A LIFE OF PAIN AND BEING BROKE: How Doctors, a lack of CDC funding, food manufacturers and fast food chains are killing the American people - especially Southerners.

1. Martin CJ Mongiello, MBA, CPFM, CHM, Certified Executive Chef, Master Certified Food Executive
Nutrition SCI 103 & CUL 222, The Art Institute of Charlotte, NC - Instructor Nicole Dowsett, MSPH
A LIFE OF PAIN AND BEING BROKE: How Doctors, a lack of CDC funding,
food manufacturers and fast food chains are killing the American people - especially
Southerners.
Starting in the early 1980’s, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in America started to monitor obesity trends.
They started mapping such trends and produced color coded year-by-year charts. The data shown in these maps
were collected through CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). These maps make the
rounds in America and clearly show a growing trend in the Southern states – who lead the way in or more of their
populations being obese by 25% Body Mass Index (BMI). And six Southern states showing 30%+ BMI. The
CDC calls them the Obesity Trends Among U.S. Adults between 1985 and 2008.
The CDC chart that is not often shown is newer, it is the budget for the CDC Division of Nutrition, Physical
Activity, and Obesity (DNPAO) for 2008 showing which states are funded and which ones are not. Current
funding for this division to educate and help states is at 42 million for 2009 and should be 90 million for 2010. An
interesting correlation I found is, when taking both charts and printing them onto plastic slides – and laying them
over each other, while holding up to a lamp – 50% of the highest obesity states ARE NOT FUNDED AT ALL for
the programs. These are, of course, in the South. More funding would result in lower numbers of obesity.
In my findings, experience and work with the Preventive Medicine Research Institute, my mentor Doctor Dean
Ornish (http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2009/08/12/lkl.health.debate.cnn), the Presidential Medical
Team and Dean’s Senate Health Reform testimony
(http://help.senate.gov/Hearings/2009_02_26/2009_02_26.html), as the Executive Chef of Camp David, a White
House Sous Chef under Walter Scheib III and in working inside Fortune 500 food manufacturers I continually
gather data and compare it to the latest studies. Too many physicians and hospitals in America are advocates of
reactive medicine and are busy enriching themselves with the common person – their problems and cash. It has
Martin CJ Mongiello Page 1 10/13/2009

2. Martin CJ Mongiello, MBA, CPFM, CHM, Certified Executive Chef, Master Certified Food Executive
Nutrition SCI 103 & CUL 222, The Art Institute of Charlotte, NC - Instructor Nicole Dowsett, MSPH
been well proven that preventive medicine lowers corporate and overall costs. So why continue to vastly practice
reactive medicine. My personal and professional challenge is against those practitioners who disagree with the
facts of study after study. In the South, they have preyed upon too many people living here, for too long.
The same is for food manufacturers and restaurants injecting, mixing, spraying and coating food items with
harmful and horrific ingredients no matter the human toll they take. It’s all about the cash and owning five homes
or a 26 million dollar jet. On the one hand, Southerners prize natural ingredients close to the land…real sugar, real
bacon, real fat, real grease, real butter, real sugar in my sweet tea. God bless them! I love them. On the other
hand, too much of a good thing has killed too many now. Granted, nature and natural with organic are huge! But
too much of ANYTHING, is not good.
The problem and answer to the question is the convergence of six significant factors, near simultaneously in time
and history - that have taken advantage of Southerners more so than any other region in the nation. And I don’t
like it. These factors are 1. Reactive medicine versus preventive medicine – Southerners and all Americans for
that matter need to get smart on the facts and stop financing the three Mercedes Benz for their local Doctor. 2.
Poor ingredients used by food manufacturers and restaurants. Junk food taken out of schools and controlling
what you eat now that you know the truth. 3. The sexual revolution occurs in the 80’s with women now working
full time jobs leading to intense stress and quick eating patterns beginning. Explosions in fast food, take out and
TV dinners begin and manufacturers put all types of anything into foods. Most home cooked meals go out the
window and families sitting around for an hour enjoying the six o’clock dinner “mom” made all day long virtually
end. 4. Video screen mass production begins around the same time frame of BMI escalation with video games,
the first laptops and personal computers being mass-produced and available to the public. Traditional hard
working labor forces shift to more sedentary force structures and millions of Americans now work staring at
screens all day long. Millions of American human jobs get shipped overseas. Sitting and watching screens grows
in popularity and time per week per human. 5. Southerners prized natural ingredients get put into everything
but especially hydrogenated fats and bad oils, pure and cheap sugars along with harmful preservatives and all types
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3. Martin CJ Mongiello, MBA, CPFM, CHM, Certified Executive Chef, Master Certified Food Executive
Nutrition SCI 103 & CUL 222, The Art Institute of Charlotte, NC - Instructor Nicole Dowsett, MSPH
of other chemicals being sprayed onto the fast food, restaurant food and TV dinner style packaged food. As
Southerners (black, white, all races make up the South) farming and manufacturing decrease in a shift to sedentary
positions – the food manufacturers, restaurants and eating habits contribute to trouble. 6. A lack of DNPAO
funding is not helping the Southern states to reverse the trend.
In summation, these six factors converged upon the American people and especially took their toll on the Southern
people. A lack of funding for them is waging an economic and holocaust-like war against the regions people in the
United States as hundreds of thousands of people are unwittingly dying.
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