J A NU A RY/F EBR UARY 2009
Volume 36 Number 1
S TA F F
EDITORIAL
M EM O
F ROM
Michael Jacobson, PhD
Executive Editor
Bonnie Liebman, MS
Director of Nutrition
Stephen B. Schmidt
Editor-in-Chief
Jayne Hurley, RD
David Schardt
Senior Nutritionists
Danielle Hazard, BS
Amy Johnson, BA
Project Coordinators
Melissa Pryputniewicz
Administrative Assistant
Namita Davis, BSc
Tina Kevorkian, RD
Neera Chaudhary, RD, MHSc
Marsha Rosen, RD
Consultants (Toronto)
Lauren Clark, RD
Consultant (Ottawa)
Bill Jeffery, LLB
National Coordinator (Ottawa)
MFJ
Be It Resolved...
W
Photo: Michael F. Jacobson.
3. Help shape your party platform. We
ith 135,000 subestimate that a few thousand of you are cardscribers to Nutrition
carrying members of political parties and that
Action Healthletter
more than a few of you attend provincial and
(and an estimated 300,000
national policy conventions. Use that influence!
readers) across Canada, we
could give a tremendous
4. Marshall the support of other groups.
boost to governments at
Do you belong to a health charity like the
all levels to enact food and
Canadian Diabetes Association or a health
health policies that promote
professionals group like the Canadian
better health if we each exercised a little of
Medical Association? If so, urge the staff
our political muscle.
and board of directors to press governments
Imagine how quickly the curtain would have
for policy reforms.
fallen on artery-clogging trans fat if 300,000
5. Check our Web site
letters from Nutrition
(www.cspinet.ca).
Action readers had
We’ve reorganized it
landed on the desk
to include a topical
of the Minister of
index, an improved
Health.
action-alert tool, and
And federal and
plenty of new backprovincial governground documents
ment s cer t a i n ly
that support a dozen
wouldn’t have sat
key food and health
on their hands for
policies. (If you have
29 years (and countsuggestions on how
ing) after the Quebec
to make the site more
legislature shielded
useful, contact us at
children from adverHow
to
get
prevention
programs
that
work?
Keep
the
jefferyb@istar.ca.)
tising for junk food
heat on elected officials.
6. Become e-engaged.
(and other products)
Join our growing
if even a fraction of
cadre of action-alert members by clicking on
Nutrition Action readers had peppered newsthe E-Activist symbol on our Web site. Encourpapers or candidates with demands to protect
age colleagues and neighbours to join you.
our children.
We at the Centre for Science in the Public
7. Give a gift subscription. We rely almost
Interest (publisher of Nutrition Action) resolve,
exclusively on Nutrition Action subscriptions
in 2009, to expand our efforts to recruit and
and donations. Urge your friends to subempower champions for public health nutriscribe—or give them a gift subscription. You
tion from among our numbers.
can subscribe at https://orders.cspinet.org or
In 2008, we began to see progress on some
donate at www.cspinet.ca (click on “Donate”).
fronts, but we need to keep up the pressure.
Or mail your cheque and gift name and adHere’s how you can help:
dress to CSPI, P.O. Box 4252, Postal Station A,
1. Call for specific solutions. Call or write to
urge your elected officials to support policy
proposals that CSPI has carefully researched.
(You can find them under “Policy Change” at
www.cspinet.ca.)
2. Contact the media. Write short (100- to
300-word) letters to the editor of your local
newspaper, or call in to radio or TV talk shows.
Let them know that you expect governments
to adopt policies that promote health.
The contents of NAH are not intended
to provide medical advice, which
should be obtained from a qualified health
professional.
The use of information from
Nutrition Action Healthletter for
commercial purposes is pro­hib­ited without written permission from CSPI.
2
Toronto, ON M5W 5S4.
Above all, be persistent. Now those are words
to live (longer) by!
Michael F. Jacobson, PhD
Executive Director
Centre for Science in the Public Interest
The Centre for Science in the Public Interest
(CSPI) is the non-profit health-advocacy group
that publishes N
­ utrition Action Healthletter. CSPI mounts educational programs
and presses for changes in government and
corporate policies.
N U T R I T I O N A C T I O N H E A LT H L E T T E R ■ J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 9
Design and production by The Page Group
(www.pagegroup.com).
© 2009 by Centre for Science in the Public
Interest.
C I R C U L AT I O N M A N A G E M E N T
Dennis Bass
Myriam Boucher
Damon Dorsey
Greg Hildebrandt
Cecilia Saad
Ken Waldmiller
Debra Brink
Louella Fennell
James Nocera
Chris Schmidt
SCIENTIFIC
A D V I S O RY B OA R D
Monique Julien, MSc, DrPH
Université de Montréal
Montreal, Quebec
Andrew Pipe, CM, MD, LLD, DSc
University of Ottawa Heart Institute
Ottawa, Ontario
Kim Raine, PhD, RD
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta
Frank Sacks, MD
Harvard Medical School
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Jeremiah Stamler, MD
Northwestern University Medical School
Chicago, Illinois
Norman Temple, PhD
Athabasca University
Athabasca, Alberta
Regina G. Ziegler, PhD, MPH
U.S. National Cancer Institute
Bethesda, Maryland
Nutrition Action Healthletter (ISSN 08857792) is published 10 times a year (monthly
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