|
Episode #1926
USDA at NCCU
Holt: Deborah Holt, host
O'Kee: Dr. Esther O'Kee, professor and program director for didactic and dietetic internship programs at NCCU
Daniels: Tony Daniels, NCCU student
Grant: Keena Grant, NCCU student
Holt: Is your environment conducive to healthy living? Students at North Carolina Central University examined this question through a year-long food and nutrition study instituted by researchers at the USDA. We'll find out what they learned and the implications of their study next on Black Issues Forum.
[THEME MUSIC]
Voiceover: This program was made possible by contributions to UNC-TV from viewers like you. Thank you.
[THEME MUSIC]
Holt: Good evening everyone and welcome to Black Issues Forum. I'm Deborah Holt, the producer, in for Mitchell Lewis and Natalie Bullock Brown who both have the night off. As we've often referred to throughout the season, North Carolinians are facing significant challenges when it comes to health. And minority populations have even more to be concerned about, given the disparities that place them in comparatively poorer health in nearly every category. Along with rising concern of the health status of North Carolinians comes a growing need for targeted research. Tonight we focus on one such research study conducted by students and faculty at North Carolina Central University in Durham, and we have some of them here tonight as our guests. I'd like to welcome Dr. Esther O'Kee, professor and program director for didactic and dietetic internship programs at NCCU. Also Tony Daniels, a junior at NCCU who participated in the collection of data for the study. And Keena Grant, a senior at NCCU who not only participated in data collection, but also delivered a final report at the USDA nutrition Summer Institute held on the campus this summer. Again, welcome. Please note, information in the program is for informational purposes and is not intended for use as diagnosis or treatment of a health problem or as a substitute for consulting a licensed healthcare professional for medical advice, instruction, diagnosis or treatment. If you have specific questions or concerns, please consult your physician or appropriate licensed healthcare professional. We're going to find out more about the study and the work of our guests in just a moment, but first let's take a look at the program instituted by the US Department of Agriculture that recently came to North Carolina Central University's campus.
[BEGIN VIDEO CLIP]
F: From science to action, preparing the nation for health and security. That was the theme of the United States Department of Agriculture Sixth Annual Food and Nutrition Summer Institute. It's a program organized by Dr. Ellen Harris, the Assistant Director for Nutrition Monitoring at the USDA's Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, and the outgrowth of a brain trust that included the Center for Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration, and later the US Army Research Lab. The Institute is designed to assist nutrition programs at historically black colleges and universities.
F: We got together and talked about how we might through our avenues of work, help facilitate a strengthening of these programs. And from that workshop we basically crafted the four focus areas that the summer institute would look into, and those were nutrition education, nutrition research, policy, and linkages to the community. And we initially thought we would just look at faculty-focus on faculty, but then over the course of time we included students.
F: This year seven schools participated, and thanks to the efforts of Dr. Esther O'Kee, a professor in the Department of Human Sciences at North Carolina Central University, not only did NCCU students participate and present at this year's conference, the university played host.
M: It started out as a class project and they were to do a study within 15 miles radius of the university using different instruments, food _____ instrument, physical activity outlet, as well as nutrition program outlet instrument, to collect data on food offered within this radius. Using it to find out how it might contribute to the healthy eating of the residents within that radius.
F: NCCU students were joined in their yearlong study by student groups from Howard University, Alabama A&M, Tuskeegee University, and other colleges who conducted similar studies in their respective cities. All schools compiled their data in a report and made presentations at the conference in Durham.
F: Well, technically our hypothesis is that there is no significant difference between the types of food offered, healthy compared to less healthy within a 15 mile radius or distance surrounding North Carolina Central University. One thing that I found quite alarming was the fact that we found that 25% of the food establishments within a 15 mile radius of North Carolina Central University-I'm sorry, 25% of those outlets were fast food restaurants. This study showed, or it proved, that less healthy foods are offered. So it's safe to presume that if less healthy foods are offered, people are going to choose those types of food, and the probability of them choosing those types of food increases. So as we choose the foods that are less healthy and we consume that, we are consuming foods that are high in fat, high in cholesterol and low in fiber. That in turn relates to obesity and overweightness. And statistics show that there's a direct correlation into the overweightness and obesity to the onset of diabetes and other chronic illnesses that are plaguing our communities.
