{"id":382634,"date":"2010-03-03T02:47:32","date_gmt":"2010-03-03T06:47:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/calorielab.com\/news\/?p=6907"},"modified":"2010-03-03T02:47:32","modified_gmt":"2010-03-03T06:47:32","slug":"dr-j-on-mardi-gras-and-obesity-in-louisiana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/382634","title":{"rendered":"Dr. J on Mardi Gras and Obesity in Louisiana"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"Contributor: “Dr. J”<\/strong>
\nDr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200.<\/div>\n

While in the last year of my surgical residency, during a frigid February in the Midwest, I was graced with a one-week vacation. My best friend and I formulated a complicated plan: drive south until we found warm weather. Finally, after getting the car started in the sub zero temperatures, we were off. When we reached Gulfport, Mississippi, we decided to make a right hand turn and soon found ourselves in the warmth of New Orleans and discovered they were celebrating Mardi Gras!<\/p>\n

Mardi Gras and Fitness<\/h3>\n

The origins of Mardi Gras — or more affectionately translated as Fat Tuesday<\/a> –\u00a0 traces its name and origins from Catholic roots and the feasting upon a fattened calf on the last day of carnival as people were preparing for the abstinence of Lent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t say the folks at Mardi Gras were the fittest folks I\u2019d ever seen, but then it\u2019s hard to hide much when all you are wearing is a few strings of beads. Still, they didn\u2019t look too bad, and as doctors, we were used to seeing a lot of skin.
\n<\/span>
\nWatching video of Mardi Gras the other week reminded me of a study. The study<\/a> showed that since 1990, the prevalence of obesity in Louisiana has increased by at least 135 percent — and it\u2019s not the beads that are getting larger. Actually, Louisiana<\/a> has one of the largest rates of overweight and obese individuals in the country, with New Orleans one of the leading cities in this unhealthy statistic<\/a>. What is even more unsettling is that these rates in children in these areas rank in the top ten nationally and are increasing.<\/p>\n

New Orleans Food<\/h3>\n

Even though in this years Super Bowl the Colts were the favored team in a food war between the two participating cities (Indianapolis and New Orleans), there was no contest. The wide variety of New Orleans cuisine was an easy favorite over the bland casseroles of the Midwest. Really, few cities can compete with New Orleans in the food court.<\/p>\n

Although the origins of the cuisine in the French Quarter are, well, French, the so-called French paradox<\/a> does not seem to be valid in New Orleans. The reason for this is likely that even though the origin of the food is French, it has been changed to the all-American style of increased portion sizes with even more fat, sugar and salt than the original recipes called for to suit the ever gluttonous American palate.<\/p>\n

Too Much Food, Not Enough Activity<\/h3>\n

Although Mardi Gras<\/a> is officially a two to three week holiday, eating like it\u2019s Mardi Gras has become an all year round event. The only realistic answer<\/a> is to eat less unhealthy food, fewer calories, consume more food that is healthful and be more active. Perhaps more concrete ideas should be choose smaller portions, don\u2019t eat seconds, avoid buffets, eat out less, eat more at home, make your own meals, shop for healthy food choices and stock your home with these healthy foods. In addition, develop a personal exercise program. All of these ideas can be helpful if you are willing to apply them.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s very important, if you haven\u2019t already, to make these types of changes. After all, the only thing we want to be fat is a time of celebration, and maybe a calf.<\/p>\n

From the RSS feed of CalorieLab News<\/a> (REF3076322B7)<\/p>\n

Dr. J on Mardi Gras and Obesity in Louisiana<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contributor: “Dr. J” Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200. While in the last year of my surgical residency, during a frigid February […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-382634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}