By Molly Wright

Whether refurbishing an older home or building a new one, flooring decisions are difficult. Personal tastes and lifestyle, cost and durability must factor in, especially if children and/or pets are in the picture. Fortunately, today’s flooring choices are plentiful, with colors, materials and styles to satisfy the discriminating to eco-conscientious shopper. To get the scoop on flooring trends, I talked with four of Columbia’s flooring businesses — Busenbark Carpets, Carpet One, Johnston Paints and Flooring and Dave Griggs Flooring America — for their personal expertise.

COLOR

Remember the flashy, bright colors that were popular just a few years ago? Well, they’re out. Today’s colors are cooler and more tranquil, back-to-nature in tone, though gray is still a favorite, according to Rebecca Null, interior designer for Dave Griggs Flooring America. Also out are vivid wall-to-wall carpets. Flecked-colored ones or two-tone twisted barber pole styles are what people are looking for, says Johnston Paint and Decorating Design Manager Melissa Murphy.

However, hardwood colors seem to be going the other way, according to Scott Bradley, general manager of Carpet One. Buyers with children and pets are choosing darker woods that show less dust, scratches and dents.

MATERIAL AND TEXTURE

Along with color preferences, material and texture penchants change as well. Carpet fibers, for instance, such as wool, olefin and cotton have been around a while, but Bradley says, “Nylon is the gold standard for durability and retention.” With a plethora of colors, qualities and designs, nylon resists stains and provides a soft, pill- and fuzzie-free surface. Twisted and looped carpets such as berber continue to be popular, as well as frieze with a special twisted design that keeps it resilient and springy. Patterned carpets are also in; their floral mosaics, rectangular squares and creative designs look “like pieces of artwork on your floor,” says Traci Busenbark Best, president of Busenbark Carpet.

Hardwood floors are sporting wider planks, 3 inches and up, and distressed or hand-scraped surfaces are preferred. Customers are also choosing prefinished hardwoods over the traditional “sand and finish” home process because prefinished hardwoods take less time to install and have harder, darker and richer finishes.

Among the newer options, bamboo is gaining in popularity. Great for slab homes, it can be glued directly to cement. Manufacturers like that it grows quickly and can be harvested sooner than other materials such as oak, which matures at 80 to 90 years. However, Null cautions that bamboo must be harvested sometime between five and seven years; too early and it’s too soft and dents easily, too late and it’s brittle and splits. The type of bamboo is also important. Strand bamboo, the hardest and most durable type used by Teragren, is 175 percent stronger than red oak, according to Null. Cork flooring is also newer, but because of the softness of the wood, it’s better for low-traffic areas.

Family-friendly laminates are hard to tell from real wood anymore with advances in digital photography. As for cost, Murphy is quick to point out that “a photograph of walnut isn’t any different in cost from a photograph of oak.” Vinyls are also popular with families. Earthscapes, a relative newcomer in vinyl, makes extra-wide sheets for virtually seamless installation and has a foam cushion that’s great for people who are on their feet a lot.

In the tile department, porcelain is king. Less absorbent than natural stone and requiring no sealant, larger squares and rectangular patterns are trendy, with matte finishes preferred over highly glazed ones. Luxury brand Dura Ceramic by Congoleum looks like ceramic but resists cracking and can often be installed without grout.

ECO-FRIENDLY

Five years ago, eco-friendly products were hidden in the back of the store and brought out only when a customer asked to see them, Murphy says. But today, earth-friendly flooring is everywhere. Mohawk Industries’ product SmartStrand made by DuPont Sorona is a great example. Produced from corn sugar, it consists of 37 percent renewable resources, so it takes 30 percent less energy to make and reduces CO2 emissions 63 percent over recyclable nylon products. Tigressá Soft Style, another earth-friendly product by Shaw Floors, is made from Anso nylon, which is 25 percent post-consumer recycled content.

Tigressá yarns, only half the thickness of a human hair, are extremely soft, durable and highly stain-resistant. Hardwoods have gone greener as well with new oil stains made from vegetable oils, paraffin and unleaded drying agents that, unlike plastic coatings, impregnate the wood in a way that doesn’t alter the natural beauty.

For allergy sufferers, “Bliss Healthy Home” carpet by the Beaulieu Company uses Magic Fresh Carpet Treatment, containing silver and zinc ions that block the growth of bacteria, mold and mildew while absorbing and destroying odors in the air. And linoleum shoppers should try Marmoleum, a nontoxic, certified allergy-friendly, natural linoleum made from linseed, flax and cork by Forbo Flooring systems.

Stories from the business

Scott Bradley, Carpet One
Last year a customer came into the store to purchase carpeting. They bragged about how their original carpet had lasted 30 years but wanted to update with a more current style and design. As they began to shop, they realized the carpet they had was the “new” style: soft, textured, earth tone. It just goes to show that sometimes what is old can become new again.

Traci Busenbark Best, Busenbark Carpets
In Park Hills, south of St Louis near Farmington, Leslie Busenbark, grandfather to Traci, started his flooring business with “sand and finishing” of hardwood floors. When his son, Gary Busenbark, Traci’s dad, got into the business, he knew he had to move with the times. People still liked hardwoods, but they were getting more interested in carpeting. Gary spent his days selling carpet and his nights installing just to keep up.

Rebecca Null, Dave Griggs Flooring America
Dave Griggs Flooring America is the only mid-Missouri flooring dealer that recycles carpet cushions (padding). Installers use this service, but it is also open to the public; however, cushions must be nail and staple free. The store pays three cents per pound cash or five cents per pound in store credit. Since Dave Griggs began offering this service, the business has recycled more than 475,000 pounds of padding, or 44 garbage trucks full.

Melissa Murphy, Johnston Paint and Decorating
Last year Murphy attended the Shaw Flooring Alliance Convention in Florida with her daughters, Maddie and Molly, ages 4 and 8. The national marketing manager for Tuftex suggested naming carpet after Melissa’s daughters. To celebrate, Johnston Paints plans an unveiling of these carpets along with four other new ones in mid-August. For every square foot sold until the end of November, the store will donate $1 to the Coyote Hill Christian Children’s Home.

By Katrina Tauchen

Imagine sitting down to a typical dinner at the table with your family. The plate in front of you is filled with some of your favorites: grilled chicken, steamed vegetables and whole grain bread. By most measures, it’s a great meal; it’s low in fat, high in fiber and packed with all those nutrients that doctors and diet books can’t get enough of. But if someone were to ask you where that healthy meal came from — where it was grown, raised or harvested — what would you say?

Many sources estimate that the typical food travels 1,500 miles before it reaches your plate. Although the validity of that exact statistic is often dependent upon what the consumer buys (a 2003 study out of Iowa State University’s Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture that is often cited looked at a sample of 16 produce types grown in the US and determined how far they traveled from their point of origin to point of sale), the sentiment still rings true across the country: Most food travels a long way, and identifying its origin is not always easy.

THE BERKLEY OF THE MIDWEST

Shopping local is one of the clearest solutions to the where-does-my-food-come-from conundrum, and Columbia has worked to redefine how we shop and what we buy around the city. In comparing Columbia’s food market to the rest of the country, “it’s got to be one of the top markets in the nation,” says Caroline Todd, market manager of the Columbia Farmers Market. “I had one guy tell me that Columbia’s food system was the Berkley, Calif., of the Midwest.”

The Columbia Farmers market operates under a purposefully narrow definition of the term local when it comes to food, and that’s part of what makes it stand out among its peers from other cities. “We have four pages of rules, and our No. 1 rule is that you have to grow it yourself,” Todd says. “Our No. 2 rule is you’ve got to be from a 54-mile radius, which takes it to an 18-county area. So that’s our definition of local.”

The benefits that come from the narrow definition are numerous. There are benefits to the environment; food that travels less typically leaves a smaller carbon footprint. There are benefits to the local economy: Buying local goods from farmers, who are local businessmen and women with farms or headquarters based in or near Columbia, pours money right back into the local economy, where those same farmers work and spend money themselves. And then there’s the taste factor, which arguably benefits all parties involved. “For one thing, it [the produce] tastes better because they just picked it,” Todd says. “If the food at the grocery store is coming from a 1,500-mile radius, we figure if it’s picked Monday, gets processed or packaged Wednesday, gets into the container and gets onto the truck, the earliest it can get to the grocery store is five days — as opposed to five hours.”