F: The findings from the NCCU student study are perhaps no surprise considering these health statistics. The two leading causes of death among Americans are cardiovascular disease and diabetes, with cardiovascular disease being number one. This fact becomes particularly significant for African Americans, considering that in 2001, 41% of African American males and 40% of African American females had cardiovascular disease; compared with 30% of white males and 24% of white females. The leading contributor to cardiovascular illness and disease is obesity. The state center for health statistics has reported over half of North Carolinians are overweight, an 82% increase since 1990. While these statistics and NCCU research discoveries are revealing, leaders at the USDA and NCCU agree there were other equally important outcomes from the exercise.
M: I think this program is one of the best models that you can find in terms of a university being engaged in its community. The areas of obesity, diabetes, are very critical for our population, and to have North Carolina Central University at the forefront of this research effort I think sends a very strong signal that we are doing some very important things in terms of education and research here at the university.
F: Being an African American public health nutritionist, I think that it's very important, not only for people in my racial group, but for other groups of color to have their representatives in the field. And working with these programs I think helped to assure that.
[END VIDEO CLIP]
Holt: The food and nutrition summer institute is still ongoing, and right now we're going to answer the question, how conducive to healthy living is the community surrounding North Carolina Central University in Durham, and we have no one better to answer those questions than the people who conducted the study. Keena, let me ask you the question. What would you say to that, in terms of answering that question?
Grant: That a lot of the areas around North Carolina Central University, just as Christa stated, were the fast food restaurants, 26% of those, and I think this research would get the information out there and give the community just the awareness, just make them aware of what's going on, what they are choosing and what's healthy and less healthy.
Holt: Now, your research included not only food outlets, but also physical activity outlets and nutrition service outlets. Tony, tell me a little bit about where you all went and what kind of data you all collected.
Daniels: We went north on Fayetteville Street and we looked at the physical outlets such as W.D. Hill, and what we found was that most of these outlets, they serve senior citizens, whereas they offered a lot of activities for the senior citizens, but as far as the community at large, it wasn't very much to offer. A lot of the programs that they did have to offer was related to cost and cost was a factor.
Holt: Would you speculate, or how were you comparing your data. I know that the study said you were going to compare or take a look at, are there healthier choices or less healthy choices available? Your conclusion did not support your hypothesis, did it?
Grant: No, it didn't. The hypothesis was there wouldn't be a significant difference between the less healthy and the healthy foods, but conclusively our research shows that there was a great difference between the healthy and the less healthy.
Holt: And how did you measure that, what was your standard measurement, since you weren't comparing it against any other kinds of neighborhoods?
Daniels: Well, the numbers itself, was basically, it spoke for itself. We could see that it was piggybacking off of Keena, it was a lot more fast food restaurants. It was a lot of the food outlets. They offered, they didn't have a lot of the low fat or 100% fruit juice for an example. A lot of the foods were just not conducive with the chronic diseases within the community.
O'Kee: In addition to that, they looked at each of the food groups, they took the bread and cereal group and they looked at the type of bread and grains by things, whether they were high in fiber or less high in fiber. For example, if bread is white it is considered less healthy. But if it has high fiber whole wheat bread, it is considered more healthy. If milk, they looked at the milk group, if regular milk that has about 4% butterfat, it was regarded as less healthy than the ones that offered maybe 1% of skim milk.
Holt: Keena, can you share with us some of the highlights from this study in terms of what you found, because you all went to convenience stores, grocery stores, fast food, fine restaurants, and you said that there were a number of ethnic restaurants in the area as well.
