I didn’t say the good people of Panama City and Bay County weren’t following his advice. In fact, the article only states that he seems to have angered the donut merchants. In fact, for all we know, he was doing a good job of changing people’s behavior and the culture of the County Health Department.

My point is that the problem with most people’s diabetic health is their non-compliance. This does not mean all people, but certainly many or most. It doesn’t matter where you go in the country, big or small city, high tech or rural, or which time zone, the problems of diabetic control are the same. It seems to me that Dr. Newsom may have been annoying, but who knows how bad the health of the county is?

I have been to communities were it is common for the average Hgb A1C to be over 9, certainly in the high 8’s is common.

And I’m sorry that you detest telling people what they can or cannot eat. So be it. Some people need that degree of structure in their medical counseling in order to get their disease under control. And yes, of course, my patients know that if they continue to drink sugared soda, eat pizza, fries, don’t exercise, smoke, that they won’t get better, in fact they know they will get worse. I get that. Hell, did the merchants in Panama City really think they would go out of business? Unlikely as based by the story and the comments here.

Dr. Newsom’s job is to run the health department. That means health promotion, and that means leading by example and yes, no donuts in the health department. Our clinic (over 100 doctors) struggles with issues like vending machines, and cookies, etc. No one likes to be a scold. On the other hand, if the good people of Bay County want to their health department to be hyperlipidemic, hypertensive, diabetic, that’s their business.

If they don’t like Dr. Newsom’s methods, they have every right to fire him. Great. Good luck with that. I would gladly have a tough, no-nonsense, leader and educator when it comes to health and behavioral modification than to give in to donut merchants with thin skins.

The Florida medical board website does not list a “Jason Newsom” as having a license to practice medicine: http://ww2.doh.state.fl.us/IRM.....#theBottom.

Is this more medical astroturfing?

Uh, you just shot down your own argument. So, Dr. Newsom is ineffectual–just spinning his wheels, eh? I am an Army dietitian and I know first-hand that many patients are non-compliant. What purpose does Dr. Newsom serve when people don’t heed his well-intentioned advice? I absolutely detest telling people what they can and cannot eat. If I tell them to eat foods to slow their disease, I only SUGGEST. I refuse to be part of the “food police”, which Dr. Newsom seems to subscribe to.

“A 38-year-old former Army doctor who served in Iraq, Newsom returned home to Panama City a few years ago to run the Bay County Health Department and launched a one-man war on obesity by posting sardonic warnings on an electronic sign outside”

He was doing his job. Whether in NYC, or Fresno, CA or Liberty, KS, Chicago, Las Vegas, or Casper, WY, uncontrolled diabetes mellitus is a killer: coronary artery disease, stroke, renal failure, blindness, loss of limb and eventually, life.

The man was doing his job. I have been to all of the above named places to lecture, meet with physicians and nurses, and I hear the same thing, their patients simply do not follow their diabetic education or medication plans, and do not change their behavior.

It seems a former Army doctor and Iraq War vet would be the right kind of person, with the right kind of discipline and training (recall, that he must have been an Army Officer) to lead a community in its fight against unhealthy living.

A food Nazi? You must be f’ing joking. The guy was a community leader, advocate for the benefit of those who lived there, and he got fired.

It doesn’t suck to be Dr. Jason Newsom. In fact, I would love to have another former Army Officer and doctor on my team (we have several former Navy and Army docs in our practice). It sucks to be Panama City and Bay County.

[Just kidding, all you cops out there. :-) ]

Or maybe it was Richard Simmons….

And lived to 92. Her husband, whom she fed all her French cooking lived to 94.

This knucklehead has stuffed his lower orifice with so much nanny state knowledge that Truth escapes him completely.

http://www.nolacuisine.com/200.....et-recipe/

In honor of this (richard) tomorrow morning I’m going to have for breakfast 3 eggs, half a rasher of bacon, sausage, hash browns, biscuits with sausage gravy and finish with deep fried beignets. And real fracking cream in my coffee.

You”d have thought serving in the military would have taught him common sense, manners and No-Buttinskyism … but noooo.

(boiling over)

Like the breath we exhale, all foods gradually kill us. It’s a crisis. We only have four months to save the planet.

Unless all-knowing science changes its mind again tomorrow.