MCDH Bariatric Support Group Meeting Minutes
March 14, 2011
The meeting was called to order by Dr. Barzune at 7:00pm. He welcomed everyone and gave the floor to Dr. Louis Fox, the moderating physician for the evening. Dr. Fox introduced the first speaker, Ryan Eason from Medical City Heart.
Ryan creates programs for the community. He runs Medical City's Restaurant Partner Program, its Physician Speaking Program, and its Kids Teaching Kids Program. All of these programs are aimed at helping those in the communities around Medical City to lead healthier lives.
The Restaurant Partner Program is a cooperative program between Medical City Dallas and area restaurants. Medical City has a dietician who works with Ryan who goes to the restaurant partners and analyzes their menu items. She determines which items meet the American Heart Association guidelines for heart healthy meals and those menu items get to have a Medical City logo placed next to them on the menus indicating that they are heart healthy. These restaurants are also advertised in Medical City Heart's quarterly publication so that the community knows where they can go to eat out healthfully.
The Kids Teaching Kids Program is really exciting! Medical City partners with the Greater Dallas Restaurant Association for this one. Area high schools in the counties in and around Dallas who purchase the Texas Pro Start Program for its culinary arts students are eligible to participate. For those high schools chosen, such as those in Frisco ISD, Richardson ISD, and Wylie ISD, among others, Medical City sends out Ryan and the dietician to teach classes about nutrition, reading and understanding food labels, and the importance of learning to eat healthfully as a child. Ryan also takes a chef who is a member of the Dallas Chefs Association to the high schools to give a class in culinary skills and to demonstrate how to prepare a healthy fruit snack and a veggie snack. The high school's culinary arts students are then given the challenge to create a healthy snack that a fourth grader would eat. It must meet the following criteria:
· 200 calories or less
· Less than 7 grams of fat
· Less than 2 grams of saturated fat
· Less than 15 grams of sugar
· Aim for 2 grams of fiber
The preparation of the snacks also cannot require the use of sharp knives, utensils or the stove or oven. They have to be able to be prepared safely by a fourth grader. The winning snacks are published in a pamphlet which is designed by the high school's journalism students and the photos of the snacks are taken by the high school's photography students. In this way, many of the high school students are taught about healthy eating. The pamphlets are paid for by different restaurants which are given the opportunity to advertise in them. The pamphlets are then distributed to the district's fourth graders via their PTA's. This is a great way to help curtail the steady increase in childhood obesity. Ryan left copies of the most recently published pamphlets for the group to take home.
Dr. Fox then introduced Julie Shaw, RD, LD, Medical City Dallas' Bariatric Dietician. Julie had set the tables in the room as dining tables and had an interactive presentation that taught us all about correct portion sizes and healthy food choices. We learned that a tennis ball sized orange or apple is the correct serving size of fruit, whereas a larger apple or orange is two servings. A deck of cards is the correct serving size of already cooked meat and two dice equals an ounce of cheese which is the correct serving size of cheese. Julie gave other examples as well. She also had 3 minute egg timers on the table and told the group that they should have about three minutes between bites.
Julie talked about the importance of being a mindful eater. She explained that we should not eat on the couch in front of the TV. We should eat at the table where we can pay attention to what we are eating so that we can tell when we are full and stop eating.
Julie finished her talk by doing a fun demonstration of how to calculate the amount of protein, in grams, that you eat in a day. She asked for a volunteer and one woman volunteered to tell the group everything she had eaten for the day. Julie wrote it on an easel pad and used a chart she had given out to total the amount of protein the volunteer had eaten in the day. The total was 68 grams of protein!
Dr. Barzune and Dr. Fox then answered questions from the floor. Afterwards the meeting was adjourned around 8:40pm.