A GROWING TREND

The Columbia Farmers Market has grown significantly since it began in 1980, when a handful of farmers sold their wares from the backs of trucks. Today, it isn’t unusual for more than 4,000 people to visit the market on a single weekend, something Todd attributes to the city’s wholehearted embrace of the local foods movement. “This community has been very good to the farmers market,” she says.

Amidst the growing customer base, Todd says she notices a trend toward people utilizing local foods as a means of preventive health care. “Food expense can be directly related to medical expenses. There can be a correlation between folks making better food choices, which can mean spending more, and having less cost on health care … I think that’s what I saw the most of this season when we started: people concerned about their health, people trying preventive health measures instead of, ‘I’ve done all these bad things, and now I’m super sick and have to be good to myself.’”

Beyond the health benefits, people are also rediscovering the fun of food. “Food’s a good time,” Todd says. When the economy took a downward turn, she noticed that people were buying food and having their friends over instead of going out. “They’re still having a celebration, but it’s at home, and the focus is more on being together and eating.”

And with local foods in play, a social gathering can rise to a whole new level. For the past two years, Todd has hosted a locavore Thanksgiving for friends and family, the rule being that all food served must come from within a 50-mile radius (the exception is out-of-towners, who are allowed to bring something from their own area).

TIPS FOR BEGINNERS

The locavore Thanksgiving is a fun event, Todd says, and it makes people think about where their food comes from, but not everyone is ready to jump head first into the local foods fast lane. Consider the following tips for newcomers to the local foods movement: where to start, what to buy and how to shop prepared:

1. Start with fruits and vegetables. Fresh fruits and vegetables are the highest demand items when it comes to local shopping, and they hold that spot for a reason. Produce is a great choice for new local shoppers because it doesn’t require much effort to prepare. A lot of items just need a quick wash, and they’re ready to eat.

2. Try local meats. Show Me Farms and Missouri Legacy Beef produce great products locally, and Todd says that once you start buying it, you’ll have a hard time switching back. “I only buy meat from the market because I know where it’s from,” Todd says. For added convenience, Show Me Farms and Missouri Legacy Beef both sell their products to multiple locations around Columbia (see “Where’s the beef?”), so there’s no need to worry if you’re craving a burger and the farmers market is closed.

3. Think ahead. Oftentimes, the farmers market is overwhelming simply because the shopper doesn’t know what he or she is looking for. Know what’s in season before you go (the Columbia Farmers Market website is a good place to check; visit columbiafarmersmarket.org), and look for a recipe or two that incorporates what you’re planning to buy.

Columbia Farmers Market hours

• Main location
1701 W. Ash St. (parking lot behind the ARC)
Saturdays (March 20 – Nov. 20), 8 a.m. – noon
Mondays and Wednesdays (May – October), 4 – 6 p.m.

• South location
3900 Forum Blvd. (parking lot of Forum Christian Church)
Thursdays (May 20 – Oct. 28), 3 – 6 p.m.

• Winter market
301 W. Green Meadows Road (inside Rockbridge Christian Church)
More details to come at columbiafarmersmarket.org

The Columbia Farmers Market accepts Food Stamps

Where you can get it

Although the farmers market is your one-stop shop for all things local, other Columbia businesses have upped their game to offer select local fare such as fruits, vegetables, bread, meat and/or eggs:

Hy-Vee

• 3100 W. Broadway, 447-0133
• 405 E. Nifong Blvd., 442-8595
• 25 Conley Road, 442-7703

Schnucks

• 1400 Forum Blvd., 446-2800

Clovers Natural Market

• 2100 Chapel Plaza Court, 445-0990
• 2012 E. Broadway, 449-1650

The Root Cellar

• 814 E. Broadway, 443-5055

Café Berlin

• 220 N. 10th St., 441-0400

Uprise Bakery

• 10 Hitt St., 256-2265

Hoss’s Market and Rotisserie

• 1010 Club Village Drive, 815-9711

Do you know of another great place to shop local in Columbia? Visit our Facebook page, and tell us about it. We’d love to hear from you!

Where’s the beef?

Show Me Farms and Missouri Legacy Beef both produce hormone-free, free-range beef that’s raised locally. In addition to selling at the Columbia Farmers Market’s main and south locations, the farms provide products to the following local businesses:

Show Me Farms, Born Tender Omega Beef, borntenderbeef.com, (573) 449-4250

• Hy-Vee
• Murry’s
• Café Berlin (chicken)
• Addison’s
• Columbia’s Kitchen
• Sycamore

Missouri Legacy Beef, missourilegacybeef.com, (660) 788-3555

• Clovers Natural Market
• Hy-Vee
• Hoss’s Market and Rotisserie
• Sycamore
• Broadway Brewery
• Café Berlin
• Wine Cellar and Bistro
• Uprise Bakery
• Reynolds Alumni Club
• Perche Creek Café
• MU Dobbs and Mark Twain dining halls
• Essentials restaurant at University Hospital

Myths of the market

Debunking some common complaints about buying local foods.

It’s expensive. Just like at any grocery store, knowing what’s in season can make a difference when it comes to cost; labor, materials and supply all affect the bottom line. “It can be expensive to purchase raspberries that were grown in hoop houses because more money goes into that production,” says Caroline Todd, market manager of the Columbia Farmers Market. “And it can be expensive whether they are purchased at a market or at a grocery store. The price is better if you go out and pick them when they’re in season.” To get the most for your money, do some research before shopping to find out what’s in season. Late summer is a great time to look for tomatoes, squash, peppers, corn, peaches and apples.

Todd says it’s also important to consider quantity when comparing prices. A head of lettuce might cost $4 at the grocery store and $5 at the farmers market, but if the $4 head weighs 10 oz. and the $5 head weighs one pound, then the locally grown fare is really less per ounce.

I can’t always get what I want. This can be true but certainly not for lack of choices. Sometimes the answer is as simple as changing your perspective. In many cases, local producers offer much more variety than typical stores, Todd says. For example, a grocery store might carry five or six varieties of tomatoes, whereas one vendor at the Columbia Farmers Market grows more than 200 varieties. Keep an open mind, and appreciate the bounty that’s available. Maybe you won’t find that particular kumquat you’ve been wanting, but you might stumble across something new that you love.

I don’t know what to do with it. One of the biggest obstacles people face when it comes to buying local is not knowing what to do when they get the items home. In reality, cooking and local shopping go hand in hand, and part of the fun of buying fresh, local food is creating a meal out of the things you bring home. It’s not as easy as popping something in the microwave, but that doesn’t mean it has to be difficult. Invest in a cookbook that teaches you to cook with the seasons.

Did you know?

• Buying produce at a local market keeps twice as much money in the local community as buying it at a supermarket.
• In 2006, 19 cents of every dollar spent on food grown in the US went to the farmer for raw foods input; 81 cents went toward the process of transforming the raw foods into food products and getting them to grocery stores and restaurants.
• Expanding a community’s local foods system can increase employment and income in that community.

Source: US Department of Agriculture

TIPS FOR STUDENTS:

• PLAN. Record in a planner or date book when assignments are due and tests are scheduled. Write this information on the date things are due, not the date it was assigned.
• ORGANIZE. Use a three-ring binder and use color-coded dividers and pocket inserts to organize work by subject.
• Each class should have its own assignment folder. The left-side pocket should store homework to be completed, and the right should hold completed assignments. Most teachers won’t accept late work, and missed points add up quickly and tank grades.
• DESIGNATE. Set aside a time every day for homework, and stick to it.
• Use the rough guide of 10 minutes/grade. For example, a third-grader can expect to study 30 minutes per night. Upper grades and AP classes might require more than 80 minutes per night of study time.
• BE EFFICIENT. Learn to study efficiently for tests by finding out what will be on the test and developing study charts and flash cards.
• REST. Take short breaks after 30 to 45 minutes. Some students can work longer, but many might tune out and cease being productive.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

• Parental involvement should be kept to a minimum because the goal is to develop independent learners.
• Parents and children should set aside and prioritize homework time each school evening. During this time, students can work on specific assignments, review work they have completed or read. TV, cell phones and video games should be off during this time.
• Some students need help understanding the assignment, and parents can clarify what is expected. It is important that parents not get sucked into a nightly battle or into doing the work for students. Every child encounters difficulty from time to time, and parents can answer questions. If a child has ongoing, nightly problems, the parents should talk to the teacher.
• Students need to learn that homework is their responsibility. Parents should encourage and reinforce good study habits by offering praise. When a student does not have good study habits, it’s wise to determine whether there is an underlying issue (difference in learning style, attention problems, etc.).
• If a student has good academic skills and just doesn’t feel like doing the work, clear consequences should be followed.

