Rondonpaul / Give it to / To all girls.

In recognition of the recent YouTube/CNN Republican debate, I'd like to share my favorite video featuring a presidential candidate. I mean, I may disagree with the man on almost every issue... However, he does have some pretty surprising things to say:

Thanks, Google.

Ok, AdSense is making a lot of people a lot of money. But no one is going to get any clicks from me until I get shown some more relevant ads...

I know that this service is supposed to be tailored and everything. However, I've gotten some really strange ads recently, and I haven't appreciated some of them. For instance, I was shown the following as I read an email from a fellow Fellow:


I mean, I'm no Brad Pitt, but does AdSense really want to give me body image issues? Also, is an online quiz really my go-to source for a beauty assessment? Do I have nothing better to do than to take an "Ugly Quiz?"

Mirror mirror...

At the end of this week, I'll be traveling to Austin, Texas, (random, right?) for a "mid-field retreat" for my fellowship. The fact that this is a "mid-field" event makes me anxious because I have nothing remotely tangible or significant to show for my work. But I'll deal with that... later. As part of my retreat, I was instructed to write a "Field Reflection" essay. I seriously considered sending my employers a piece of paper taped onto a small mirror, but I'm not sure if that would have gone over very well. Anyway, for those of you interested in what I'm doing in D.C., here's my boring, cheesy essay:

My placement at Food & Friends in Washington, D.C., has significantly impacted the importance I place on cultural appropriateness in nutrition services. A large project in my work plan involves the creation of a pilot diabetes prevention program for the Greater Washington area. To gain more knowledge about community programming available to people in Northeast D.C., Lindsey and I attended a diabetes education program at Providence Hospital, which is located minutes from Food & Friends. The day-long program was led by a Certified Diabetes Educator and a licensed nutritionist.

While the information on the biology of diabetes was not surprising, the session on nutrition floored me. Charles Pointer, a licensed dietician with decades of experience under his belt, walked into the classroom and set down a large pile of papers. However, before referencing any of the handouts, he made a proclamation that would be a recurring theme within his talk: “There is no food that you cannot eat as a diabetic.”

Mr. Pointer has worked in nutritional counseling for decades. Over the years, he has concluded prescribing rigid dietary guidelines to individuals is futile because a person cannot “unlearn” a lifetime of habits and cultural upbringing. Thus, his self-admittedly unconventional approach to nutritional education dispenses with simple categorization of foods. At one point, he even suggested that a patient eat regular ice cream in moderation as opposed to consider purchasing a “light” version.

While many a nutritionist at Food & Friends would have had an aneurysm upon hearing this recommendation, the idea that people with diabetes can eat any food in a reasonable portion does draw upon much common sense. After conducting a handful of in-home assessment with Food & Friends’ clients, I have noticed that one common complaint is that some foods provided are not culturally familiar for many clients. In particular, salads heavy in pasta and rice are often identified as starch-heavy and downright “strange.” In lieu of eating these salads, clients often substitute their own foods or simply omit unfamiliar foods from their diets. Since the nutritional content of each meal is calculated with an “assumption of full consumption” (there’s apparently a burgeoning Dr. Seuss within me), the cultural appropriateness and acceptability of food directly impacts nutritional goal-setting and outcomes. In addition, the identification of specific food consumption patterns would allow the elimination of unpopular, starch-heavy foods such as pasta. At the same time, healthier variations on familiar starches – such as brown rice in place of white rice – could increase fiber intake and also aid glycemic control for diabetics.

While Mr. Pointer’s suggestions may be extreme, his strong consideration of culture in nutrition could make recommendations more practical. I will never forget when I read in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that the National Institutes of Health Obesity Education Initiative has advised obese individuals to purchase guavas, persimmons, star fruit, kiwi, and papaya in place of bologna and American cheese. Aside from the obvious issues of cultural appropriateness of such a ridiculous recommendation, the life situations of many Food & Friends’ clients would prohibit them from obtaining such exotic and expensive foods.

Frankly, I had serious reservations about the Mr. Pointer’s telling a client to eat regular Breyer’s French Vanilla ice cream instead of an alternative dessert with less sugar and fat. However, I appreciated his willingness to challenge traditional notions of “healthy eating.” Increasingly, I have realized the importance of considering culture in the provision of nutritional and social services – not only as a method to recognize the unique identities of clients served but also as a way to maximize the effectiveness of services provided. For this reason, as Lindsey and I proceed with our design of a diabetes program model, the cultural acceptability of our recommendations will be at the forefront of my mind.

Giuliani, kiss my ass. Or prostate.

Not only is Rudy Giuliani so douchey that his own daughter may very well vote for Obama, he's also full of it. In a new radio advertisement, Guiliani postures himself as a survivor of cancer. While I do not want to trivialize his experiences with a serious illness, I have no problems trivializing this piece of crap:

“My chance of surviving prostate cancer — and thank God I was cured of it — in the United States? Eighty-two percent. My chances of surviving prostate cancer in England? Only 44 percent, under socialized medicine.”

Multiple sources, including a recent Op-Ed by Paul Krugman, have pointed out that the statistics Giuliani mentions are simply unfounded. As review in Journal of the National Cancer Institute (Gee wowzers. A peer-reviewed publication with citations?! What a novel concept!) concluded:

Similarity of mortality rates between the two populations supports the hypothesis that risk of fatal prostate cancer among British men does not differ from that among U.S. white men.

Giuliani would like to have Americans believe that increasing health care coverage would somehow tank the quality of cancer care and cancer survival immediately. What he doesn't seem to even think about -- or care about -- are the scores and scores people who will not be able to find out that they have prostate cancer because they lack even basic medical coverage. This shameful reality is well-documented in literature on racial disparities in healthcare. As concluded in an article from the journal Cancer (Omg. Another peer-reviewed journal? Where do these things even come from?!):

For African-American men, the main barriers to timely diagnosis and screening identified in this study arose from their constrained opportunities for health care access and utilization, absence of strong ties to a primary physician, and a probably related reduced trust of physicians.

It seems that it's not socialized medicine that's hampering preventative care that would save lives, Mr. Giuliani. Perhaps, it's the lack of medicine in entire communities -- the lack of healthcare coverage that 47 million Americans face. Perhaps some people would like the mere chance to be cured of prostate cancer. The demagoguery in the above radio ad is not only highly misleading and factually incorrect; it's completely out of touch and disgusting.

So yes, Mr. Giuliani. Perhaps you should be thanking God that you weren't uninsured, out of luck, and left high and dry.