Disclaimer: Originally published on the St. Cloud State University campus paper, the University Chronicle, on the February 16th 2009. Written by Kai.
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Diane Giambruno from the Central Minnesota Heart Center at St. Cloud Hospital informed an audience on healthier eating in the Atwood Voyageur room on Friday.
“In the United States we have more of an (obesity) issue than other countries,” Giambruno said.
The talk started with a comparison of meal sizes in America and other countries. By comparing them in this method the information is more easily relatable.
“I’m amazed at the portion size of food today,” said Sharon Rohling, a nurse practitioner at SCSU’s Student Health Services.
Following the seminar Giambruno engaged the audience in a game. She showed pictures of food twenty years ago with its calories and the same food in the current day. Audience members that ventured with guesses were given pins or bracelets.
SCSU student Sarah Garczynski expressed her “surprise about calories” of the food today.
Giambruno focused on consuming healthy portions of food. She emphasized that anything taken in extreme is unhealthy.
“I don’t think we can be ignorant anymore,” Giambruno said. “The food labels are right there on everything we buy.”
Using a variety of everyday objects such as matchboxes, decks of cards and ping-pong balls, Giambruno showed the audience what the size of a healthy portion of food is.
Some advice on eating healthy when going out or staying at home were also given. Simple suggestions such as planning ahead,
ordering small sizes or even sharing an entrée were given.
A useful tip she gave to the audience was to separate big packets of snacks into smaller packets. This is to deter people from eating straight from the bag and overeating.
Facts on muscle and fat were also presented. Replicas of fat and muscle was shown to drive in the point that for the same weight, more fat is needed than muscle.
Current food trends were also touched upon. Trends such as food safety, imported food and childhood obesity was discussed about.
“This is what people say they are looking for,” Giambruno said “but I don’t think they are necessarily following through with it”
She also warned that, “just because it’s in the health food section of the grocery store does not necessarily mean it’s healthy for us calorie-wise.”
Foods that help with digestion and cholesterol control were also talked about at the end of the presentation. Foods with plant sterols in them help with cholesterol control, and a few examples such as CocoVia bars and Promise Activ Supershots were given.
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