WHEN TO CALL IN THE PROS:

• If parents believe that a child has difficulty because he/she is struggling with reading, writing, math or attention, they should first speak with the teacher for feedback about classroom behaviors.
• If a student is showing stress in school, making comments about being “stupid,” studying but performing poorly on tests or having difficulty with focus and concentration, parents should seek professional advice.
• Differences in learning style, for example, can cause students who are very visual, hands-on learners to have difficulty in a curriculum that is very structured, sequential and language-based. Some modifications can make the difference between success and failure.

By Bondi Wood

Although women suffer some of the same health problems as men, women alone experience gender-specific health issues such as ovarian and cervical cancer, menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth and menopause. Because women are often the caregivers in families, they tend to overlook their own health issues. In particular, women will put off seeking treatment for themselves but will insist that their children and spouses receive medical attention.

In this story, three local physicians, who are also women, wives and mothers, speak specifically to women’s health issues and to health and wellness in general. Their unified message is twofold: prevention and individualized attention. The biggest threats to women’s health are mostly preventable, and women must seek out physicians who avoid the one-size-fits-all mentality of health care.

PREVENTION

Dr. Lynn Puckett of Women’s Health Associates Inc. has a favorite inspirational message she often shares with her patients. “Humans are a balance of lifestyles and genetics. We only have control over one of these things: lifestyle. We should therefore maximize it.”

Specifically, Puckett is speaking to the preventive measures of a good diet, regular exercise, tobacco cessation and healthy sleep patterns.

Dr. Laura Grant of the Women’s Wellness Center concurs. Grant says: “Nutrition is key. If you want your body to last a long time and to be in good working order, you must put the right fuel into it.” National research shows that unhealthy eating habits are the leading nongenetic culprits for heart disease, stroke, diabetes and obesity.

Regular exercise goes hand in hand with healthy eating habits. “It seems obvious and preachy, I know, but it has to be mentioned that exercise is so important to overall wellness,” Grant says. Because Missouri weather often offers a ready excuse for not exercising outdoors, Grant recommends an activity that can occur at any time of the day in your own home.

“We are creatures of habit, and this is the key to success with an exercise program,” Grant says. “It’s way too easy to get out of a habit when the activity relies on nice weather.” Grant recommends inexpensive home equipment; something as simple as a set of dumbbells in conjunction with an aerobic routine will suffice, she says. Puckett agrees that both aerobic and weight-bearing exercises are crucial to an effective workout.

Avoiding tobacco, excessive drinking, substance abuse and stress are self-explanatory, but regular preventive exams and procedures are still underutilized by many American women. Dr. Renee Boulicault practices at Women’s Health Associates Inc., and though she enjoys all aspects of obstetrics and gynecology, her specialties are minimally invasive surgeries and obstetrics. Boulicault says her patients range in age from 10 to 99.

“Often I’m asked from a mother when a girl should have her first gynecological exam,” Boulicault says. “That is always a tricky question because it depends on the girl.” Still, all three physicians recommend a range from 10 to 18 years of age, depending on the onset of menstruation, existing health problems or sexual activity. All three also say they typically do not perform pap smears on young girls but meet with them to discuss their reproductive health.

“There are times I do exams at a patient’s first visit, and there are times that I do not,” Boulicault says. “It depends on the clinical circumstances that brought that patient to my office.”

In addition to annual pap smears, there are numerous other prevention testing milestones that women should follow. However, Puckett, Grant and Boulicault all emphasize that these milestones are general, and your personal circumstances might require earlier or additional testing. Below is a combined list from the three physicians:

AGE 10 TO 18

First visit with a gynecologist, might or might not require an exam

AGE 19 TO 40

Annual pap smears; STD testing for high-risk groups; HPV vaccine for those younger than 26; blood test screenings for cholesterol and thyroid abnormalities and diabetes beginning at age 30 and conducted at five-year intervals

AGE 40

First mammogram: Although recent news suggested exams every two years beginning at age 50, most physicians still recommend annual mammograms.

AGE 50

First colonoscopy repeated every five to 10 years; first bone density test

AGE 65+

Annual bone density, thyroid screening and urinanalysis

INDIVIDUALIZED ATTENTION

Fortunately, health care trends during the past decade have reflected this push for prevention, and a welcome side effect is that women’s health issues are being taken more seriously and researched more thoroughly. As a result, new treatments and minimally invasive surgeries have been developed. Grant, who specializes in perimenopause and hormone health, cites a 2002 broad-based national study, “The Women’s Health Initiative,” as a turning point in hormone therapy for menopausal women.

“We have evolved in our understanding of the safety and benefits of hormone therapy,” Grant says. “Physicians are in agreement that whether or not to use hormone therapy is a decision that must be individualized for each woman.”

Still, Grant laments that many physicians will not take the time for the detailed personal interviews required to determine appropriate hormone therapy for individual patients. In fact, Grant says, “Many people, even some doctors, still think of it as a quality-of-life issue rather than a health issue.”

Although Grant originally gave up obstetrics to spend more time with her family, she soon discovered a cohort of nonpregnant patients, women in their 40s and 50s, seeking treatment for the transition through menopause.

“These women were looking for a doctor who would listen to them, educate them about what was happening with their bodies and, above all, make them feel better,” Grant says. Grant feels especially qualified to help them as she admits, “Being perimenopausal myself, it made sense to explore this area in depth.”

In addition to giving real relief via hormone therapy to menopausal and pre-menopausal women, strides in minimally invasive surgery techniques have dramatically decreased the recovery time for many procedures. Of laparoscopic hysterectomies compared to traditional hysterectomies, Boulicault says: “I am able to do a surgery with a few small incisions rather than a large one. This allows the patient to heal faster, have less pain and to return to work earlier.”

According to Puckett, similar strides have been made in endometrial ablation, a procedure to treat women suffering from heavy menstrual bleeding, also known as menorrhagia. “Now with endometrial ablation, patients can get back to work within one to two days with minimal discomfort and dramatically improved success rates,” Puckett says.

KNOWING YOUR OPTIONS

Because personal habits and regular exams/tests are crucial to health and wellness, the responsibility ultimately lies within each of us. We all are largely responsible for our own health. Medical professionals cannot control whether a patient puts down the cupcakes or picks up the phone to schedule a mammogram.

Boulicault, Puckett and Grant have all witnessed a trend in which women are becoming more proactive in their treatment. Most women patients, especially perimenopausal and menopausal women, have conducted some research prior to making an appointment. The three doctors agree that many of their women patients are less reluctant to ask questions and are better educated on treatment options. Still, there are some women who do not understand the extreme benefits of prevention.

According to Puckett, “Many still do not understand the importance of medical prevention and early intervention.”

There are reasons for this, Grant says. “Women have more choices today than ever before, and so it does take time to consider all the options.”

For more info on women’s health issues, visit:

• Women’s Health Associates Inc.
• Women’s Wellness Center
• Healthy Women
• University of Missouri Health Care
• Boone Hospital Center
• National Institute of Health

Annie’s Choice: The Ethical Implications of Prevention

A moral dilemma lies at the heart of every plot written by top-selling novelist Jodi Picoult. The author has made a living forcing her readers to peer into their deepest beliefs and re-examine them in the light of new or unusual circumstances. With today’s strides in health care technology and genetic testing, the fiction is becoming reality. Under most circumstances, women would never consider removing perfectly healthy reproductive organs or surgically removing a healthy breast. But, if you knew that doing so might improve your chances of avoiding cancer in the future, would you consider it?

