Andy’s Nationally Published Articles :: Christmas Party Survival Tips
Getting to the Core of Health Problems
Q&A with Health and Nutrition Expert Andy Core
Let’s Celebrate Your Health!
It is a challenge is to improve the health of Arkansans by providing our citizens with quality information that we can apply to our lives as individuals and to those we love.
Why do I want us to take this challenge? As a young man growing up in Arkansas I suffered the loss of my best friend, my grandfather, to heart disease. He suffered his first heart attack in his late 30’s and then had a massive myocardial infarction that took his life at age 64. I also watched my grandmother suffer alone with coronary artery disease that eventually resulted in a stroke and the loss of her life.
Could this disease that took the lives of both of my grandparents have been prevented? We know today that with proper health and nutrition that heart disease can be dramatically reduced. For example, the Japanese population outlives the average American by 7 to 10 years and has a very low incidence of heart disease when compared to Americans.
However, if a Japanese man moves to the United States the rate of heart disease for him is the same as an average American. We know it is not the soil we live on that is causing this, it is the sedentary lifestyle and diets that we all have developed. Today more than ever as a healthcare provider, I am convinced that the best way to treat disease is to prevent it in the first place.
So, how do we prevent the diseases that affect our lives? The place to start is to control how we treat one of our most valuable assets, our bodies. As an Arkansan, I can tell you that despite my dental and medical education I have had very poor training in proper body maintenance. So let’s interview Andy Core, one of Northwest Arkansas most popular physical health and nutrition experts and ask him what we can do to improve our lives this holiday season.
Q: Andy, how did you get involved in physical fitness and nutrition in Northwest Arkansas?
CORE: It all began in graduate school at the University of Arkansas where I was studying exercise physiology. I initially thought I was going to follow an academic career, but during my training I was asked to help a movie company train one of the actors which got me some notoriety in the area, and many individuals started to ask me to help them with their health and fitness goals. What I learned from this experience is that I can design the most data-backed Olympic style training program for individuals, but if it doesn’t fit into one’s life then it is useless information. So, my focus now is taking the best research information and fitting it into our crazy busy lives.
Q: In the past year I personally have began to realize how important physical health and nutrition are in not only treating my patients, but also in my own overall health and attitude. I am now beginning to realize that as healthcare providers we need to rely more on our physical health and nutrition experts when treating our patients. How can we get the message to the public that this is an essential component in improving the health of Arkansans?
CORE: Thanks for asking that question. Prevention is the answer to our health crisis. We must realize that 20% of business owners’ employees are causing 80% of their outgoing healthcare expenditures. So what is the solution? We have traditionally continued to pour money into taking care of the sick, and not focused on trying to prevent the healthy from getting sick. We seem to want to take a wait until it is broke approach to our health rather than try to prevent illnesses or maybe better yet improve our employees’ health. If we took this approach to our healthcare spending dollars we may have more funds to treat the fewer sick. Therefore, the message to Arkansas is prevention is the critical key. We must educate the public in a desirable and manageable way for them. Hopefully, one approach in addition to my lectures will also be through statewide television programs like the one I am doing with AETN called Fighting Fat.
Q: You have said that as Arkansans, our diets are terrible, and that even the individuals that are trying to improve their lives are failing because the programs they are on just do not work. What can we do as Arkansans to improve our nutritional intake and make us healthier?
CORE: The average commercial weight loss program has only a 4% success rate in maintaining sustained weight loss for two years. The groups that I have worked with have maintained their weight loss for two and a half years on average. The way we have done this is by establishing a lifestyle change and not focusing on the negative connotations that goes along with what we call diets. For example the now popular Atkins diet shows great initial weight loss, but the majority of individuals that begin this diet usually regain their weight back and then some. The reason for this according to the world of Andy Core is because this is just another now popular gimmick diet. Anything that we do that we can’t see ourselves doing for the next two years or the rest of our lives is just a temporary fix and cannot help us sustain optimal health. Any diet that says fruits are bad and that ranch dressing is good, I just can’t buy into.
Q: We have discussed that Arkansas rates next- to- last in the nation for overall health of its citizens. How can we change what we are doing today and develop a healthier lifestyle for our state?
CORE: The key element for us is education. Each one of us must take personal responsibility for educating ourselves to understanding what we put in our bodies, and that physical output is necessary and crucial in maintaining our health. I am not talking about educating ourselves with data and charts. I mean inspirational information that describes how our lives are better the more physical healthy we are. We are battling all of the infomercials today that use charisma to lead us to believe that eating sugared cereals everyday, and drinking sugared soft drinks at every meal satisfies your thirst the best. The fast food commercials that bombard us everyday and teach our children how to recognize the golden arches before they even know their grandparents. How about the beer commercials? They lead us to believe that the beer-bellied guy will get the sexiest girls. We all know that is not true, but we buy into it and think it is okay. I relate our health status to the movie Armageddon. If you remember in the movie the scientist knew the meteorite was coming, they knew how big it was, and they knew what the impact would do when it hit. However, if you will recall, the problem was they had no plan to prevent it from hitting Earth. Well, that has been our approach with our diets and our health. We have to, as a community, begin to understand that some of the foods we are eating and the lack of moving our bodies on a daily basis are leading us to an Armageddon for our health. We have to start taking control of our lives and regaining our health. If not, we will continue to see obesity in our children rise, heart disease increase, and continue to see significant increases in cancer rates.
Q: What type of foods are we eating that we do not need to be eating and what should we be eating?
