Posts Tagged ‘Milk’

The Olympic Diet

August 2nd, 2012

Ok.. here’s a quiz. One of the lists below represents the most commonly ordered foods at the Olympic Village by the athletes in London. The other list is the list of most commonly purchased foods in the US by normal consumers (by dollar value). Can you match the list to the right cohort?

 

List A – Water, vegetables, Low fat chocolate milk, nuts, peanut butter, oatmeal, eggs, cereal and orange juice

List B – Soda, milk, bread, beer, salty snacks, cheese, frozen dinners, cereal, wine, liquor

 

Of course you know which list is which. But to watch the commercials on TV – you’d think that the athletes were living on soda pop, fast food cheeseburgers and fries. Just sayin’.

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Milk Research & Policy Change Cuts 7B Calories a Year in AZ

February 24th, 2012

Congrats to our Women Infant & Children’s program who did some research and implemented some simple policy changes that reduced the consumption of 7 Billion calories annually in AZ.  How?  After we did a little research, we came up with a way to change our WIC policy… convincing people to replace whole milk with 1% or fat free milk (for kids over 2).  The policy change reduced fat by nearly 900 million grams and calorie intake by more than 7 Billion per year. Let’s take a look behind the scene. 

A few years ago the Arizona Nutrition Network did some research on milk preferences among our WIC recipients. We found that folks thought lower fat equals lower nutritional value- which is why they didn’t buy low fat milk.  Next, we developed a social marketing campaign to encourage Arizonans to “Go Low, All the goodness without the fat” and drink 1% or skim milk.  The Arizona WIC program promoted the messages in our WIC clinics…  and the “Go Low” social marketing campaign improved the success of the policy change in WIC.  The result- 7 Billion fewer fat calories are being consumed by our WIC recipients every year. 

Now for the sequel.  A couple of years ago we began encouraging WIC participants to buy fresh fruits and vegetables at farmers markets and grocers with their vouchers. Knowing how successful the “Go Low” campaign was, we partnered with the Arizona Nutrition to promote fruits and vegetables… but this time, the policy change didn’t achieve the expected results.  We did a little more research and found out that folks wanted frozen and canned fruits and vegetables more than fresh (shelf life)- so we added canned and frozen fruits and veggies to our list of foods families can buy in WIC.  In the first 3 months we had a huge increase in the purchase of fruits and vegetables.  WIC participants are now purchasing $1M of fresh, frozen, and canned fruits and vegetables monthly.

So what did we learn in all this policy change?  Number 1- it’s critical to do research to guide your public health interventions and to measure results to find out whether your interventions are successful, and Number 2-  meet your target audience where they are, and be practical.

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100 Years of AZ Public Health Lab Science

January 27th, 2012

I thought it would be fun to give some perspective on public health and the Department’s activities 100 years ago as we approach our Centennial in a few weeks.  

Our AZ Public Health Laboratory is celebrating its 100th birthday shortly- just like the State.  Our Lab was one of the first parts of state government- it created by the first State Legislature in 1912…  and was called the “Pure Food and Drug Laboratory”.  It was at U of A’s in Old Main.  The earliest work of the laboratory was focused on food safety.  For example, they discovered that some canned peas had been artificially colored with copper sulfate and the presence of absinthe in saloons.  They also discovered that some dairies were adding formaldehyde to milk to prevent spoilage. 

Steve Baker in the Lab has been working late over the last couple of weeks to put together a photo collage of early Lab work and some short stories. The full collage isn’t ready yet- but you can check out their starter Lab history web-page which has a picture of the 1912 Lab.

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Who is Louis Pasteur?

September 8th, 2011

In 1862, a French chemist named Louis Pasteur discovered that heat kills germs in liquids, preventing bacterial growth, food spoilage and foodborne illnesses. He used his discovery to invent methods that have been used for the last 150 years as a sanitary treatment for milk – which at the time was a prime source of TB. 

His experiment?  He exposed boiled broths to air in vessels that contained a filter to prevent particles from passing through to the growth medium via a long tube that didn’t allow dust particles to pass. Nothing grew in the broths unless the flasks were broken open- allowing him to conclude that the living organisms that grew in the broths came from outside rather than “spontaneously generated” within the broth (as was the conventional wisdom). This was one of the last and most important experiments disproving the theory of spontaneous generation. The experiment also supported germ theory.

Pasteur’s research also showed that the growth of micro-organisms was responsible for spoiling beverages, such as beer, wine and milk. With this established, he invented a process in which liquids such as milk were heated to kill most bacteria and molds already present within them. He and Claude Bernard completed the first test on April 20, 1862. This process was soon afterwards known as pasteurization.  Because of his study in germs, Pasteur encouraged doctors to sanitize their hands and equipment before surgery. Prior to this, few doctors or their assistants practiced the procedure of washing their hands and equipment.

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Trace Levels of Iodine-131 found in AZ Milk

April 1st, 2011

Last week I wrote about how Arizona Radiation Regulatory Agency (ARRA) instruments detected trace levels of Iodine-131 in AZ air from the troubled nuclear power plant in Japan.  This week testing by ARRA and the AZ Dept. of Agriculture found trace levels of I-131 in the milk samples that they routinely monitor.  The levels are of no public health consequence (they’re thousands of times lower than any level of concern).  Still, it’s interesting that troubles with the plant on the other side of the Pacific can be detectable by these sensitive instruments. If you’re interested you can check out the data here.

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