Just days before submitting this article, I went to visit a friend of mine who, after extensive genetic testing, discovered she is gene-positive for breast and ovarian cancer. In other words, she carries the harmful mutation BRCA-1, which increases her risk of getting breast and ovarian cancer by 40 to 50 percent.*

In the wake of the devastating news, my friend Annie (not her real name) was advised by her doctors to undergo a prophylactic double mastectomy and a complete hysterectomy to reduce her chances of getting cancer. Even more worrisome is the doctors’ advice that Annie’s two daughters and one son also be tested for the gene, which ultimately forces them to determine how deep prevention should cut.

I visited Annie as she was recovering from the hysterectomy. Even in recovery, she was emotionally preparing herself for the prospect of a double mastectomy and eventual reconstructive surgery. Because Annie has survived two separate bouts of breast cancer, at ages 31 and 39, she maintained a false sense of security in the fact that she had remained cancer-free for nearly a dozen years.

“I thought every day I survived, my risk of getting cancer was declining,” she says. In reality, her risk level has always remained the same. That is, until now. The hysterectomy reduced Annie’s risk of getting ovarian cancer by 80 to 96 percent. Likewise, having both her breasts removed could improve Annie’s breast-cancer risk rates by 90 percent.**

Annie is determined to beat the cancer at any cost. As she says, “Why would I stop fighting now?” Annie, 50, believes the surgeries are her best opportunities to increase her future health, even though they require invasive, painful procedures that carry their own risks.

For Annie, the thought of removing healthy organs is not as troubling as missing out on being a grandparent. The talk of grandchildren brings conversations of both joy and anguish. The joy all grandchildren bring and the anguish of even darker decisions her children might be forced to make: Should I have children when I know that being gene-positive might shorten my life span? Should I bring children into this world who might be gene positive? Even though we’re sitting in the sun, Annie and I both shiver.

*According to estimates of lifetime risk, about 12 percent of women in the general population will develop breast cancer sometime during their lives compared with about 60 percent of women who have BRCA1 or BRCA2. Lifetime risk estimates for ovarian cancer among women in the general population indicate that 1.4 percent will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer compared with 15 to 40 percent of women who have a harmful BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation (National Cancer Institute, 2005, 2009).

**Most research suggests that for gene positive women, removing the breasts can reduce the risk of breast cancer by 90 percent. Similarly, removing the ovaries can reduce risk of ovarian cancer by as much as 80 to 96 percent for women who have the BRCA1/BRCA2 cancer-predisposing gene mutation (Rebbeck, 2004, Kauff, 2002, Rutter, 2003).

By Nancy Yang | Photos by Anastasia Pottinger

In 1993, a psychologist named Frances Rauscher published research that struck a chord with American parents. She found that students who listened to 10 minutes of a Mozart sonata scored higher than others on a spatial reasoning test. Although the benefits were fleeting, reports claiming “Mozart makes you smart” blanketed the media. Pretty soon, Mozart CDs for toddlers and babies were selling like hotcakes.

Why had parents gone gaga over Mozart? Perhaps for the same reason that household chores and family dinners get slighted for tumbling, tee ball and taekwondo. Or why some children have personal coaches for sports, music and the ACT. An increasing number of parents seem to be bending over backward to help their children succeed. But are jam-packed schedules and hurried home lives worth the sacrifice, or do they wind up striking a sour note?

“Most of my students are very scheduled,” says Marilyn Toalson, who teaches gifted students at Rock Bridge High School. “Some have every moment scheduled. It’s very common for these students to be here at 6:30 a.m. and not go home until 9 or 10 o’clock at night.”

For many of the students and their families, they wouldn’t have it any other way. “Often what people don’t understand is that their free time, their social time, is school time,” Toalson says. For example, students might spend a Sunday evening working on the school newspaper over pizza — and lots of laughs. “That’s fun for them. They’re doing the same things as other kids might be doing, but they want to have an end result.” They’re working toward a common goal.

Setting goals and revising them helps kids realize that success doesn’t just pop out of the sky, Toalson says. It’s a process that develops skill, character and a belief in one’s abilities. A student might not be crazy about a particular assignment, but a goal-oriented kid will look at it as an opportunity to become a better learner and thinker.

Psychologist William Damon, author of The Path to Purpose: How Young People Find Their Calling in Life, believes that kids aren’t overworked as much as they’re “under goaled.” It’s through goals and a sense of purpose, he says, that children forge their personal identities. In doing so, they carve out a special place for themselves in the larger world.

Helping kids establish goals and find purpose is where parenting comes in, and as with most aspects of the job, there are no hard and fast rules. Experts recommend exposing children to a variety of experiences in hopes of finding a spark and fanning the flame. But children differ widely in how many activities they can take on, and every family has its tipping point.

For Kate Cleavinger, whose four children range from 8 to 17, that point came when she reflected on the family dinner hour. “How many times can you go to Sonic and change in the car?” she says. “It seemed like we were spending our whole life eating in the car. I finally said, ‘This is not working.’”

Cleavinger instituted a family rule: Each child would have to limit herself or himself to one activity per season. Once the kids signed up for something, they were expected to honor their commitment and weren’t allowed to quit unless they were having trouble academically. With Libby, Henry, Mary and Abbi going in different directions on any given night, Cleavinger was more than happy to cancel the following season if they didn’t cooperate.

“It’s kind of sad,” she says. “When I was a kid, we played sports at school, and I played them all. Everybody could try everything. In the spring you had softball, in the winter basketball or volleyball. It was the school sport, and you could walk there.” Now the window for competitive sports has gotten a lot younger, she says.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has spoken out against this trend. In a recent clinical report on the importance of play, it links highly structured childhoods to an increase in depression later on. “We can be certain that in some families, the protective influences of both play and high-quality family time are negatively affected by current trends toward highly scheduling children.” The report goes to say that though many of these kids thrive, all children need unscheduled time for creative growth, self-reflection and decompression.

“The dance mom is the same as the wrestling dad,” Cleavinger says. “They may look different on the outside, but on the inside, they’re the same.” Helicopter parenting aside, she admits to struggling with how far to push her children. “In the end, they have to be self-driven. But they’re also kids. Maybe I should push a little harder, but I just don’t.”

It all comes down to setting priorities, says Beth Parker, a licensed clinical social worker who counsels individuals, couples and families. “Families need to look at their schedules and choose carefully. I see kids not eating properly because an overabundance of activities and sports takes precedence over family meals. Kids and parents need to take a deep breath and evaluate all this.”

Belinda Masters, coordinator of Parents as Teachers for Columbia Public Schools, agrees. She recognizes the community’s wealth of opportunities for kids but says it’s up to the parents to establish limits. “They’re really driving this train,” she says. “The child isn’t. My wish would be for parents to be mindful and ask: Why are we doing this? How does it benefit my child, and is it enjoyable?”

A few years ago, Molly Zitsch was indeed driving the train — often to activities on either end of the state. As hectic as it was, her peripatetic life was part of a greater purpose. The Zitsch family shares a passion for sports that serves as a framework for their busy days. Whitley, 20, and Ford, 16, excel in tennis, while Georgie, 18 and a Rock Bridge High School valedictorian, chose competitive dance. Zitsch herself has played tennis most of her life, and her husband, Bob, played football for the University of Alabama.

“Sport makes you goal-oriented, keeps you in shape and prepares you for life,” she says. “You can lose and still come out a winner if you learn something.” She describes the days when she was driving all three kids around as extremely stressful, but during the years, the events and matches have become richly rewarding.

“My kids and I are really, really close,” she says. “We spend a lot of time together. I meet their friends one-on-one because I’m driving them, we’re eating meals out and we’re talking. We have a lot of down time between matches.” During these intervals, they connect with one other as well as the other families, which reflects a shift in how some families define togetherness.

These days, families often connect through their children’s activities, Toalson says. Gone are neighborhood parks where kids used to play unsupervised. The majority of mothers are now working, and they need safe alternatives to leaving their kids home alone. Besides, activities can serve a dual purpose. More of the general population is applying to selective colleges, where achievement in extracurricular programs earns scholarships and opens doors.

