Macronutrients – Questions and Answers

macronutrients

Macronutrients, including proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids, are the building blocks of diet. Patients, families, and physicians need to understand macronutrients to craft themselves a diet that will be delicious, nutritious, inexpensive, easy to prepare, and acceptable to others with whom they eat.

By Mark D. Harris

Look down the street on a busy day. In the US, on average, nearly three out of every four people you see will be overweight (body mass index 25-30) or obese (BMI 30+). More than 70% of young adults are too unfit to serve in the military due to their weight. Black and Hispanic Americans are more likely to be obese and overweight than white or Asian Americans. Everyone, from individuals to families to health care providers, must engage to fix this problem. Understanding macronutrients is a start.

What are macronutrients?

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Why is Research Less Respected Today?

The scientific method, and the discoveries in science and technology that have resulted from its use, have revolutionized the world. Why does it seem to be less respected today?

By Mark D, Harris

Research brought the world scientific and technological advances that have changed the lives of men and women forever. During the period characterized by the philosophy of modernism, from roughly 1750 to 1950, conventional wisdom expected that science would solve all the problems of mankind, both material and moral/ethical. Scientific and social research, which would lead to technological supremacy over the physical world and enlightened policies in every society, would usher in a utopia. World War II, the Holocaust, and the atomic bomb shattered these hopes, demonstrating that science and technology, and the research behind it, can destroy as easily as they can save. Though we prate about following “science,” in the past 70 years, research has lost respect.[1]

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Study Discussion – Gender Disparities in Internal Medicine Residency Awards

How do we, as a society, determine how to acknowledge and reward people? Do we do it on the basis of excellence, or on the basis of equity? Can we combine the two goals? How?  

By Mark D, Harris

In the March 2021 issue of The American Journal of Medicine, seven physicians, whose first names suggest that they are all female, wrote “Investigating Gender Disparities in Internal Medicine Residency Awards.”[1] The authors began by recounting gender disparities in salary, academic rank, grant funding, and awards. They performed a multi-institutional study based on survey data from academic internal medicine residency programs starting in 2009 and extending through 2019. These physicians’ initial findings are in Table 1:[2]

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Social Distancing, Public Health, and the Bible

Leprosy lesion on chest

Social distancing is an important public health measure to slow or stop the spread of many diseases. God’s instructions to the Hebrews in the Bible were primarily for holiness, but also had important health benefits.

By Mark D. Harris

I was at the auto parts store last week buying brake pads to replace the old ones in my daughter’s Prius. An elderly woman walked in, donning a mask and gloves, and carefully staying at least six feet away from others. When a clerk approached her and when other customers walked by, she retreated. I walked the long way down a separate aisle to get around her, trying to provide the space that she needed. Given her increased level of risk, and the fact that she didn’t seem grumpy, I appreciated her caution.

Social distancing, putting space between people who may infect each other with a disease, is the major way that individuals and governments throughout the world are trying to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. It has worked many times in history, such as in the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, a far deadlier disaster than the current plague. The nation, and indeed much of the world, has been staying at home, or at least away from others, for over six weeks. Public health experts have used many other interventions for infection control as well. This article will discuss social distancing and other public health actions against infectious disease.

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