I am fortunate as a part of my job to work with Dr. David Katz.   If you’ve ever met him or heard him speak, you know what I mean when I say I’m fortunate to work with him.  I have a quote on my work desk that describes perfectly one of the reasons I have such respect for David.  The quote is from William Yeats and reads “Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.”   This is David– brilliant indeed, and just as important, brilliant and passionate in communicating his health message.

Dr. Katz is a master of analogies, and one of my favorites is about sandbags.  As we all know, one sandbag isn’t enough to save a town from a river that is cresting.  But individual sandbags lined up next to each other, on top of each other and side by side can save a town from a flood.

In the same way, as David often points out, one simple action added to another simple action piled on top of another simple action can protect our health as individuals.

So I challenge you today to think about one sandbag you can put in place for good health – whether it’s a 10-minute walk through your neighborhood, leaving half your entrée on the plate while out to lunch, getting an extra hour of sleep, laughing with your child, partner or pet, meditating, or parking your car far from the grocery store entrance.  Then tomorrow think about one sandbag you can put in place – whether it’s drinking water instead of pop, sitting down to dinner with your family, signing up for a yoga class, or trying a veggie burger instead of a burger burger.  The the day after tomorrow. . .

Before you know it, you’ll have built a dam against heart disease, added weight, diabetes, ungraceful aging and all the rest.

Visit www.nuval.com to see a nutrition guidance system invented by Dr. David Katz.

On Friday, I sat through a round of presentations at the Institute of Medicine’s Committee Meeting on Front of Packaging Labeling Systems.  In layman’s terms, the committee is trying to decide the best method for highlighting “healthy”  or “better for you” foods on the front of the food packages so consumers don’t have to study the in-depth information on the Nutrition Facts Panel.

The committee’s job is due diligence, and I get that.  We want our government and policy organizations to be researching, investigating and exploring all the options.  But at some point, from my perspective, the discussion and debate becomes exhausting.  I’m a dietitian, I truly care about these issues, but the ability of my colleagues to poke holes in and debate the various systems, and the advantages and disadvantages becomes exhausting.

And at this point, I call to mind a saying that many have said.  Perfect is the enemy of good.  While he didn’t coin the phrase, Dr. David Katz, the inventor of the NuVal scoring system I work with, will often bring it to mind when the debate gets too far into the minutia, too far into the details, too far into the weeds.

If what we want is a perfect solution, we’ll never get there.  If what we want is a really good system that can help consumers make more nutritious food decisions, we’re there.

Visit www.nuval.com to meet Dr. David Katz and to explore a really good, but perhaps not perfect, system.