Grant: Yes. When we visited the sites, some of us did visual observations of the sites and some of us did both visual and a phone interview. We went through and did a checklist that the USDA had given us, and we went through each one and checked out what the outlet offered, the food and the physical activity. What we found were that most of the places did offer most of the foods on the list, but it wasn't a large variety, and that the things that they did offer, it might have been a little outdated or something like that.
Holt: I was wondering Dr. O'Kee, what was the involvement of the USDA in all of this study?
O'Kee: Well, USDA came as an organization together, and one of the goals of the organization is to help develop students in research. This is one of doing that. So all the students in different universities were assigned a project to study within an identified distance from the university, the barriers leading to eating healthy, which included looking at the infrastructure such as the physical outlets, food service outlets, and nutrition program outlet. So these students were to go and collect data in these different areas using the instrument that was developed by USDA.
Holt: And when you talk about a nutrition program outlet, what are we talking about?
Grant: We're talking about maybe like WIC or Meals On Wheels, soup kitchen, pantries, breakfast and lunch, daycares offering lunch and breakfast to their kids.
Holt: Pretty extensive. And the environment that you all studied was predominantly black?
Daniels: Yes.
Holt: Now, how about who was owning those outlets, the physical activity outlets, the restaurants and so forth; was that a factor in your research?
Daniels: What we saw was a lot of the convenience stores were operated by foreigners, and basically they offered foods that the community pretty much purchased and bought. And so those were a lot of the factors, was that they were just pretty much buying the things that the community at large was buying.
Holt: Now that's sort of an interesting area of discussion, because is it that they're supplying what's being demanded, or are people taking what's being supplied? Dr. O'Kee?
O'Kee: I was very proud of my students when they went out to collect this data, because they were concerned when they saw the type of food that was being offered, and inquired as to why this would have been offered. The response was that they're offering them because it is what people demanded or wanted, what they can afford to sell. And I'm looking at how do we reach the public? I said maybe one way we can reach the public might be for them to demand healthier food, would be educating them on what is healthy, and that would make them to demand more healthier food, thereby making these owners and the suppliers to provide this food that they are demanding which are healthier. So education would be one way out.
Holt: Was that part of your recommendations as well, at the conclusion of the study?
Grant: Yes, we were recommending that we get like media and we educate the community and get the awareness out there, because most people don't know what's healthy and what's less healthy. When they eat they know about what they normally consume, and that's what they normally, like you said, normally demand. So one way is our recommendation is to make aware the community. And another recommendation was to get the students at North Carolina Central University, involve some of the food pantries, the Meals On Wheels and things like that.
Holt: How would you do that specifically, what would that interaction look like?
Grant: I was thinking, we were trying to get with the community service department over at North Carolina Central University to get more in programs in, where students sign up to go to more Meals On Wheels, more pantries and things like that, or to even set up something on the weekends or something to feed the homeless. So something like that. Or holidays, get more students to stay in Durham, at North Carolina Central University to feed the homeless people on those days.
O'Kee: If I might add to that also, in our program we do have assignments and projects we assign students through different courses. We ask them to identify different target populations that might have health problems and go and devise education program for them, for that specific target group, and deliver it. So that's one way of educating the public.
Holt: Are there any programs that you all have developed in the past for any particular target groups that have been successful or effective that you know of so far?
O'Kee: I've been working with the Head Start group. This is one of the things that we want to continue. I've identified in the little group that I have worked with, that 45% of the kids that go to the Head Starts are obese or overweight.
Holt: Forty-five percent?
O'Kee: Forty-five percent are obese or overweight. And so we are planning to focus, and fortunately this group is within the 50-mile radius that the students conducted their study, so our next step would be for these students to plan an intervention strategy of dealing with the problem.
Holt: Very good, very good. Now, let me ask you this question, sort of on a personal note, how do you help educate your peers about better food choices, and are you actually exercising those good food choices?