“Giving a kid every possible advantage can pay off,” says Michael Scott, Ph.D., a local child psychologist. He recalls a mom who directed her daughter, who wanted to join the orchestra, to the oboe. The decision was based on a Wall Street Journal story claiming that oboe players would fare better in college admissions.

“I’m not sure I ever parented that way — or ever thought about it that way — but I can’t argue with it,” Scott says. Years later, the child was awarded a music scholarship at an elite institution. Perhaps it was the oboe. Or maybe it was Mozart.

If you think Columbia’s country clubs are the exclusive domain of executives and the duplicate bridge set, it’s time to take another look. Long considered havens for golfers, area country clubs are responding to social and economic shifts by expanding activities, relaxing old dress codes and offering more affordable memberships. Each of Columbia’s three private clubs offers a distinct experience reflected in its history, size and membership. And each is working hard to create its own piece of heaven in Columbia’s quickly changing landscape.

Columbia Country Club

Follow Country Club Drive, a majestic and winding road just east of the Stephens College stables, and you’ll arrive at the Columbia Country Club. Steeped in tradition, CCC was founded in 1921 and later hosted legendary golfers Ben Hogan and Sam Sneed. Today it blends the old with the new by enhancing accessibility and embracing the community.

“We’re in a very, very unique situation right now,” says Brett Bieske, CCC’s general manager and director of golf. “We have a new team, a new vision, and we’re re-inventing ourselves. All private clubs in town have a niche, and ours is the community’s club. Our pricing is very good and can adhere to a lot of people’s budgets.” In fact, individuals can hold special events such as weddings, graduation celebrations and birthday parties at CCC without joining the club.

Bieske, who was awarded Golf Professional of the Year in 2001, served as the CCC’s head golf pro for two years. Now he’s hoping to apply his fortitude and winning spirit to running the club. He has put together a management team made up of talented newcomers and seasoned veterans. Employees receive ongoing training through the club’s partnership with Eagle Golf, a golf course management company. Along with benefiting from a professional staff, the club’s 250 members can participate in a program that allows them to play at some 180 courses for a nominal fee.

Bieske’s challenge, however, is to develop programs for CCC’s non-golfers. Five to 10 years ago, most people seeking country club memberships were looking for a great golf course. These days, there’s not a lot of extra money for a hobby that might appeal to only one family member. To accommodate the change, CCC has organized fishing derbies, cooking classes and campouts on the golf course. The club kicked off its Sunrise Walking Club in conjunction with the city’s Bike, Walk and Wheel Week. Another addition is a children’s room containing video games and other activities to keep kids occupied while their parents linger over a meal or relax at the pool.

“Our motto is to escape, not spend a fortune,” Bieske says. “Regardless of what you do in life, when you come to the golf course, we’re going to find a good group of people for you to play golf with. And when you walk through these doors, the guy or gal next to you is not going to be afraid to turn to you and become your friend. The extravagance might not be there, but the history and comfort is. We want to be the country club that the people of Columbia want to join.”

Country Club of Missouri

If the adage happy wife, happy life is true, a membership to the Country Club of Missouri might be the answer to marital bliss. CCMO is striding into the 21st century with a great deal more than what Mark Twain affectionately called “a good walk spoiled.” Golf notwithstanding, the club has undergone a renovation and added new programs.

Located in southwest Columbia on Woodrail Avenue, CCMO is the largest of the three clubs with a membership of about 550. It was founded in 1971 by a group of former CCC members who negotiated with developers and banks to build a new club with an 18-hole golf course. (CCC had a nine-hole course at the time.) The group hired architect E. Faye Jones, a protégé of Frank Lloyd Wright, to design the clubhouse. While it was under construction, the club’s snack bar served as the original clubhouse.

“Some of the founders are still here,” says Clubhouse Manager Lisa Wright Tye. “But I’d say the average age of our membership has decreased in the last four years.” The influx of younger members is a result of a bold move on the part of the CCMO board. Four years ago, in an effort to broaden membership and attract young families, CCMO decreased monthly fees for bath and tennis memberships. The plan worked, and the increased memberships more than made up for decreased rates.

“Our membership has been doing amazingly well,” Tye says. “They’ve been out there bringing in new members right and left. This is the first time that I can remember that we’ve actually started out with more new members who have joined in the month of April than we have lost.” (Members are generally limited to resigning once a year, on March 31. This is typical of country clubs to prevent people from joining solely for the golf season.)

CCMO’s leadership also had the foresight to implement some well-timed renovations. Just before the economic downturn, they put in a new irrigation system on the golf course, remodeled the locker rooms, added a spray ground at the pool and spruced up the clubhouse. “For us, it was the best thing we could have done,” Tye says. “Having the long-range planning in place before the economic ups and downs was huge.”

The club’s stability is reflected in its long-standing staff. Golfers are greeted in the parking lot by friendly and professional employees who take pride in knowing the members by name. The pool manager, a four-year veteran with an education background, has put together a variety of family activities and summer camps. Junior tennis, the only program of its kind in Columbia, has doubled in participation in recent years. When moms feel comfortable with the coaches and their programs, they’re likely to enroll their children. Says tennis pro Majorie Muller, “If you build it, they will come.”

Old Hawthorne

Bordered by a white rail fence that ran along East Broadway at the city’s eastern edge, Old Hawthorne was once one of the area’s grandest estates. The core of the clubhouse, built to resemble Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage, was originally home to a St. Louis fur trader. It was later owned by the Johnson family and eventually developer Billy Sapp before the club opened for business in May 2007.

“I first came on to the property in 1998,” says Director of Golf Jeff Whitfield, who along with Billy Sapp and Gary Mitchell is part-owner of Old Hawthorne. “We looked at other sites, but this was my favorite. It had the size, physical beauty and location to produce a product that was good for the city and good for golf.”

Old Hawthorne is home to MU’s men’s and women’s golf teams, along with approximately 400 members. Whitfield, a former MU golfer himself, says the membership is broad-based and consists of young and old, singles and families and a broad range of income levels. The common denominator, he says, is a passion for really good golf. It’s the club’s crown jewel.

“The scale of golf has changed over the years,” Whitfield says. “We utilize nearly double the acreage of the other clubs.” Cautioning not to equate the length of a course with its difficulty, he sketches a diagram of how a tee offers options for various types and levels of golfers. “On our course, there are more lines to play off a tee, as opposed to many golf courses where there’s one way to play or you fail. So much thought was put into this course by the architect. It’s all about the options and strategy — classic golf architecture.”

Getting a project such as the Old Hawthorne club and its surrounding community off the ground was ambitious and took place just prior to an economic downturn. Whitfied says membership fees are “shockingly” affordable and that home construction in the surrounding community has been steady and accelerating.

The club’s social calendar runs throughout the year, and one of its most popular events took place in the dead of winter. “Tournament of Champions,” a 99-day weight-loss and lifestyle change competition, began in early January under the direction of the club’s fitness director, Aniz Mora. Participants received individual programs based on periodic weigh-ins and evaluations. At the end, “losers” received prizes in categories such as most weight lost, most dramatic change in appearance and most dedicated contestant.

“People just had a ball and worked very hard at this,” Whitfield says. “We anticipated 10 to 12 participants and ended up having to cut it off at 27. Aniz has really made an impact on many of our members.” Old Hawthorne’s fitness center contains rooms dedicated to cardio exercise, resistance training and classes such as yoga and Pilates. Says Whitfield, “A facility of this caliber with a full-time fitness director is unique to Old Hawthorne.”

By Katrina Tauchen | Photos by Rebecca Rademan

Behind the Columbia home of Karen Blackmore, a gallery sits on display. The pieces are impeccably kept, each marked with a detailed metal marker. On the marker, specifics such as formal name and hybridizer, if known, offer background and guide expectations for viewers of the hand-selected pieces. As curator of this backyard garden, Blackmore reinvents her gallery annually; she fills the confines of her space with as much or as little color and style variety as she sees fit. This year’s exhibit is marked by an abundance of daylilies and irises, though she’s never met a plant she didn’t like.

“As the daylilies open, I think, ‘Oh gosh, that’s my favorite,’” says Blackmore, current president of the Columbia Garden Club. “Right now, my very favorite is named Julia’s Love. It was hybridized by one of our local members, Julia Semon.”

