For Immediate Release

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

Dallas Burn Star Player Dante Washington and “Super Handyman” Al Carrell Get Refrigerator Makeovers for Heart Health

DALLAS (September 1998) The Dallas Burn’s Dante Washington and Dallas’ own “Super Handyman” Al Carrell received “refrigerator makeovers” on Wednesday, September 24 when “Open the Door to a Healthy Heart” visited Dallas. 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), is making over local celebrities’ refrigerators in major cities across the country.

Dante Washington, 26, of North Dallas, is a leading scorer with the Dallas Burn and No. 3 in goals in Major League Soccer. Washington, like many Americans, wants to eat healthier, but being single and often on the road, he finds eating healthfully a challenge.

Al Carrell, 72, also of North Dallas, has a syndicated television show, “Your New House,” which airs on 148 stations nationwide. Author of the book, The Super Handyman’s 1,000 Most Asked Home Repair Questions, coming out in October, he also has a weekly radio show, “The Al Carrell Show,” and writes a syndicated column, “The Super Handyman.” Carrell, who describes himself as “interested in his own health and preventive maintenance,” follows a healthy diet, but splurges at times, especially when he and his wife go on vacation.

In addition to helping Washington and Carrell eat more healthfully, Dr. Judelson will bring attention to the fact that heart disease is the nation’s No. 1 killer. Every 34 seconds, an American life is killed by the disease, which in 1997, will claim nearly 1 million lives.

Heart disease also is the No. 1 cause of death in Dallas, accounting for 3,192 deaths in 1995 (the latest year for which statistics are available), or 37.5 percent of all deaths in the city, according to the Dallas affiliate of the American Heart Association. One of the major risk factors for heart disease is being overweight; according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 1994, 33 percent of Texans were overweight.

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 CDC 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. The program also ties in to National Cholesterol Education Month during September. In addition, refrigerators will be donated to Habitat for Humanity in each of the major cities visited; a refrigerator will be donated to the Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity on behalf of Washington and Carrell.

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