Have you seen the video report we did here at FatFighterTV about all the hidden sugar in so many foods out there? You might be shocked at some of the places we found it! Now, the American Heart Association says most Americans are getting 22.2 teaspoons a day of added sugar and it’s time to cut way back.

The AHA’s report finds most of that extra sweet stuff comes from soft drinks and candy and adds up to 355 calories every day. Instead, the group recommends most women get no more than 100 calories a day from added sugar and most men limit their intake to 150 calories.

I’m pretty sure I could stand to cut back on sugar… although, I’ve been really watching it lately. Really.

How many calories from sugar do you get each day?

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From the burger joints to the fancy eateries, New York is now the first city in the country to go trans-fat-free. About a year and a half ago, the Board of Health voted to ban the artery-clogging fat from the city’s restaurants. Today, the ruling goes into full effect.

The ban covers almost all prepared foods in restaurants, bakeries, even hot dog stands. For months, chefs have been busy changing recipes to eliminate the fat from their menus.

I say, go New York! This is an awesome move to get more trans fats out of our diet. The first step was in 2006 when the FDA began requiring food manufacturers to list how much trans fats are in their products (see the FFTV video). Many companies took it a step further and got rid of trans fat altogether.

Why are trans fats so dangerous? They increase your risk for heart disease like no other fat because while they raise bad cholesterol, they also lower good cholesterol.

And check this out – I just stumbled across this cartoon that’s designed to help us all learn how to eat fewer foods with trans fat without replacing them with saturated fat. Meet the Bad Fats Brothers – Sat and Trans are their names, of course. The American Heart Association (AHA) launched this campaign which features an “edutainment” website where the two bros come to life. Check it out.

Sat is the older brother who’s been around and living it up for quite a while. Trans is the younger charmer who’s a little sneakier. Hey, whatever works, right?

Interestingly, the Bad Fats Brothers campaign is funded by a class action lawsuit settlement against McDonald’s for misleading the public. Here’s a tiny snippet from it:

“McDonald’s announced in September 2002 that it was voluntarily changing to a cooking oil with less trans fat and that the change would be completed by February 2003. However, McDonald’s encountered operational issues and the oil was not changed. Plaintiffs claimed in the lawsuits that McDonald’s did not take sufficient steps to inform the public that it had not changed the oil.”

Back to the New York trans fat ban… there will be a three-month grace period before restaurants that don’t play by the rules will be fined a hefty $2,000 – that starts October 1.

Me, I hope New York starts a trend across the entire country. How about you – what do you think of the ban?

Photo Credit: stock.xchng

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I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Tim Russert’s death since I heard about it and frankly, I still can’t believe it happened. Russert was the moderator of NBC’s “Meet the Press” as well as political analyst for the network. He died Friday from sudden cardiac arrest while he was at work – he was 58. His funeral is today and it got me thinking about why his death has affected me so greatly. I never met him; I don’t really even like politics. But he definitely touched my life.

As a TV news journalist… I looked up to him and respected him immensely. Even though I don’t care much for politics, I always tuned in to hear whatever he had to say. I think it was because his passion was obvious. You could just see it on his face. That in and of itself made me hang on to every word. Russert was always beyond informed, tough, but always fair. He was one of the few true journalists left in the TV news world and it’s so sad to see another one go.

As a health reporter… I wanted to know more about his health and death right away: Had he had heart problems before? Was he on medication? Did they use a defibrillator? Now we have answers to those questions.

Yes, he had coronary artery disease. Yes, he was on medication and he also exercised to control it. And Dr. Michael Newman (Russert’s personal physician) tells CNN’s Larry King that resuscitation attempts began right after he collapsed:

“NBC had a defibrillator. A resuscitation was begun almost immediately. NBC had an EAD [external automated defibrillator] on site, and they were preparing to use it. At the same moment, the DC EMS, emergency medical squad, arrived, and they immediately defibrillated Tim. He had no heart rhythm. They defibrillated him. His heart was beating then in a ventricular — fine ventricular fib, and then it deteriorated. They shocked him again. Actually, he was defibrillated three times before his arrival at Sibley Memorial Hospital.”

According to the American Heart Association, 310,000 people die every year of coronary heart disease – most of them from sudden cardiac arrest. And from what I’ve been reading in the last few days, many people now want to know their risk of heart disease and sudden cardiac arrest. You can find out much more at the American Heart Association’s website.

Russert wasn’t the picture of health – he carried weight around his belly, a known risk factor for heart disease, but he was doing something about it. Maybe his death will make more people do more to reduce that dangerous abdominal fat.

As someone who has experienced loss… I know the “What ifs” can make you crazy and that there can be so many of them. It’s hard to accept that it was just his time to go, but what other choice do we have? My heart goes out to his family. Goodbye, Tim Russert – you will be sorely missed.

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