For Immediate Release

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

Oklahoma City Blazers Coach Gets Refrigerator Makeover for Heart Health

OKLAHOMA CITY (November 1998) Doug Sauter, head coach of the Oklahoma City Blazers, received a “refrigerator makeover” on Wednesday, November 12 when “Open the Door to a Healthy Heart” visited Oklahoma City, the fourth stop on a five-city “celebrity refrigerator makeover tour.” 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 refrigerator. As part of the program, Dr. Debra Judelson, cardiologist and immediate president of the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA), is making over local celebrities’ refrigerators in major cities across the country.

In addition to helping Sauter 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 the equivalent of the entire population of Oklahoma City.

Heart disease also is the No. 1 cause of death in Oklahoma County, accounting for 2,339 deaths in 1995 (the latest year for which statistics are available), or nearly half of all deaths in the county, according to the Oklahoma City 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 (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 butter to soft margarine, whole milk to one-percent or skim milk, 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, a refrigerator will be donated to the Oklahoma City Habitat for Humanity on behalf of Sauter.

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