Blackmore joined the Columbia Garden Club in 2006 after retiring in 2004 from State Farm, where she worked for 37 years. In addition to her work with the garden club, Blackmore is also a master gardener and member of the Central Missouri Hemerocallis Society and the Show Me Iris Society. She attributes her love of gardening to her early upbringing. “I was raised on a farm in Arkansas, and I had a mother who was, by necessity, a gardener,” Blackmore says. “I’m not a vegetable gardener. I have a few onions, tomato plants, pepper plants, eggplant and rhubarb, but what I really like is flowers. My mother really liked flowers, too; I can’t imagine that I wouldn’t.”

Like many of the members of the Columbia Garden Club, Blackmore’s home garden serves as the perfect place to work on her hobby; it’s also ideal for experimenting with new techniques. Not uncommon among mid-Missouri gardeners, Blackmore is in a constant battle with the deer that mistake her flower beds for food. Although garden club members don’t typically garden together, they do swap tips for addressing problems and offer expertise. “A few of our members have been garden club members since the mid-1950s,” Blackmore says. “There’s a lot of knowledge there.” Among the club’s members are three WWII veterans.

Historical roots

Organized July 21, 1919, and federated May 19, 1934, the Columbia Garden Club celebrated 90 years last summer. The club operates under the objective: “To stimulate knowledge and love of gardening; to encourage civic plantings and beautification; to aid in the protection and conservation of all natural resources, forests, wildflowers, birds, water quality, etc.”

The club began with a group of women who wanted to beautify the city, Blackmore says. Back in 1919, few women worked outside the home; a gardening club not only offered them a chance to learn more about gardening, but it also provided the opportunity to improve the way certain places in Columbia looked.

Since then, the make up of the group has expanded to include women and men from all different walks of life, though that founding principal of beautification through civic plantings remains an integral part of the club’s mission. The garden club continues to serve the community by caring for some of the flower beds at the Bluffs Nursing Home and taking flowers monthly to the Wyatt Guest House at Ellis Fischel Cancer Center and Daniel Boone Regional Library. The club also gives a yearly scholarship to one high-school student, selected from a group of applicants with an interest in pursuing horticulture.

Another group project is an after-school program at Russell Boulevard Elementary School, a junior garden club appropriately deemed the Russell Sprouts. After the regular Columbia Garden Club meeting, members go to the elementary school and hold a meeting with the junior club. Together, they do a variety of projects such as planting seeds, planting outside and working on garden-related arts and crafts.

Growing new membership

At its peak, the Columbia Garden Club boasted 132 members; the current number stands at 67. “There’s no reason Columbia should only have 67 people in the garden club; we should have many more active members,” Blackmore says.

One explanation for the lower membership could be the meeting time. The club is still largely made up of individuals who do not work outside the home, many of whom are retired, so the monthly meeting reflects that flexibility of schedules. The group meets at 1 p.m. the second Monday of every month, except July and August. “We have a member looking into starting an evening club,” Blackmore says. “Several people have expressed an interested in joining but can’t attend our club because they work during the day.”

Programs at the meetings cover topics of interest to gardeners such as harmful and beneficial insects or selecting and planting trees. At the upcoming June meeting, members and their guests will have the opportunity to tour five members’ gardens. Blackmore’s garden has previously been included on the tour. “Our annual member garden tour is held in June, so lots of things are blooming, and it really is very nice,” she says.

Planting for the future

The Columbia Garden Club held its Annual Plant Sale, the group’s only fundraiser of the year, on May 1 at Trinity Presbyterian Church. With beautiful weather on their side, club members sold countless blooms of all shapes and sizes, most donated from their own gardens. Members also made hand-painted gourd birdhouses. With proceeds from the sale, the club plans to pursue its next projects: a Plant It Pink garden for Susan G. Komen for the Cure and a bench or mini shelter in a city park to honor past and present Columbia Garden Club members.

When asked what tips she has for new gardeners, Blackmore sits back and smiles. “I think gardening is just like anything else,” she says. “A good photographer takes a lot of pictures and keeps the good ones. A gardener does much the same. There’s a lot of trial and error involved. I plant a lot of different plants, and if they don’t do well, I plant something else in their spot. That’s just how it works for me.”

The Columbia Garden Club meets at 1 p.m. the second Monday of each month (except July and August) at Trinity Presbyterian Church, 1600 W. Rollins Road. For more information about the club or how to become a member, contact Karen Blackmore at Karen@kewpie.net or (573) 442-1873.

By Katrina Tauchen

Less than a year ago, University Club General Manager John LaRocca and Executive Chef Daniel Pliska sat down to critique a successful run of the 2009 Latin Foods Summit. That summit, a two-day event that featured cooking demonstrations, seminars and meals prepared by chefs from as far away as San Paulo, Brazil, included a farm-to-table and sustainability seminar by Jonathan Justus. Justus, executive chef and co-owner of the restaurant Justus Drugstore in Smithville, Mo., follows a culinary philosophy that emphasizes sustainability and the 100-mile rule, or using products he can find within 100 miles of his restaurant. His session at the Latin Foods Summit was “wildly successful,” LaRocca says, and he and Pliska thought that it could be the legs of something much bigger.

LaRocca and Pliska decided to focus the University’s Club’s next summit on sustainability and the local foods movement, and Farm to Table 2010 was born. “From there it just got really, really big,” Pliska says of the event. He estimates that he, LaRocca and Robin Whiteley, University Club director of sales, have put in a combined 3,000 to 4,000 hours on this event alone since planning began about eight months ago.

The overarching goal of the summit, LaRocca says, is to bring together two important factions of the food industry: the farmers and the culinarians. “So much of this is about awareness,” LaRocca says. “It’s about networking and collaboration.”

Pliska agrees. “You have the farming communities that are the growers and farmers markets, and then you have the culinary group that’s the chefs, restaurant owners and managers, but there’s not a lot of interaction between the two parties,” he says. When asked whether the University Club uses local products, he goes on to explain that though they use as much local as they can, lack of availability is another big drive behind Farm to Table.

“A lot of these operators are so small, they have such small amounts,” he says. “If we have a big weekend, we can do 2,000 people. When I tell somebody I need 400 pounds of something, that just totally blows their minds because that’s wiping out a whole crop or herd or whatever it is that they have.”

By connecting culinarians with producers, Pliska and LaRocca hope to show that a growing market for local foods does exist. “It’s almost a look backward in time because it used to be that you go to the country, and you could get good home-cooked food and local products,” Pliska says. “Now you can’t even find that kind of home cooking. … It’s important to go back to our roots and be able to eat with the season.”

Where the culinary world meets the farmers market

From the start, LaRocca suggested that they partner with the Columbia Farmers Market, which was quick to jump on board, and with that he and Pliska landed on the event tagline: “Where the culinary world meets the Farmers Market.” A portion of the proceeds will go to the Columbia Farmers Market Pavillion fundraiser, and a portion will go to the scholarship fund for the mid-Missouri chapter of the American Culinary Federation.

On June 12 and 13, Farm to Table 2010 will be held at the University Club and adjacent quadrangle on the MU campus. The event will feature demonstrations, workshops, presentations and master classes by local, regional and national chefs and farmers. The Market Stroll, an outdoor farmers market located on the MU quad, will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days and will include 30 to 40 farmers selling their wares. In addition to the shopping, the Market Stroll will also include educational aspects. An educational stage will house seminars every 25 to 30 minutes and will cover topics such as composting, herb gardening and canning and preserving. The idea is to teach people what they can do with what they find in their own city and in their own backyard.

A Saturday evening reception, sponsored by Missouri Wine, will feature a sampling of wines along with different chefs preparing food at cooking stations on the quad. On Sunday night, BBQ teams will come in from across the state, and local microbreweries will offer samples of their products. “Everything we’re doing is Missouri,” LaRocca says. “Whether it’s Fitz’s root beer, Ozark bottled water; it’s all Missouri.” Other notable features of the event include presentations and book signings by former White House Chef Walter Scheib and an invite-only panel discussion with California-based chef Ann Cooper, known as the Renegade Lunch Lady, which will address children’s nutrition.

