What a great conference! I'm here in New York City listening to talks from the likes of Dr. Oz, Dr. Roizen, and Dr. David Katz. You can follow all of the sound bites I've recorded on Twitter here.
Before the conference started, we utilized the fabulous gym at the Hyatt; after all, we ARE at a healthy living conference!
The conference started out with a great display from industry sponsors: USA Pears, Wild Blueberries, Peas and Lentils and Walnuts.
At noon, Dr. Oz stepped on stage and talked about making changes to improve health:
- Control your blood pressure (115/75)
- Stop smoking
- Exercise 30 minutes per day
- Eat a healthful diet that's easy to love
- Control stress
Later in the afternoon, we heard Dr. David Katz speak. I've been using his research in my work in childhood nutrition and public health for quite a time now, so it was great to finally hear him speak. He was even better than I could have dreamed!
Dr. Katz is an internationally renowned authority on nutrition, integrative medicine, and patient-centered care; he is the director and founder of Yale University's Prevention Research Center and director and founder of the Integrative Medicine Center at Griffin Hospital and inventor of Nuval, a nutrient scoring system found in grocery stores nationwide. Basically, a genius.
One of his most poignant messages is that we have a whole lot of control over our own medical destiny. Through making healthy decisions with our feet (exercise!), our forks (healthy diet!), and our fingers (stop smoking!), we control our fate. He was speaking more in terms of public health, but thinking through these items on a personal level helps to improve our own health as well.
He also spoke a lot about our food environment, and how we are "polar bears in the Sahara." It is difficult to function in an environment that we are not acclimated to: a food environment saturated with unhealthy foods 24/7. This is one of the reasons he invented the NuVal nutrient scoring system; as a "GPS for the food supply", this intricate and complicated scoring system provides a guide to consumers provides them with the freedom, skill, and knowledge to make choices within the food system that are healthy.
Dr. Katz is an expert on childhood feeding practices, and he discussed that before we can feed children well, we need to learn how to feed ourselves. And in feeding ourselves, it's not just about will power, but about skill power. Skill power is about being empowered and prepared with knowledge and skills for buying, cooking, and eating foods. Just like adults, children like the freedom of choice, so when feeding children, give them structured choice; instead of letting a child choose a cookie or apple for a snack, give them the option of an apple or pear.
His bottom line was that the one true path to health is our lifestyle choices, day in and day out. He proved this point through his 10 minute recitation of a poem he wrote about disease prevention and living a healthy lifestyle. Written in Dr. Seuss-ish fashion, it conveyed the health state of our nation and what we can do about it. It was pretty awesome.
After the other talks, we headed to the media reception to chat with some of the speakers, including Mollie Katzen, Dr. Katz, and Brian Wansink, author of Mindless Eating.
And for dinner, we headed to Josie's Cafe for some delicious vegan eats, including a nice big spinach salad with the best tofu I've ever had!
After dinner, we all crashed and got ready for a very early press conference with the experts in the morning!
Corinne, Janel, Elizabeth, and Lindsey also posted on specific speakers' talks on Sunday, and their recap posts can be found here:
Love the tweet=team-tag you're doing: it's great to see your photos of the food, especially: do you know how many health conferences I've been to where no one uses the fitness center in the hotel? :)
ReplyDeleteYou might like this: we've posted over 100 free ChefMD recipes/video/nutrition facts--healthy, fun, easy and quick== on http://ChefMD.com, which I did for Health Corner on Lifetime TV, and on YouTube: check it out!
John La Puma, MD
http://drjohnlapuma.com.