Taking the lead: Diet and leadership

Taking the lead: Diet and leadership Robert Swoap, Ph.D. Professor & Chair of Psychology Clinical and Health Psychologist Leadership for Adventure Education

Taking the lead: Personal choices and leadership Personal choices (e.g., recycling, driving less) Dietary choices -- impact on health: for you (the leader) and for your group members Dietary choices -- impact on environment Implications for leaders

Food and Wellness (Psychological and Physical) • “What to eat” (M. Nestle) • “What to eat in the zone” (B. Sears) • “In defense of food” (M. Pollan) • USDA’s MY Pyramid vs. Healthy Eating Pyramid (Harvard) • MY Plate • Slow food, fast food, no food, ??? WHAT’S A PERSON TO DO??!!!

Healthy eating: A biopsychosocial and perspective Nutrition and Wellness Eating to feel well (as opposed to simply getting calories) -- mens sana in corpore sano Color! Balance Amount Real food

The Components of a Healthy Diet: Overview • Macronutrients • Carbohydrates • Fats • Proteins

Fats (lipids) • Densest sources of food energy (1 gram = 9 calories compared to 1 gram = 4 calories for carbohydrates and proteins) • Saturated • Monounsaturated • Polyunsaturated • EFAs

The Components of a Healthy Diet: Overview • Macronutrients • Carbohydrates • Fats • Proteins • Micronutrients • Vitamins • Minerals • Phytochemicals

Micronutrients • Vitamins • 13 known vitamins, classified as either fat-soluble (A, D, E, K) or water-soluble (B and C) • C & E are antioxidants • Minerals • Inorganic elements (e.g., calcium -- for muscle contractions, nerve transmission) • Phytochemicals • Bioactive chemicals found in plants (e.g., sterols, flavonoids, beta-carotene) with potential health-promoting qualities (e.g., anti-oxidant activity)

So… What to Eat?? (Michael Pollan) • Eat food • Not too much • Mostly plants • Your Food Diaries – Questions? • Impact of diet on mood/behavior? For you? For group members?

Diet and Health “[People] dig their graves with their own teeth and die more by those fatal instruments than the weapons of their enemies.” -- Thomas Moffett, 1600

Relationship between diet and heart disease • risk for heart disease is linked to diets high in saturated fats, found mostly in animal and processed foods • dietary cholesterol is found only in animal foods • plant foods contain antioxidants –these protect against atherosclerosis

Relationship between diet and cancer • The American Cancer Society Dietary Guidelines: Limit consumption of meats and shift the balance toward a more plant-based diet • Protective factors in a plant-based diet • Choose a colorful, varied diet • Get the nutrients from food (rather than supplements) • Visit the Linus Pauling Instit. for more on impact of diet on health: http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/

Relationship between diet and other conditions • Diets high in saturated fat & low in fiber are associated with: • Hypertension • Diabetes • Obesity

Do I have to be a vegetarian? • Bottom line: Eat lower on the food chain for better physical health. And eat colorfully. • For my health, should I be vegetarian? Not necessarily, but… • Vegetarian diets are associated with a reduced risk for obesity, coronary artery disease, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, certain types of cancer, and kidney disease -- (American Dietetic Association: Position on vegetarian diets)

Growing problem with kids and adults: The obesity “crisis” • U.S. is heaviest country in the world -- 66% of population is overweight or obese (obesity trends slides -- CDC)

Relationship between diet and obesity • Main problem is deceptively simple: too many calories consumed and too few burned off through exercise • Food-toxic environment

As a role model / leader -- If you were doing one thing that was contributing to: • Poorer personal health • Spread of disease • Deforestation & Erosion • Fresh water scarcity • Air and water pollution • Climate change • Biodiversity loss • Maltreatment of animals/humans • Social injustice • Destabilization of communities Would you change that one thing? That one thing is consuming products that come from factory farms.

Holistic health: Diet and the environment Good News!! Eating a diet that is healthy for me and for my group is better for the health of the planet

Personal choices, global effects • Supply and demand • Society’s demand for inexpensive, readily available meat; cheap sugar drinks; etc. • Animal agribusiness and Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)

CAFOs Chickens raised for meat are crowded by the thousands in "grower houses" where each is given approximately half a square foot of space. (Even worse for layer hens.) How do these birds establish a “pecking order?”

CAFOs Confined in crates just two foot wide, veal calves don't have space to walk or stretch their limbs.

CAFOs Factory farm pigs are typically raised in small pens with slatted or concrete floors and metal bars. Breeding sows are treated like “piglet-making machines.”

Personal choices, global effects Question: How does our choice to eat shrimp relate to the health of bird populations? Or vice-versa, How does our choice to eat birds (i.e., chickens) relate to the health of fish and shrimp populations?

Diet and the environment

Relationship between diet and water quality • The Problems • Manure • Fertilizer and other chemicals used in animal production (e.g., antibiotics)

Relationship between diet and water quality: Effects of manure “Livestock excrement is the single biggest cause of declining fish populations in 60,000 miles of polluted waterways.” -- joint declaration by the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Hog farms: A case study in N.C. factory farming Although pigs have been an historical part of the state's agriculture, it is in recent years that the sector has experienced exponential growth. Within a decade, the hog population jumped, from around 2.6 million in 1988 to over 8 million in 1997. The increase in the total population of hogs was accompanied by a concomitant decline in the total number of hog farms. In 1986, there were 15,000 farms with at least one head of hogs in the state. By the year 2006, there were only 2,300 such farms remaining.

Hog farms: Manure’s effects on waterways • 9,500,000 wet tons of hog manure in North Carolina annually • Too much to simply put on the land as fertilizer • Waste held in storage lagoons and discharged as “treated” wastewater into rivers • Problem: waste lagoons often built in ecologically sensitive areas (e.g., marshes, floodplains). Lagoons not always constructed well.

Pig Waste Lagoon -- Spills 25.8 million gallons of concentrated hog waste spilled into the New River polluting the river and killing thousands of fish.

Dietary choices affect the land: The case of cattle ranching • The destruction of riparian areas • Erosion • Species loss and wildlife extermination • Over-use of water • Deforestation

Dietary choices and the air • Deforestation • Global warming • Air quality

Trends and Outlook • In the U.S., we eat 58 million cattle, 103 million hogs, 300 million turkeys, and 9 billion chickens per year. • The meat industry is aggressively pursuing an increase in worldwide production of meat and milk in the 21st century. • Throughout the world, there is a trend toward eating higher on the food chain, placing more demand on meat production. Impact on health??

Summary • Be aware of the impact of your personal dietary choices (and your choices for outdoor education participants) • Educate others by example through compassionate leadership and activism

Organizations to learn more…

Taking the lead: Diet and leadership