Event turnout is expected to be in the thousands. That offers a large-scale platform for educating attendees about the farm-to-table movement, which Pliska says is one of the biggest issues. “You can’t eat raspberries in December if you’re going to eat local,” he says. “You can’t eat certain things at certain times, so you have to be able to broaden your horizons and be able to learn about the food.”

Trendy times, ideal location

Pliska is quick to point out that the farm-to-table movement is nothing new, but it’s an important movement nonetheless. And the trendiness of the issue will likely help with the success of the summit. “These kinds of things are starting to come to the forefront of our culture,” Pliska says. “As a nation and a people, we see so many things happening that we don’t think we can help or do anything about because it’s such a big scale. Everyone’s looking for something that they can do. When you talk about local, it brings us back to the individual person’s choices to be able to do things that can actually make a little difference. If we do this on a grand scale, it will continue.”

And according to Pliska, Missouri is the perfect place for the movement to continue. “This is where we have to move forward because we are the center,” he says. “We are the bread basket. … I think we have to realize that going forward with industrial farming and factory farming, that’s good in a way because we have to be able to meet the needs of a growing population. But then again, we also have to have a balance.”

That’s exactly what LaRocca, Pliska and University Club will bring to the forefront at the Farm to Table summit. “We’re not looking to change the world in one weekend,” Pliska says. “What we can do to help bring awareness to it is bring these two factions together for a common good.”

Featured Chefs

Farm to Table will bring in numerous chefs from around the country. Here are some of the big names:

Walter Scheib: White House chef from 1994 to 2005, co-author of White House Chef: Eleven Years, Two Presidents, One Kitchen and founder of The American Chef corporation.

Ann Cooper: Known as the Renegade Lunch Lady, Cooper has authored four books, served as past president and board member of Women’s Chefs and Restaurateurs, was appointed to serve on the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Organic Standards board and was an executive committee member of Chefs Collaborative.

Jonathan Justus: Executive chef and co-owner of the Smithville, Mo., restaurant Justus Drugstore; James Beard semifinalist in 2007 for Best New Restaurant.

Bill Cardwell: Chef, Cardwell’s at the Plaza and BC’s Kitchen in St. Louis.

Debbie Gold: Executive chef of The American Restaurant in Kansas City.

For a list of all visiting chefs and bios, visit f2tuclubmissouri.com/people.html.

Event Highlights

Market Stroll
Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., $10 admission

Lunch with Former White House Chef Walter Scheib
Saturday, 11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m., Carnahan Quad Event Tent

Reception and Book Signing with Walter Scheib
Saturday, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m., Carnahan Quad Event Tent

Building a Better School: Model for Feeding our Children
10 – 11:15 a.m., Don Rey Room in the Reynolds Alumni Center, Invitation only
Featuring Chef Ann Cooper, the Renegade Lunch Lady

Missouri Beer and BBQ Reception
5 – 7 p.m., Carnahan Quad Event Tent

For costs and a complete schedule of seminars, cooking demos and events, visit f2tuclubmissouri.com

By Nancy Yang | Photos by David Owens

Lorie Allen has always been big, in every sense of the word. She thinks big, works big, plays big, and until recently, she looked big. A year ago she weighed 382 pounds. But she summoned the courage to look herself squarely in the eye and make a life-altering decision. On Aug. 24, 2009, under the direction of Dr. Roger de la Torre at Missouri Bariatric Services, she underwent gastric bypass surgery.

“In the opinion of my physicians and me, it was a medical necessity,” she says, sinking into the sofa in her well appointed great room. She and her husband recently built a house with a resplendent floor plan and a front walk that belies a hint of fairytale. But Allen is all business, and she’s reticent to publicize her surgery, perhaps because the issues surrounding it are fraught with so many misconceptions.

“I’m doing this to improve my life, not for cosmetic reasons,” she says. “It’s not just a ‘go in and have your nails done’ kind of thing. The surgery gave me a push in the right direction, but I will be dealing with my weight issue for the rest of my life.”

Allen, who owns an accounting firm, took a good look at the numbers. Her weight and body mass index, or BMI, indicated that she wasn’t merely big; she was morbidly obese. (See sidebars.) It had created a time bomb for a number of serious health conditions, and Allen became particularly alarmed about what it was doing to her heart. Some of her physicians had recommended the surgery, which has been highly successful in reversing many of the health threats associated with morbid obesity.

Allen’s research led her to two types of procedures: the adjustable gastric band, also known as a lap band; and the Roux-en-y gastric bypass. Because gastric bypass patients lose weight more rapidly, she chose the latter. Unlike adjustable-band systems, which solely restrict food by decreasing the size of the stomach, the gastric bypass also works through a malabsorption process. The surgery involves creating a stomach pouch, which reduces the size of the stomach from that of a football to a receptacle that can only hold a half-cup of food. The restricted stomach allows patients to feel full with smaller amounts of food. In addition, the pouch is attached to a section of the small intestine and bypasses some of the intestine that absorbs nutrients and calories.

“They say you should eat to live rather than live to eat,” says Allen, explaining how the surgery has radically changed her relationship with food. “It’s a matter of learning to eat the right way. You also learn what’s in food. Before, I never looked at labels.”

According to Abby Klemme, a clinical dietitian and member of the Missouri Bariatric Services team, patients have to become more selective when there’s only room for a half-cup of food. Through Klemme’s counseling, Allen has become mindful of everything she puts in her mouth. She limits her meals to four ounces of nutrient-dense, high-protein food and takes multiple pills to replace vitamins lost from malabsorption. She also avoids liquids with meals, which improves satiety by keeping food in the pouch for longer periods of time.

“You don’t realize how difficult it is to only sip a few teaspoons of liquid an hour,” she says. To add insult to injury, she’s had to eliminate sodas — diet or otherwise — because carbonation can stretch the stomach pouch and defeat the purpose of the surgery. “Some people think this surgery’s an easy fix, but you have to be committed to a completely different lifestyle. If you do not change your behaviors, you will not be successful.”

Allen’s commitment has paid off. She lost 133 pounds eight months out and hopes to meet her goal of losing another 110 pounds by February 2011. Ambition notwithstanding, many factors have contributed to her success. A friend and colleague designated her office a no-food zone, which prevents temptations such as Snickers bars (which would make her sick) and mindless eating of non-nutritious snacks. Her husband and son have supported her throughout, adapted to changes at home and compliment her on her appearance.

“My son made a comment that he could tell the difference,” Allen says. “It made me feel really good that he saw a change in me.” Curiously, Allen can’t really appreciate that she’s lost 35 percent of her bodyweight when she looks in the mirror. “My parents visited in November 2009, about three months after the surgery. They could really tell. My parents would never lie to me.”

Allen’s remarks reflect a commonly occurring theme among people who lose significant amounts of weight quickly. It appears that the brain can’t assimilate these changes to form a more accurate body image. The person continues to experience his or her body at a heavier weight, says Dr. Nancy Halstenson, clinical assistant professor of Medical Psychology at the UMC School of Medicine. Most people’s body images, which are influenced and formed in adolescence, involve a lot more than what we look like in the mirror.

“Some overweight people are insecure,” Allen says. “I am not one of those people. I’ve always been comfortable with myself as a person. Being overweight didn’t restrict me from having a good marriage and rewarding work. Although it was difficult for me to do some things, I never sulked around about my weight. It didn’t embarrass me.”

But being obese was no cakewalk. Excursions to the mailbox would leave Allen winded. The trek to the stadium after a tailgate, though she tried to hide her labored breathing, proved arduous. When her family went out for dinner, she had to worry about whether she could fit in a booth. Social disapproval only compounded the difficulties. It isn’t unusual, for example, for obese people to be ignored by clothing-store sales clerks or be passed over during a job interview.

“Morbidly obese patients are used to the societal pressures of being overweight,” says Justin DeLap, Missouri Bariatric Services assistant manager. “They’re often treated unfairly even by many health care professionals because they see obesity, like smoking, as the root of all evils.” DeLap, who himself underwent weight-loss surgery, is highly cognizant of these pressures and looks for sensitivity to them when hiring his staff.

