I first became aware of the Turn the Tide Foundation after coming across an article by Dr. David Katz about how doctors need to be more aware of how they deal with obese patients. It struck a bit of a chord with me and I wrote Doctors, Heal Thyselves in response to it. After looking a bit more in to Dr. Katz, I came across the Turn the Tide Foundation, which he founded.
I have not had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Katz as of yet, but I sent in basically the same four questions I used in my introductions to the OAC and WLSFA, knowing full well that he is pretty in demand. I did get a response from one of his staff who answered on his behalf.
What is the Turn the Tide Foundation and what is their “purpose”?
Turn the Tide Foundation is a non-profit foundation founded in 2007 to address America’s troubling health trends – specifically the rapidly rising rates of obesity and diabetes in both the adults and children (which in turn affect heart disease and other chronic diseases in adults). We focus primarily on creating innovative programs that are simple to implement yet very effective, and make them available free of charge.
Who are you (your background?) and what do you do for them?
David L. Katz, MD, MPH, FACPM, FACP is the founding director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center. He directs the Integrative Medicine Center at Griffin Hospital (2000) in Derby, CT and is the founder and president of the non-profit Turn the Tide Foundation. Dr. Katz is known internationally for expertise in nutrition, weight management, and chronic disease prevention, as well as integrative care and patient-centered care models, Katz is active in patient care, research, teaching, and public health practice.
He has published well over 100 scientific articles; numerous textbook chapters; nearly a thousand newspaper columns; innumerable commentaries and blogs; and 12 books to date. He has consulted on obesity control and chronic disease prevention to the World Health Organization; National Cancer Institute; National Governors Association; Health Canada; the Health Ministry of Israel; the Institute of Medicine; the US Secretary of Health; and the FDA.
Dr. Katz serves is on the editorial advisory boards of The American Journal of Health Promotion; Prevention Magazine; Health; Men’s Health; Children’s Health; and Eating Well. In 2011, he was appointed Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed journal, Childhood Obesity. For additional information about Dr. Katz, please visit his website
www.davidkatzmd.com
If there was just one thing someone could do to help out the Turn the Tide Foundation, what would it be?
Two things – use our free programs and spread the word, and support the foundation with a donation so that we can continue to create new programs.
What’s your “elevator speech” that you would use to get your message across to someone you’re just meeting?
A flood of factors in our daily lives contribute to the development of obesity and chronic diseases in children and adults alike. To stop the flood, we need to build a levee with sand bags – our programs are those sand bags to stop the rising tide of obesity. We need many programs and a variety of programs (sandbags) to effectively turn the tide, and for everyone to be part of that process, they need to get their hands on a ‘sandbag’ that suits their situation.
I chose the Turn the Tide Foundation as one of the groups to benefit from my Dash From Obesity because after reading a few of Dr. Katz’s articles I just felt that here was someone that “gets it”, and because of their focus on childhood obesity.
