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April 19, 2007
It Makes Me So Sad To Read This Article
Here is my response to the latest Rudd Center attack on CR, myself, and my partner:
It makes me so sad to read article.
You would be hard pressed to find a bigger fan of Kelly Brownell than I. I follow this blog with great interest, and find myself cheering out loud at the entries by Maureen Schwartz, Rebecca Puhl, and other brilliant writers who contribute. I truly believe that they are moving the public discourse about obesity and its effects on our nation's health, both physical and mental, in the right direction.
I know, from my own experience, what a difference it makes in the quality of every day life to eat healthy foods and to really get the nutrition and the exercise my body needs. I've eaten the standard American diet, and I gained a lot of weight in my late twenties doing so. I didn't feel good... and my cholesterol was rising, I had trouble climbing the stairs to my third floor office, and I started to lack the stamina to work the extremely long hours that my job requires. Once I learned about CRON, started tracking my nutrition, and created a diet for myself that gives my body what it truly needs, I felt so much better! I have more energy, more strength (both physical and emotional) and more vibrant life than I've ever had before! I can honestly say that I look and feel better at 32 than I did at 22.
Here was my day:
I got up at 5 am (as usual) and got ready to leave at 6:30 am for meetings with nurses. After a quick cuddle with my wonderful tabby cat Kieffer, I set about showering and getting dressed. I came downstairs and my partner, MR, pointed out that I really needed to eat breakfast before hitting the road for another long and intense day as a union organizer.
I didn't really feel like eating breakfast... it was early, I was pressed for time, and I'm not usually hungry first thing. But I ate a megamuffin (which is a wonderful baked good, comprised of 10% of the RDA of every essential nutrient per 100 calories) for breakfast because my partner, who loves me very much, is right -- I do need to start my day with some solid nutrition to have the energy I need to do my job. MR would have been downright worried if I had skipped breakfast. Is that the behavior of someone with an eating disorder? He wanted to make sure I fueled up with excellent nutrition for my rough day.
I battled traffic for an hour on the way to my first meeting, and met with nurses from 7:30 am to9:30 am. Then I talked some strategy with various members of my staff and went to another meeting at 11:30. Things are tense... management is on the floors every day threatening nurses, and it's up to me and my staff to keep them focused on what they need to improve at work to be able to deliver the care their patients deserve.
I drove back to the office and stopped at home to pick up my lunch: the salad the MR makes me most every day. It has kale, arugula, napa cabbage, romaine, green pepper and tomatoes. I add to it a cup of either yogurt or cottage cheese for calcium, usually some salsa or hot sauce, and 10 g almonds for healthy fats. I ate my salad during a meeting with staff, and continued on to work with one of my best staff members on her approach to some difficult problems.
I'm home now, hoping to catch a very short nap before I need to jump back to work, calling nurses who want to organize to have a voice on their jobs.
Tonight, after phone call time (we stop calling nurses at 8:30 pm because they usually get up by 5) I am taking my mom out for dinner for her 62nd birthday (Happy birthday to Mom!) We're going to Blackfish, an excellent restaurant in my town. I'll probably order a fish of some kind, grilled without the sauce, a salad, and we'll enjoy a lovely glass of wine. My mom will be staying over with us (and sleeping with Kieffer the giant tabby!) because we don't drive at all if we've had even a sip to drink... MR will be our designated driver for the trip home.
I'll get a touch of sleep, then in the morning I'll get up, go to my Pilates class, and then back to work. I work seven days a week, much more than eight hours a day, because I believe that the only hope for our health care system is for nurses, those who are the real advocates for patients, to have a real voice in the decision making at hospitals. Anti-union consultants run campaigns of intense psychological battering to try to dissuade nurses from claiming their right to a voice, but if we do everything right, the nurses win. It's up to me to make sure we do everything right, and that often means sacrificing my own time, energy, and peace of mind to be available to them at all hours of the day and night. It is an honor to work with the brave women (and men!) who take care of critically ill patients every day, and I do everything I can to make sure they get to exercise their right to a voice at their hospital.
It's hard on my CR, sometimes, especially when I'm on the road, but I do pretty well. I pack some food, I make wise choices at restaurants, and I try my best to ignore the cheese plate.
Mostly, I'm thinking about my nurses and my staff and my work. When I get a moment, I check my email and I try to update my blog.
Then I read an article like this one, and I am once again disappointed in the Rudd Center.
No one has ever contacted me for comment or an interview. No one has ever accepted my inviation to dinner. No one has met me or talked to me, or my partner.
Yet the willingness to pass judgement, without the slightest bit of investigation into the scientific merits of CR, is astounding.
I think that this article is a disgrace to the Rudd Center. It calls into question the credibility of an organization whose founder calls for calorie information on menus.
