in a poor neighborhood. They could then sell healthy food for a loss instead of implying that the major chains are somehow at fault for not doing so. Contrary to what the writers seem to think, grocery stores are not charities. The stores actually have to show a profit to stay in business."
San Francisco Chronicle ponders new SOD mystery
UC scientists are trying to figure out how the pathogen that causes Sudden Oak Death, Phytophthora ramorum, is getting into streams unconnected to known sources, according to an article in today's San Francisco Chronicle."It is a completely baffling thing and it is very frustrating," the story quoted UC Cooperative Extension forestry advisor Yana Valachovic.
The pathogen was found in waterways even after all runoff was halted, infected material was removed and the surrounding area was fumigated, the article said.
Even more mystifying, two Humboldt County streams tested positive for spores matched genetically to a nursery that is at least a mile away with no hydrological connection and no way for runoff to reach the stream.
"There is some connection that I don't understand," Valachovic was quoted. "The genetics match with the nursery, so it appears that it originated in that nursery. How it got to the stream is undetermined."
Catherine Eyre, a UC Berkeley post-doctoral researcher, said spore contamination was found in the water in at least half of the 14 sites tested this year in and around the Crystal Springs Reservoir, which supplies drinking water to millions of people in Bay Area. The spores pose no health risk to humans, but scientists are tracking it to halt its spread around the state.
"We're looking at how far the pathogen can travel and how long it can survive," Eyre was quoted.
Crystal Springs Reservoir (Photo by K. Glavin)
UC scientist OK with overweight surgeon general-designate
Retired UC Berkeley nutrition specialist Joanne Ikeda didn't mince words when she commented about the woman President Obama has nominated to be the nation's surgeon general. The nominee, Dr. Regina Benjamin, is a McArthur genius grant recipient, holds advanced degrees in medicine and business administration, and runs her own family practice medical clinic in rural Alabama that treats predominantly low income patients.
But by all accounts, she is overweight.
"I thank God that Dr. Regina Benjamin is a fat woman," Ikeda was quoted in The Daily Voice, Black America's daily news source. "Maybe now we will stop making the assumption that all fat people are unhealthy particularly in light of new data coming from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey."
The comment was picked up by Huffington Post columnist Linda Bergthold.
According to media reports, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey has data that show more than half of people labeled overweight are metabolically healthy, compared to about a quarter who are what the survey calls “metabolically abnormal.”
The study points out that examination of metabolic health — blood pressure, cholesterol, sugar levels — are better predictors for future health problems.
A White House photo of Dr. Regina Benjamin.
Valley fruit and nut crops threatened by climate change
Climate change is not just about sea-level rise and polar bears, UC Davis researcher Eike Luedeling told the Los Angeles Times for a story in today's paper. Climate change, he said, threatens U.S. food security.Luedeling's dire prediction was included in a story about new UC Davis research that shows winter chill hours in the San Joaquin Valley could decrease 60 percent from 1950 levels by mid-century and by as much as 80 percent by the end of the century. The reduction in winter chill, a vital component of many fruit and nut tree's growth cycle, means the valley may ultimately become unsuitable for many of the crops currently grown there. The story, written by Margot Roosevelt, was prompted by a release issued by UC Davis news service about research being published today in the online journal PLoS One.
The UC Davis study builds on a 2007 paper by UC Berkeley scientists Dennis Baldocchi and Simon Wong that predicted dramatic drops in winter chilling hours, the Time story said.
"The irony is, just as the populace is getting more in tune with eating better, eating local, our wonderful fruit industry may be negatively affected," Baldocchi was quoted in the Times.
The story also appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle and on the Discovery Channel news Web site.
The earth's climate is changing.