CORE: We are eating too many processed foods as exemplified by the fast-food establishments. We are drinking incredibly too many soft drinks. If you think about our grandparents, a soda was a luxury maybe once or twice a year. Today, children and adults drink soft drinks with every meal and as snacks. This is probably one of the main reasons for childhood obesity today. In the 1950’s, the average American ate 1.5 pounds of high fructose corn syrup per person per year. In the 1990’s the average American consumed 65 pounds of high fructose corn syrup per person per year. The main reason for this increase is the soft drink consumption.
The way I approach individuals in the beginning is not to focus on what you should not be eating, but to focus on what we need to start adding to your diet on a daily basis. This approach has helped individuals be more successful in eliminating those items that are not healthy. Our real progress is to work on our strengths first with a positive approach to change. We do this by keeping a simple log that records what they consume. If an individual keeps a log, he or she will be more aware of their intake and start treating their valuable machine (body) the way it is suppose to be treated.
I recommend that everyone should consume the following in a week: ten pieces of fruit, ten vegetables, ten bottles of water in between meals each day, five 3 o’clock snacks a week, and 90 minutes of physical activity a week at a minimum.
Q: How do we control the amount we eat?
CORE: The secret to success in gaining control of one’s appetite is the frequency of meals. I recommend that an individual eat their regular three meals a day, however, they must also substitute a mid-morning and 3 o’clock snack. It is the frequency of which we eat that changes the body from becoming a fat-storage machine to a fat-burning machine. The average American eats the majority of their meals after 6 p.m., and many times this is their only meal. What this is doing to the body is loading it with calories at the end of the day when you are slowing down and our metabolism does not need the calories. By snacking, especially the 3 o’clock snack, we make the body less hungry and therefore we eat less. I recommend an apple and a bottle of water as the perfect 3 o’clock snack. In addition, there are many protein bars that are also good snacks as well. If we will supplement the body with the ten bottles of water between meals, we also suppress our appetites.
Q: What do you think about diet pills?
CORE: I think that anything that you take to try and suppress your appetite is a mistake. Frequency of meals and water intake along with the 90 minutes of physical activity is the key.
Q: What do you think about the schools being required in Arkansas to report to the parents the body fat percentages of their children?
CORE: I think it is a very valuable opportunity to begin educating our parents about the health of their children. We have to be careful of privacy issues, but the state is leaning now towards not putting the information on their report cards, but on a health card instead. However, I do think it is a good start, because many parents think that their children just have a little baby fat left on them, and do not understand the gravity of their weight. Type II juvenile diabetes is exploding and we are seeing a 50% increase in childhood obesity. This is a preventable disease, and is controlled by controlling diet. As a state we have to understand this and get it under control. This is why I favor the health report card as being a very valuable educational tool for our state.
Q: How can Arkansans change the status of our health and decrease the rise in childhood obesity and juvenile type II diabetes?
CORE: I believe that Arkansas parents have to begin to be active role models for our children. The health report card may give the child an idea as to whether or not he or she is overweight, but they can look at the other kids and know that. Where they learn is from modeling their parents. If the parents drink soft drinks or eat poorly then the children will as well. How many times have you seen overweight children and their parents are well fit? Almost never. Winning the battle begins with good, desirable education that can be adjusted and fit into individual lifestyles. It may need to vary from community to community, but it can be done.
Q: If an Arkansan, God-willing, wants to live a high quality life until the ripe young age of 100 years what are some physical activities that he or she could do to improve their chances?
CORE: It starts with a three step plan: A clear structured plan, focus, and belief. For example, our heart health program recommends walking thirty minutes a day three times a week. For a fat reduction program it has to be four to five times a week for thirty minutes or more. Each one of us must remember that the activity has to be structured and we must be clear as to what we want to accomplish. If we do not structure the activity in our day, we will not do it. This is a must. Almost all of us take a shower a day, or eat a meal a day. We have to schedule physical activity in our day. The body is designed to move. It is one big muscle and is not meant to be pushing a computer mouse all day without some physical motion. Each of us must focus on keeping this goal. Life will work against you, but don’t let it. Put it on a schedule, and say I, Mr. or Miss Arkansan, will be willing to make this a priority every day. We have to believe in ourselves. So many people have tried gimmick programs and have failed. But, we can be successful in changing our health and changing our lives. My mother smoked for 35 years and finally quit. She gained 35 pounds, but finally took control and lost her weight and by age 55 has run three marathons. These are realities and we must believe that we can change Arkansas and make it the healthiest state in the U.S.
Q: Thank you Andy, it certainly has been a pleasure.
Andy Core has devoted his life to educating groups and individuals in bettering their lives by improving their overall health through physical fitness training and nutritional training. He works with many local area corporations and has worked individually with many of our leaders in the Northwest Arkansas area. In addition, he is very involved in volunteer health organizations as a leader in making a difference. If anyone has been inspired by this wonderful individual and would like to contact him to help you or your business you can visit his website at www.andycore.com or e-mail him at andy@fittraveler.com or call him at 479-582-2639.
I hope all of you will be inspired in some way to begin to make Arkansas a healthier place to live. I challenge each of you to take some time this holiday season and begin to focus on how you can make you and your family’s lives healthier. Until next month, have a wonder holiday season and remember… Celebrate your health!
Dr. Scott Bolding
Dr Scott Bolding is an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon. Suggestions for topics our readers would be interested in or to request a live audio copy of this months’ interview on audio cd can be made by submitting an e-mail to drbolding@celebratenwa.com
| 
