In the Community

August 28, 2008

Kaiser Permanente Experts on Diet, Environment, Featured on ABC Channel 7 News

Adjusting food portions and making environmentally friendly cleaning solutions were just two tips shared by Kaiser Permanente employees on "The View From the Bay," a regular segment on San Francisco-based ABC Channel 7.

Two recent segments on ABC Channel 7 news's "The View From the Bay" program featured Kaiser Permanente experts talking about environmental awareness and using food diaries to control one's weight.

Nora Norback, a registered dietician at Kaiser Permanente, discussed a recent Kaiser Permanente study showing that keeping a food diary can double a person's weight loss.  Norback, featured in an Aug. 12 segment of "The View From the Bay," discussed how keeping a food diary can help people get real about not only tracking all food consumed – including snacks and picking off childrens' plates – but also can show exactly what a correctly sized "portion" of food looks like.

The form the diary takes – hard copy, email, whiteboard, post-it notes – is secondary to using any of these formats to just be accountable to oneself about food consumption, and then making changes, said Norback, who is based at a Kaiser Permanente facility in Richmond, Calif.

For more, watch Norback's segment on The View From the Bay.

In a July 17 segment, Kaiser Permanente's vice president for environmental stewardship shared several tips for going green and adopting a healthier lifestyle. Kathy Gerwig noted that doing what's good for the environment is often good for oneself at the same time. Two examples she shared were shopping for food at local farmers markets – which both provides fresh produce and reduces the "food miles" that food travels to customers – and making cleaning solutions out of simple ingredients such as vinegar or baking soda.

"These aren't two separate concepts. And that can help keep it from being overwhelming,” Gerwig said. “When we do something that’s good for the environment, it’s probably good for our personal health, and vice versa.”

Other tips Gerwig shared were:

• Walk, ride bicycles, or use public transit, particularly for local errands, to both reduce fossil fuel consumption and increase exercise.
• Drink lots of water, but avoid drinking bottled water, which involves significant production and transportation costs, and creates plastic bottles that often end up in landfills rather than in recycling bins.
• Plant a tree. Trees not only use carbon dioxide and create oxygen, but create shade for a house and thus reduce air conditioning use.

For more, view Gerwig's segment on The View From the Bay.