Martha Appears Live on a Talk Show “Here and Now”
Ok, so it wasn’t the Oprah Winfrey Show, but it was probably more amusing. I have never been interviewed on tv before where I had a 150 pound black lab (named Newman) drooling on my lap while I spoke! I guess it was my fault for bringing in the bagels and muffins for show and tell…
The fiasco started with my 2 hour and 20 minutes of trying to get to Cranford, N.J. (after missing trains and getting lost). Upon my arrival 5 minutes prior to show time, I was greeted by George Mcdonough - 
the host, his staff and a large dog named Newman. It turns out the dog is part of the show and would sit next to us on the couch the entire time.
The hour long show is called Here and Now and is broadcast on cable channel 35 in N.J. It is actually a political talk show where the host, George, interviews a guest and takes call in questions from viewers. The people who know me would be rather suprised to hear that I was on a political talk show as politics are not my specialty. However, George had decided to have a show on nutrition for a change of pace.
Here are some of the highlights of the show:
1. We were discussing Body Mass Index (BMI) as it relates to health. BMI is a reliable indicator of total body fat, which is related to the risk of disease and death. Ideally, your BMI should be between 18.5 and 24. A BMI of 25-29 classifies you as overweight and a BMI of over 30 is obese. George just happened to have a scale with him (hmm…) so we decided to get his weight and calculate his BMI. While George appears rather trim, his BMI put him into the overweight category - much to his dismay. In George’s possible defense, people who have a lot of muscle mass may have a higher BMI. I’m not sure whether or not this is the case with George as I am not aware of his muscle mass status. Check out your BMI using this calculator.
2. Moving on to more fun with George (at this point, he was probably beginning to question his decision of bringing me onto the show!), I then decided to calulate his waist-to-hip ratio. Your waist-to-hip ratio is an important tool that helps you determine your overall health risk. 
People with more weight around their waist are at greater risk of lifestyle related diseases such as heart disease and diabetes than those with weight around their hips.
Use a measuring tape to check the waist and hip measurements.
- Measure your hip circumference at it’s widest part.
- Measure your Waist Circumference at the belly button or just above it. Divide your waist by your hips. Women should have a ratio of .85 or less and men 1.0 or less. Use this link to calculate your waist-to-hip ratio. Luckily, George had an ideal waist to hip ratio - though he did complain about my reading of his waist size. He seemed to feel his waist was substantially smaller than what I measured. I won’t publish what my reading was :) (And no, the pic on the right is not of George’s waist!)
3. Throughout the show, Newman was panting, drooling, wagging his tail loudly agains the wall and was trying to eat the muffins and bagels I had on the table. George was a very amusing, lively host throughout the hour.
Moving to more serious stuff, here is some of what we talked about in the show:
1. Americans are rapidly becoming more and more overweight. 20 years ago, approximately 46% of Americans were overweight, now it is 66%. If it keeps going up at this rate, by the year 2050, almost every American will be overweight. You will be freakish if you are lean!
2. We have increased our caloric intake by an average of 200 calories in the past 20 years.
3. Portion sizes are 2-5 times larger than their orginal size.
4. We eat 47% of our meals on the outside. This is a problem as most foods purchased on the outside tend to be jumbo sized.
5. An average muffin has 500 calories and a bagel has 350-425 calories (and that is before the cream cheese or butter is added!)
6. Salads can be deceptively high in calories. For example, a caesar salad with grilled chicken can have up t0 900 calories.
7. Salad dressings can be killers. For example, the mini container (2 oz) of viniagrette salad dressing from Cosi’s has 350 calories!
8. We talked about the huge amount of calories found in Chinese food and other ethnic foods.
9. Less than 1/3 Americans get adequate exercise and 25% of people do absolutely no exercise at all.
10. For weight loss, an average women should consume 1200-1500 calories and a man 1600-1900 calories. Of course, this will vary widely depending upon the age, activity level and individual metabolism of the person.
I will get a DVD of the show and will try to put at least a few minutes of it on this blog. Stay tuned!
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