Daniels: Well I think through just sitting down and talking to them about healthy choices and helping them to determine their needs and looking at perhaps some of the chronic diseases that they suffer from, and basically giving them an alternative to the foods that they were choosing, to a more healthy type food.
Holt: Now, it might take some time before an intervention program actually is effective in a community. In the meantime, if you live in a community that's surrounded by predominately less healthy food choices, what does it really come down to, what can you do, what can people do that they're really not doing perhaps, Dr. O'Kee?
O'Kee: Trying to get more information, being educated about nutrition, because sometimes when you talk about nutrition, people look at it as just an easy thing, because I look at my students who come to my introductory class, many of them hear about what goes on in the media or what they hear about food and different diet, and really don't know what nutrition is all about. You'd be surprised as to what people think nutrition is. People lack the knowledge and so they need to be educated more.
Holt: I think you were talking when I had an opportunity to meet with you the other day, about portion sizes. We really want to go to Golden Corral and eat everything on the buffet. But what are people not understanding about portion sizes?
O'Kee: Well one thing I think they don't understand is that people have come to think that whatever they are served in their restaurant is their portion size. In actually fact it's not a portion size. It's like somebody walking into a steakhouse and given 12 to 16 ounce steak and they look at it as their portion size. In actual reality, two to three ounces of meat is what a portion size should be.
Holt: People aren't realizing this. And what do you share with your friends in terms of trying to help them, because they probably know that you focus on this area as a major. How do you advise them?
Grant: Well just to let them know what I found in my study. I'm not saying that the healthier foods are not in this area; just to let them know how to choose those healthier choices, and just to let them know that it is out there, there are healthier choices around North Carolina Central University. Just how to choose them.
Holt: Now, have you all taken a look at the economic implications of making less healthy food choices, and also the economic story behind why perhaps we have this rise, this increase in obesity in North Carolina?
Grant: When I was doing the study, a lot of the residents around North Carolina Central University that I came in contact with, they stated that most of the things that are offered in their grocery stores and stuff like that, the meats that they buy were a lot cheaper than the healthier meats that they buy. And it was easier for them to go and just buy something less expensive than like a burger joint or the chicken stuff. It's cheaper to buy that stuff than to buy the healthier stuff.
Holt: Where do you hope this research will take you? As I noted, this research is ongoing so we have just a couple minutes left, what's the next step?
O'Kee: The next step is to plan an intervention strategy to deal with the problems. Now that we've identified what the problems are, what is creating a barrier to eating healthy, the next step is to tackle that problem by devising an intervention strategy to deal with the problems.
Holt: And the barriers were.
O'Kee: Poor food choices. Secondly, lack of adequate outlet for physical activities, and people not having adequate information about nutrition in order to make good food choices.
Holt: Where would you like to see this study go next. I'm just going to give you about 30 seconds, Tony?
Daniels: I would like to see basically people being educated to healthier choices; I would like to see people choose , if they decide to eat foods that they know that's probably unhealthy, moderation would be the key. So moderation is really what I would like to see, in terms of food choices.
Holt: Terrific. Well, certainly more research needs to be done and I wish you all success. Thank you all so much for being on our program, Dr. O'Kee, Tony and also Keena. Once again, information in the program is for informational purposes and is not intended for use as diagnosis or treatment of a health problem, or as a substitute for consulting a licensed healthcare professional for medical advice, instruction, diagnosis or treatment. If you have specific questions or concerns, please consult your physician or appropriate licensed healthcare professional. For more information on any of our programs or to make a comment, please visit us online at www.unctv.org/bif. Or call us at 919-549-7167. We hope you'll join us again next Friday at 9:30 with our regular hosts. Until then, I'm Deborah Holt, thank you for making Black Issues Forum a part of your night. Have a great weekend.
[THEME MUSIC]
Voiceover: This program was made possible by contributions to UNC-TV from viewers like you. Thank you.
|
