For Immediate Release

Contact:
Beth Hubrich, R.D.
(404) 252-3663

Olympic Gold Medal Winner Dawn Staley Gets Her Refrigerator "Made Over" for Heart Health

PHILADELPHIA (August 1997) 1996 Olympic gold medal winner Dawn Staley, point guard for the American Basketball League’s Philadelphia Rage, will receive a “refrigerator makeover” on Thursday, August 28 when “Open the Door to a Healthy Heart” visited the City of Brotherly Love. Open the Door to a Healthy Heart is a national consumer awareness campaign about diet and heart disease.

The campaign is educating consumers that heart-healthy eating starts with something as simple as a look inside their refrigerators. As part of the program, Dr. Debra Judelson, cardiologist and president of the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA), will make over local celebrities’ refrigerators in major cities across the country.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Staley, 27, has been called “the Magic Johnson of Female Hoops.” The recipient of numerous national and international athletic awards, she was a key member of the U.S. Olympic team often referred to as the “Dream Team” that swept through 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta with a perfect 8-0 record. She also led the U.S. team to the gold medal in the ´94 Goodwill Games and was named ´94 USA Basketball female athlete of the year.

Staley, like many Americans, wants to eat healthier, but is confused by conflicting nutrition advice. She also wants to bring attention to the fact that heart disease is the nation’s No. 1 killer of men and women. Every 34 seconds, an American life is killed by the disease, which in 1997, claimed nearly 1 million lives. Although they are largely unaware of it, after age 65, women are about twice as likely as men to die from heart disease.

As it is nationwide, heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death in Philadelphia, accounting for 5,863 deaths in 1995 (the latest year for which statistics are available), or one-third of all deaths in the city, according to the Southern Pennsylvania affiliate of the American Heart Association.

Despite health professionals’ efforts, success in fighting the disease is slowing down because of unhealthy lifestyles, primarily poor diet, obesity and physical inactivity, according to a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. Health experts recommend that nutrition is the first step to prevention and treatment. But change doesn’t have to be all or nothing, Dr. Judelson says.

“I suggest men and women take small steps, one at a time such as switching from whole milk to one-percent or skim milk, from butter to soft margarine, and from ice cream to low-fat frozen yogurt,” she notes.

Despite the wide range of information on nutrition and the greater availability and variety of “better-for-you” foods, Americans are more overweight than ever before, according to government reports. Recent surveys indicate that because consumers are confused by the latest nutrition “report of the week,” they have put up barriers to good nutrition. These barriers include limited time, no motivation, inconvenience of healthy eating and confusion about the effects of various foods on health.

Dr. Judelson will offer tips for a “heart-healthy refrigerator” so that anyone can make over their refrigerator and “open the door” to heart-healthy eating. In addition, refrigerators will be donated to Habitat for Humanity in each of the major cities visited. The program will tie in to National Cholesterol Education Month during September.

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Other CIties We visited
Philadelphia, Dallas, Oklahoma City, Columbus, Phoenix, Detroit and Baltimore