FACING EMERGENCIES: US Firefighters Surviving Mediterranean Style
Stefanos Kales |
TEDxRhodes
• October 2017
Almost 40% of US firefighters are obese and heart attacks are the number one line of duty killer- far ahead of burns and dangerous gases in fire smoke. Cancer is also a major health issue for firefighters and its risk is also increased by obesity. Could one of the solutions be traditional Greek eating patterns, better known as the Mediterranean diet? Dr. Stefanos Kales, an occupational medicine physician and Professor at the Harvard Medical School and Harvard Chan School of Public Health describes the background and rationale of his team’s $ 1.5-million, 3-year, competitive research grant from the US Dept. of Homeland Security to conduct Mediterranean Diet Nutritional Interventions in selected US firefighters. The goals of the program are to teach American firefighters to modify their eating habits using the time-honored and scientifically-proven principles of Traditional Greek/Mediterranean nutrition. Kales emphasizes that this is not an 8- or 12-week diet, but an attempt to teach permanent lifestyle changes that are supported by a robust body of medical evidence.