The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Bush, Kerry and Healthy Living As noted last week, the American presidential race is heating up much earlier than in previous elections. The Democrats started their primaries earlier, concentrating on "Bush bashing". Now that John Kerry is assured of the nomination, the Bush campaign has zeroed in on the tall senator's weaknesses, his voting record, and has tried to paint him as weak on terror. They said Kerry had once called the terrorism threat exaggerated and voted six times against creating the Department of Homeland Security. The Kerry camp has been attacking Bush, lately complaining about his 9-11 ads, but look for those to continue as all voter surveys show the President's strong point to be the fight against terrorism. It is notable that every time there is a terrorist attack such as in Spain, Bush's stature rises with the American voter. A huge Republican rally took place on March 20th in Orlando Florida with thousands attending. The rally was to fire up what is known as the "ground game" Ñ door knocking, phone banking, and registering new Republican voters. Their strategy has been planned for months with the aim to get a record turnout of Republicans in Florida. They have an awesome 17,000 volunteers in this state and are signing up more and more. The party has been training the thousands of volunteers at various training sessions, and in January 500 showed up for a Miami election school, the largest in the country. The key is of course money and the "Bushies" have plenty of it, and as well control the Florida House, Senate and Governorship. How about "healthy living" as an election issue? Far fetched? It could happen as the Federal U.S. Government has jumped into the anti-obesity frey. Among the numerous anti-fat studies being released almost daily is one claiming that deaths caused by poor diet and lack of exercise are on track to overtake deaths by smoking according to scientists at the federal Center For Disease Control and Prevention. The study approached American deaths in 2000 from underlying causes rather than diseases, determining the risk levels. They found that of the 2.4 million deaths, 1.16 million were preventable and had an identifiable cause. The big three were tobacco (435,000), poor diet/ inactivity (400,000) and alcohol (85,000). Ranking well behind were infections and pollutants. Spurred by the study, the U.S. Government under Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson has launched a new campaign against obesity and have requested $440 million for obesity research in next year's health budget. They say this is badly needed as over-fat people are being bombarded with miracle diets, low carb, high fat, low fat cure-alls and the like. Readers may wish to check out the new interactive website at www.smallstep.gov for weight tips and exercise tips. On the same day as the obesity campaign got underway, doctors in Louisianna discussed a new pill possibly available next year which reduces a person's craving for food or tobacco. A few days later, Thompson released a series of guidelines for foodmakers which will revise the nutrition label to make it easier to count calories, and urged restaurants to list calories on menus. He also came out with a brilliant statement: "To keep trim, calories in must equal calories out, it's just that simple". Thompson warned that if the guidelines aren't followed, he will take more aggressive actions. Nutrition experts claim broader measures are needed, such as taking soft drinks out of schools and restricting food ads aimed at children, plus making mandatory Calorie labels in restaurants. Could the Democrats and Republicans get in a war over obesity during the election campaign? How about Paul Martin and Stephen Harper in the Canadian contest? Further to fitness, Swiss researchers claim that you need a 30 minute walk each day if you want to maintain your weight without dieting, as lesser time simply won't cut it. (It looks like Curves has it right!) This was supported by Duke University researchers who said that 30 minutes of daily walking will prevent weight gain in middle-aged people as long as the calory intake remains the same. In spite of new concerns about obesity, some doctors worry that there will be fewer concerns about the dangers of tobacco as smoking deaths continue to increase Ð 35,000 more than in 1990. They worry that health programs to help smokers quit will be cut, and insist that more methods are needed. In Manitoba with its new anti-smoking legislation taking effect on October 1, thousands of tax dollars are budgeted for informing Manitobans about the law. Is any budgeted for programs to help smokers quit the habit?
