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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)