Recently a local doctor wrote a letter to the editor for one of our hometown newspapers. I used to use this doctor several years ago as my primary care physician. She also had a sub-specialty of working with obese patients. For a while she served as the county’s medical health chief, too. The doctor has always spoken out about weight and health issues.
Her letter was an open and deliberate request to patients and anyone else who visits her office during the holiday season. Bottom line, she asked that they not express their thanks to her and her staff with gifts of food. She appreciates their appreciation and hoped that they would understand that sugary sweets, baked goods and the like are not healthy for her and her staff.
While she couched the request as a personal one for her practice, it was pretty clear that she expressed this through a letter to a newspaper so that she could emphasize a strong point to the public at large. Obesity is a significant issue in our country. Our society tends to celebrate with food. We’re compounding our own collective problems. I admire her for taking the stand and hope that she doesn’t get a backlash for it or accused of holiday food-Scroogery.
I know that when lots of food surrounds me, I have a really difficult time saying no to it. We get a fair amount of sweet treats sent to our office this season, too. It sits in the office kitchen calling to me and I struggle not to indulge.
There is, however, one company that always sends our president a smoked turkey. We plan a lunch around it with different people bringing a few side dishes. We end up making a far healthier celebratory event with the turkey as the center.
This year, I’m hoping for more savory, healthy snacks than sugar/fat/carb laden ones. Sadly, I don’t expect anyone to send a holiday basket of fresh veggies, but maybe some fruit, or even cheese. I could handle proteins and fruit in smaller batches. Not being constantly beset by food temptations would definitely make my holidays sweeter.
Weighty Matters 