1 ntcKcom 6ukc uniucusity ccntcR VOLUME 20, NUMBER 23 JUNE 8, 1973 DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA 5S0 TO EAT IT OR NOT TO EAT IT, THAT'S THE QUESTION-"Jty it, you'll like it," old Nick whispers in your ear, but conscience and nutritionists say it's necessary to use discretion. With the new policy of publishing calorie counts for individual food items, patrons of the Ambulatory Dining Room will have help in deciding whether or not to eat that tempting dessert. (Photo by Dale Moses) Calorie Program Begins In Duke’s ADR Cafeteria "Publicizing calories." "Pie! 300 calories, it's not worth it." "What is this, a weight watcher's convention?" "It's dirty business to put calories on desserts." These are just some of the many remarks made on the first day the hospital's Ambulatory Dining Room (ADR) posted calories on its food selections. According to Connie Skwiertz, administrative dietician for patient service, "the growing trend in cafeterias across the country is the new addition of calorie labelling of food selections. This idea has been publicized in both magazines and newspapers and the weight /Mrs. Minah Dies Mrs. Ernestine Hoskins Minah, 58, wife of Theodore W. Minah, director of dining hall operations at Duke, died at the hospital last Thursday, May 31, after an extended illness. Mrs. Minah, a native of Long Meadow, Mass., and a graduate of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., had been a Durham resident since 1946. She was active in the Hospital Auxiliary, serving as treasurer for six of the past eight years. In addition, she was a past president of the local chapter of P.E.O. Sisterhood, an international women's philantropic educational organization and chairman of the Duke University Church, the interdenominational resident congregation which worships regularly in the chapel. Memorial services, conducted by Dr. James T. Cleland, dean of the chapel, and Dr. Barney Jones, professor of religion, were held for Mrs. Minah on Monday, June 4, at Duke Chapel. watcher's diet has been’instrumental in making people aware of calories and nutrition." In keeping up with the times, several members of the Duke staff decided to try this new method in the ADR. The idea for its implementation here came from Dr. William G. Aniyan, vice president for health affairs. Aniyan noted that obesity is one of the major health problems in America, and he suggested that posting a calorie count might be good preventive medicine. A1 Grzelecki, assistant hospital director, worked with Ms. Skwiertz in developing the new plan. For this experimental program, the ADR was chosen because it is small, serves a limited number of people and is open less than two hours a day, five days a week. Aside from the practical aspects of the program in helping people control their weight, it is also designed as a teaching mechanism for both doctors and nurses who have not recently studied nutrition and calorie-counting. "Time is the main factor which will determine what kind of results will stem from the program, where it will lead - in the future and how much enthusiasm it can generate," Ms. Skiertz explained. "We hope to carry out this program to some degree in the first floor cafeteria," she continued, "but we cannot determine right now when it.will come to pass." Menu planning in the cafeterias runs in cycles and is coordinated by the cafeteria manager, the food service production manager, and the director of the dietary department. Calorie countings are approximate and the two books that Ms. Skwiertz uses to obtain her information are the United States Department of Agriculture, Handbook Number 8 and Bowes and (Continued on page 3) Federal Funding Cutbacks May Limit Future Scientists Proposed federal cutbacks in funds for the training of biomedical scientists could have a sharp impact on the medical center, not only in reducing the output of trained researchers but in weakening the medical school curriculum and increasing the cost of patient care. President Nixon's proposed budget for fiscal year 1974 represents a cutback of about $5.1 million in what the university expected to receive. Duke anticipated federal funds totaling $21.9 million if the Nixon budget is approved, compared to its original estimate of $27 million. The most drastic cutback will come in research training grants funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Training grants are expected to be $1,365 million below the expected 1974 level. The real impact is expected to come from 1975 on, however, when the Nixon Administration plans to phase out all funds for the training of biomedical scientists. Hardest hit will be the basic science departments such as biochemistry, microbiology, pathology and physiology, which do not have any income-producing activities like those available to the clinical departments. Biochemistry, for example, presently has 50 graduate students in training for the Ph.D., all but six of them supported by research training grants from NIH. "Although it is likely that all students now in residence will continue to be supported on training funds until they finish the Ph.D. degree, and between six and eight new students who will enter graduate work in September of 1973 will receive training grant support for at least two years, it is clear that after September 1973 no new trainees can be supported from training grant funds," said Dr. Robert L. Hill, professor and chairman of biochemistry. Hill said that by 1975, only 20 to 25 graduate students can be supported using research grant funds from individual faculty members. This is about the number in training at Duke 20 years ago. • He said that if graduate students must work parttime as research assistants on research grants, they would also have less time for course work, which would prolong their stay in graduate school and may narrow their research experience. Faculty members would find it hard to support graduate students at an adequate stipend level from their research funds. Hill said. "It would appear, therefore, that one of the top graduate training programs in the United States in one of the most highly competitive fields in basic biomedical science, and one vital to graduate and medical education in any first-rate medical center and university, will be severely damaged," Hill said. The anticipated cutbacks in research funds, combined with the need to support more predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees from these funds, will make less money available for actual research and for the support of lab facilities and faculty, he said. The Department of Microbiology/Immunology anticipates a loss of about 18 junior fulltime investigators, a 40 to 50 per cent reduction in the research training effort of that department. A related problem is the phasing-out of federal General Research Support funds. Duke expects to receive only $130,000 next year, compared to the $366,000 it is getting this year and the $340,000 it expected next year. These funds have been used in the past to support pilot research projects by unestablished young investigators to help them get some work underway and thus compete more favorably for grant awards. Duke's Department of Medicine currently has a research budget of $2.86 (Continued on page 2) l-OTS OF PEOPLE, AND PRESENTS FOR AM/VV'—This was part of the crowd that assembled at the Downtowner Motel May 23 for the Medical Center's Service Awards Banquet for employes. The presents in the foreground were door prizes. More pictures and a story are on Page 3. (Photo by Judy Carrier)

Page Text

This is the computer-generated OCR text representation of this newspaper page. It may be empty, if no text could be automatically recognized. This data is also available in Plain Text and XML formats.

Return to page view