“There’s a lot we don’t understand about the disease of obesity,” says Natalie Suttmoeller, a certified nurse coordinator and another member of the Bariatric Services team. “We don’t know why some people don’t sense satiety as easily as people of normal weight.”

Perhaps this is why reversals of bariatric surgeries aren’t routinely done. The issues that cause a person to become obese in the first place never really go away, so patients who have their bariatric surgeries reversed often re-gain the weight they lost. Also, the adjustable gastric band is more easily reversible than the gastric bypass.

“The surgery doesn’t change your habits,” Klemme says. “A child has an innate sense of what the body needs. Social aspects override that innate sense. The patient learns to make changes with the help of the surgery, which is a tool to make them feel full.” On the other hand, the body’s ability to seek homeostasis prevents most patients who adhere to necessary diet and lifestyle changes from eventually wasting away.

“I have never been a small person,” Allen says. “As a teenager I wore size 12 shoes, so everyone knew I was never going to be a petite person. The doctor would say I’m large-boned. In my 20s I began gaining weight. Between the ages of 29 and 35, I took on a very stressful job and became obese. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t have let myself get so obese. Once I got myself into that shape, I couldn’t get myself out of it.”

Allen describes the discouraging cycle of trying to lose weight as “New Year’s Eve every day.” Each morning she’d make a resolution to lose weight, only to become frustrated and discouraged. Now that she’s well on her way to her goal, she says weight-loss surgery is one of the best things she’s ever done. Last spring she was walking two and a half miles a day, which in itself will go a long way to improving her health and longevity. Most importantly, she feels better. As they say: “Nothing tastes as good as thin feels.”

How to Calculate your BMI

Pounds of weight/inches in height2 X 703 = BMI.

For example, if your weight is 170 lbs. and your height is 5’6″ (66″), calculate (170 ÷ 662) x 703 = 27.4

A normal BMI falls between 19 and 25; overweight between 25 and 30; 30 and 40 obese; above 40 morbidly obese.

Who Might Be Eligible for Weight-loss Surgery?

• Individuals with a body mass index (BMI) between 40 and 60, or a BMI of 35 and greater with life-threatening conditions related to obesity
• Patients between 18 and 65 years old who have evaluated other weight-loss options with their physicians
• Individuals who are not abusing drugs or alcohol or suffering from untreated psychological disorders
• Patients who are well informed about the various procedures and their effects

By Keija Parssinen | Photos by Rebecca Rademan

On a Wednesday morning, I meet with Kristin Metcalf-Wilson, Tracy Greever-Rice and Nellie Symm-Gruender to discuss their non-profit organization the Women’s Policy Alliance over coffee at Dunn Brothers.

Although they joke about how many hyphens they share among their multi-syllabic surnames, it is clear that these women are serious about their cause. The Alliance’s mission is “to improve the status of women in Missouri by providing policy makers, advocates and the media with data and evidence-based analysis of public policies that promote women’s opportunities for advancement and equity.”

In 2004, Missouri fared poorly in the Institute for Women’s Policy Research state-by-state report on the status of American women. The news came as a shock to Kristin, a faculty member at the University of Missouri School of Nursing, who also maintains a local practice.

“I remember thinking, ‘Wow, Missouri got a C on the IWPR report,’” she says. “There were a whole lot of people who did worse but a whole lot who did better. Out of that report grew this core group of women who have kept alive that spirit of, ‘what are we going to do to make this better; how are we going to move this forward?’”

As part of her doctoral dissertation research, Kristin founded the Alliance in hopes that the organization could work toward solutions to the problems highlighted in the IWPR report while continuing to gauge women’s progress across the state. She secured funding from a number of sources, including the Missouri Women’s Council and the Women’s Labor Bureau.

“Some states have done status updates stemming from the IWPR report, but they’ve taken on specific domains,” Kristin says. “We took it all head-on because you can’t talk about education and not talk about health care; you can’t talk about the work force and economic equality and not talk about health care. You can’t focus on and fix one thing — it has to be a bigger picture. If you don’t look at bigger picture, you’re not going to move the status of women forward.”

As they speak about their far-reaching project, the women radiate energy, intelligence and passion. They are friends bound by a common goal. The Alliance plans to measure Missouri women’s health and well-being, income and earnings, education and civic participation, all by October 2010. That’s when they plan to share the results of their study with anyone who will listen, but particularly with state politicians who have the power to make a difference in women’s lives. Quite simply, the project’s scope astounds.

Kristin explains that from November 2009 to March 2010, they engaged focus groups in six cities throughout Missouri: Cape Girardeau, Columbia, Kansas City, Kirksville, St. Louis and Springfield. Local men and women from an array of professions, all of whom shared a vested interest in improving the status of women in their area, comprised the focus groups. They were doctors and nurses, social service providers, nonprofit executives and politicians, and they met once to determine community strengths and weaknesses in areas directly affecting women’s lives such as education, health care, childcare and jobs.

“We chose those places because we truly recognize how diverse women’s living situations are,” Nellie says. “All of the women across the board have really different issues, though some commonalities emerged out of it.”

Now that the focus groups have served their function, the data gathering can begin. Enter Tracy Greever-Rice, a statistics guru whose recent run for a City Council seat ended in a narrow loss but whose commitment to the community remains unchanged. Tracy is the associate director of community and socioeconomic initiatives at the University of Missouri’s Office of Social and Economic Analysis. She’s a sociologist by training and earned her master’s degree in community development; now, she’s a self-described “data broker,” someone who serves as a broker between data and how a community might use it. When considering what kind of data to pursue for the Alliance, Tracy had parameters in mind.

“We work from two basic principles in trying to decide what kind of data to use,” she says. “Data must be reliable, valid, accurate and available in timely way. … It has to be collected and analyzable in a comparable fashion across every geography that we’re using. There might be really wonderful data available in St. Louis or Kansas City on women’s reproductive issues, but if we can’t get in Skylar County, we can’t use it.”

Although finding consistent, wide-ranging data sources is challenging, once done, the statistics have the power to change communities for the better.

“You can tell an awful lot about a community by how well its most vulnerable members are doing,” Tracy says. “Reports like this one are important because they lift up strengths and weaknesses. Everyone has a right to his or her own opinion but not to facts. Facts are facts.”

The Alliance’s report is what’s known as an Indicators Report, which is meant to provide snapshots of how a population is doing. Statistics measuring the number of children receiving free and reduced lunch are an incredibly accurate indicator of family poverty, and the Alliance would like to develop a similar method or form of “data shorthand” to gauge women’s issues.

Tracy predicts that the report might raise as many questions as it answers, but ensuring that the important questions are asked at all is one of the project’s primary objectives. The women give as an example the fact that, contrary to their initial assumptions, most women in Missouri have access to a good clinic; unfortunately, many of them lack the transportation to get there. Once armed with that knowledge, community leaders can work together to institute viable solutions.

This fall, toting their fact-packed report, the women will travel to Jefferson City and present their findings to state politicians. Already, they have caught the attention of heavy-hitting policymakers such as Regional Director of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Judy Baker and U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill. In St. Louis, several state representatives attended the focus group meeting.

“We do have support,” Kristin says. “It’s exciting when you hear back from them [politicians], and they say, ‘Please let me know when this comes out.’ They would rather have more information than less.”

But the Alliance will also report at the local level by returning to the original focus groups to discuss the data. They understand that, in order to get things accomplished on the ground, they will need the continued support of the community leaders who helped shape the report.

Nellie sums up the group’s vision of success: “Success for me overall would be really having people from all over the state engaged and invested in this and having people who make policy call someone at the Alliance and say, ‘I just read your report.’ We are just putting the information in front of their eyes.”

When we are finished talking, the women hug and make plans to meet again. I’m amazed by Columbia’s interconnectivity. In the course of our discussion, I discover that Tracy is my neighbor and that Nellie once was, too, 800 miles distant in Lakeway, Texas, where her son and my brother played sports for the same high-school team. It’s just further proof that women’s lives are inextricably connected, and by doing our part to help build up one another, we are strengthening communities, states, nations.

To become a member of the Women’s Policy Alliance or to make a donation, visit www.womenspolicyalliance.org.