Comments for Croakey

Comment on Would calorie-counting menus help bust Oz girths? by Starving America? – Croakey

Starving America? – Croakey — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:13:48 +0000

...] an excellent discussion is underway on Croakey about the value of calorie labeling in tackling obesity, it has been shocking this week to confront front page news that the number of [...

Comment on How should we respond to the new breast cancer screening study? by Let’s have some balance in breast cancer screening discussions – Croakey

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:26:50 +0000

...] of the most critical comments have come from breast cancer consumer advocates – overtones, perhaps, of how prostate cancer consumer groups have sometimes reacted to evidence [...

Comment on Breast cancer screening gets an indepth examination by Let’s have some balance in breast cancer screening discussions – Croakey

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:25:01 +0000

...] Reaction to the recent study suggesting breast cancer screening leads to significant over-diagnosis and unnecessary treatment has been, as you might expect, quite mixed. [...

Comment on Would calorie-counting menus help bust Oz girths? by Margo Saunders

Margo Saunders — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:32:00 +0000

It’s worth having a look at the arguments being mounted in opposition to nutrition information (see, for example, the report at: http://www.wlf.org/upload/BashamLuikWP%20final.pdf, bearing in mind that public health people may recognise Luik from his involvement in tobacco-related causes — see http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=John_Luik).
It is also worth taking account of research which is relevant to the law of unintended consequences — in this case, seeing healthier options allegedly led to unhealthier choices by consumers. This may not have received much attention in Australia, so check out: http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/news_events/releases/fitzsimons_healthy_options/
Some comments from the researchers:
“We find that simply seeing, and perhaps briefly considering, the healthy option fulfills their need to make healthy choices, freeing the person to give in to temptation and make an unhealthy choice. In fact, when this happens people become so detached from their health-related goals, they go to extremes and choose the least healthy item on the menu.”
“Adding the healthier option caused people with high self-control to choose the least healthy option possible. Even though it was not their first choice before the healthy option was included.”

The team’s findings suggest that encouraging people to make better choices may require significant effort on the part of both food service providers and customers. “What this shows is that adding one or two healthy items to a menu is essentially the worst thing you can do,” …”Because, while a few consumers will choose the healthy option, it causes most consumers to make drastically worse choices.”

Comment on Some hard truths about health care by gabe

gabe — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:26:19 +0000

Having worked in hospitals, then in the healthcare industry, what surprises me most about this whole debate is the completely different attitude of both government and healthcare staff to ‘problems’.

In most industries, ‘problems’ are solved relatively quickly because a company or person comes up with a better product to solve the ‘problem’.

The real ‘problem’ with healthcare is that it is inflexible. It’s over regulated, dominated by guilds that threaten to walk out if their inefficient practices are ursurped. All in all – it’s like 1930’s communism in the 2000’s (apologies to the communist believers out there but I don’t think it really worked to well).

Many will say ‘oh but America has a free-market model of healthcare and they are worse off than us’. But the reality is they have just as much regulation as we do – just in a different form.

Real health reform will not come through top-down attempts at proper management – that is usually a sign in the real world that a company is in major trouble and is no longer competitive. It will only truly change when we rethink our entire approach to health beginning with opening up the workforce to reflect the structural and financial realities and unmet needs of consumers.

Comment on Asbestos – the town that needs to leave its past behind by Asbestos – the town that needs to leave its past behind – Croakey | Mesothelioma Prognosis

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:04:25 +0000

...] Go here to read the rest: Asbestos – the town that needs to leave its past behind – Croakey [...

Comment on Would calorie-counting menus help bust Oz girths? by David Gillespie

David Gillespie — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:57:59 +0000

Interesting article from the Times which is (vaguely) relevant “Scientists advising the Government say that the calorie counts used as the basis of diet plans and healthy-eating advice for the past 18 years may be wrong.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article6916617.ece

Comment on Some hard truths about health care by EnergyPedant

EnergyPedant — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:28:39 +0000

The debate about limitations is important. Society needs to make an informed decision on the trade off between care and cost.

In theory to maximize care, everyone would need their own personal doctor and constant check-ups, tests, etc… This is clearly too expensive. Unless you are Michael Jackson and it didn’t work out so well for him.

This debate exists in electricity. What is an acceptable security of supply? Some people try to argue that there should never be any blackouts. The trouble is that a one in a hundred year heat wave requires significantly more capacity than a one in ten. And for almost every year you end up with a very large expensive asset not getting used.

Final parallel is with defense. We have a big enough army/navy/airforce to deter Indonesia. Possibly big enough to stop them. But we don’t even bother thinking about trying to stop China.

Comment on Would calorie-counting menus help bust Oz girths? by EnergyPedant

EnergyPedant — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:10:26 +0000

The kJ vs Calorie labelling arguement is plainly stupid. It’s just a factor of 4.2 different.

Most people don’t know how many calories are ok anyway. You just need to teach people the correct value to target.

Its easier to explain what a kJ is than a calorie anyway.

A calorie is the energy taken to heat one gram of water one degree (very abstract).

A kJ is the energy required to lift 1 kg, 10 cm, 1000 times. Much clearer concept. So my 768 kJ Snickers means I need to do some lifting…

Comment on Would calorie-counting menus help bust Oz girths? by Ben Harris-Roxas

Ben Harris-Roxas — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:06:41 +0000

A relevant health impact assessment was conducted in the US:

http://www.ph.ucla.edu/hs/hiaclic/archive/menu_labeling08.htm