Those who are interested in public health should be able to do better than unresearched articles equating CR with an eating disorder. Read my day, and tell me if this is the day of an anorexic who has nothing better to do than to fret about how fat she might be. I don't even think about how I look: frankly, I don't have time. I'm glad that the man I love finds my 104 pound frame attractive (I am 5' 2") but I am not doing this to be thin.
I am doing CR because I care so much about the world I live in that I want to be around long enough to make a positive change in it. And that's going to take a very long time.
I love my life: organizing nurses, working with the most amazing people on earth, living with a man who has brought light and love into my life in ways I could not have imagined, being part of a family of strong, caring people who are my ongoing support, even snuggling a slightly hyperactive cat. I don't want to age or die any sooner than I absolutely must. Having discovered that there is an intervention that can slow my aging process, I take advantage of it. Sure it takes some work. In the beginning, I did a ton of research and a lot of tweaking my diet to find a way to eat that was simultaneously healthy, satifsying, low calorie, and allowed for some restaurant meals out with friends, family and colleagues. But I've got it down now, and its pretty much on auto-pilot. I spend most of my time doing what my nurses need me to do.
I'm not doing this to feel superior to people who make different food choices. If you read the NY Mag article carefully, you'll see that it's Julian who felt superior for his choices, not any of the real CR folks he interviewed. And you'll see that I told Julian to increase his calories because he was losing weight too fast. I adore Julian Dibbell... he's a great writer, and just between you and me, he's also really nice to look at! But it's not fair to blame me, Michael, or anyone who practices CR for how Julian chose to approach it. He projects his own feelings onto us. We're doing this to live longer, younger. It's that simple.
Our food environment is so toxic that it is downright revolutionary to state that you actually know what is in your food (in terms of both calories and nutrition) and that you actively manage your intake. It makes me so very sad that even the Rudd Center bloggers are unable to move beyond this... you advocate calorie labeling on menus, yet those of us who consciously monitor and control our calories must have a disorder? And you don't even bother to contact or interview us? This isn't just unscientific, it's unprofessional.
I am planning to write Dr. Brownell to raise this issue. I've now been personally attacked twice in Rudd Center blogs by people who never contacted me for comment, who openly admit that they did absolutely no research into the science of CR, and who base their ideas on one man's article, with no follow-up. This casts the entire Rudd Center in a bad light. Dr. Brownell, one of the most brilliant men of our time, deserves better from an organization that he founded.
But for the moment, I must return to doing something that actually matters: organizing nurses to have the power to stand up for themselves and their patients. When you or your loved one are in the hospital, your nurse is the difference between life and death. If she is overworked, understaffed, or unable to give you or your family member the care you deserve, your odds of dying or suffering from unnecessary hospital acquired infections go up tremendously. You rely on her (or him!) to help you become healthy again. And she relies on me to help her do whatever it takes to get that power to advocate for you, even in the midst of a health care enviroment that is driven more by profit than by patient needs. I'm not going to let her down.
So I've got to get back to work.
Posted by april at April 19, 2007 2:50 PM
Comments
Perfect response! Just perfect!
Posted by: Lindsay at April 19, 2007 2:47 PM
Damn. Bravo. This was well done.
Posted by: A. Meeks at April 19, 2007 3:57 PM
Here Here!
Excelent, cogent, discussion April
Posted by: Deborah at April 19, 2007 4:02 PM
Sock it to 'em, FireCat! We are incredibly proud to have you in our family and while we sometimes thought in the past that your and MR's dedication to CR was a bit excessive, we cannot deny that you both are vibrant, healthy and well-nourished. As I keep telling anyone who will listen, you guys eat LOTS and what you eat is beautiful, healthy and delicious. And you do it every day. You are NOT "starving yourselves". You're fuelling your bodies with nourishment for the future, as opposed to stuffing your faces with gak for the moment. Blog on! MoMR :-)
Posted by: Judith at April 19, 2007 4:04 PM
Well, for what it's worth... your Blog inspires me. I believe that CR seems to enhance the amount you are capable of contributing to the world and that is why I am still attempting to incorporate it into my life.
Posted by: Jake Silver at April 19, 2007 5:09 PM
Hi April,
It's not even worth being sad over :) You're fighting the good fight, and anyone who has ever read your blog knows it. Speaking personally, I find your blog to be an ongoing source of inspiration and encouragement, and I'm quite confident I'm not the only one that feels that way.
Rachel
Posted by: Rachel at April 19, 2007 6:09 PM
Don't worry, Sweetie.
I've got your back.
I'm not letting them get away with a thing.
-R
Posted by: Robin at April 19, 2007 6:20 PM
They didn't pick on CR, so much as the 1931 calories (exactly) per day thing. As I've complained in the past - exact calories is not CR. CR does not require such precision, nor is precision at that level even possible. By introducing this element into the description of the practice of CR, it puts the whole practice into question. If MR wants to amuse himself by trying to count exact calories, he is welcome to it - it's certainly a harmless hobby. But - it's not CR - and puts the practice of CR in a misleading light if you imply that it is.
Posted by: Little MR at April 19, 2007 6:38 PM
I've been a lurker here for about 3 months, enjoying your blog immensely. And, as a nursing student, I also identify with the work that you do. I also have the opportunity to care for people who are sick and dying...often because of their lifestyles. It seems that many CR critics aren't able to view their bodies as a machine - you get out what you put in. Those who aren't willing to eat a reasonable diet (which does not resemble the typical American diet!), let alone CR, feel the need to attack anyone with a grain of sense and a modicum of willpower. Keep up the good work.
Posted by: marie at April 19, 2007 8:31 PM
Awesome April. I know this was a rebuttal, but as I dip my toes back into the CRON pool after a hiatus, this is just what I needed to read.
Posted by: Chris at April 19, 2007 8:33 PM
Hi April
At your request fellow CRONies came in your defense in the comments section of the RUDD article. Frankly, an answer from you, when you have time to draft it, is better than one from us, but we participated to offer support. I wanted to say in my verbiage, "Hey, ease up about MR's 1931 daily calories. Maybe next year he'll consume 1932 daily calories." But that's just my mind trying to find something to laugh at in reaction to an otherwise leaden post by your critic. Cheers, Arturo
Posted by: Arturo at April 19, 2007 8:35 PM
You know, I think what bugs people about the 1931 number is that it isn't a nice, round number. I'll bet you anything they wouldn't be nearly so freaked out if it were 1900 or even 1950 - even though those numbers are just as precise as 1931.
Something there is that does not love an odd number...
Posted by: Robin at April 19, 2007 8:44 PM
At first, I used to think that maybe CR would not be good for someone who had struggled with an eating disorder, and maybe it is not. Who knows? What I do realize is the simple distinction: CR is a decision that comes from an informed decision to extend one's life, while eating disorders do not come from informed decisions. Eating disorders come for disordered thoughts, beliefs and images of one's self and one's body. There's far more at play with an eating disorder -- why can't people see the difference?
Note: I'm not a CR'ed person, but I did struggle with some very bad relationships with myself and with food.
Posted by: Gina at April 20, 2007 9:51 AM
The unnerving aspect of CR (speaking as a girl who eats very carefully and healthfully but does not practice CR) is that most people cannot understand why eating small amounts of healthy food is not enough. Most people who decide to revamp their lifestyle are not attracted to weighing and measuring every morsel (As you have pointed out, April, CR is not for most people). The people who ARE attracted to this form of discipline tend to have an unhealthy relationship with their body and food to begin with. However, the focus on nutrition may help someone with an unhealthy focus on food/body image turn their disorder into a healthy occupation; healthy meaning they are caring for their bodies with optimum nutrition. I think both sides of this argument is exhaustive until both sides concede that, yes, the initial attraction to CR is not for the average person, but from people with "issues" with food/body/ED's of some kind. HOWEVER it is a much better alternative than dying. For that, I know (personally and through research) that the CR lifestyle and the science that backs it has brought peace and health to people flirting with a dangerous spiral to darkness.
Posted by: danielle at April 20, 2007 1:36 PM
Actually, Danielle, most people who are CR practitioners have no history of eating disorders whatsoever. Most are men, most are scientifically minded or engineers, and most are actually dismayed at weight loss, not excited about it.
Those of us female CR practitioners are rare. And serious CR females... even more rare.
a
Posted by: april at April 20, 2007 6:49 PM
Actually I agree with "danielle". I'm down to a very healthy BMI now, with healthy blood test results etc. But before that, I developed an obsession, out of the blue, with vegetarianism. Then will the paleolithic diet. And now with CR. Before I even THOUGHT about eating (and switched to vegetarianism for moral reasons), I had a completely normal BMI. My weight only started fluctuating because I started focusing my mind on food, when it should have been focused on the art of living & loving & giving.
But CR does seem very healthy (if you have the discipline), and the disciplinary aspects of it might account for some of the zealousness of its adherents. Discipline itself can be an addiction.
But better a potential anorexic becomes well-nourished on CR, than the alternative.
For myself, I just wish I never started focusing on food. There's so much more to life.
Posted by: AT at April 25, 2007 4:35 PM
I grew up in a nother country where we did not always have a lot of food and surprosed by the problems people with food have.
Posted by: tang at April 25, 2007 6:58 PM