The Decaturian is Millikin's student-run newspaper. The opinions reflected may not be those of Millikin as an institution.

The Decaturian

The Decaturian is Millikin's student-run newspaper. The opinions reflected may not be those of Millikin as an institution.

The Decaturian

The Decaturian is Millikin's student-run newspaper. The opinions reflected may not be those of Millikin as an institution.

The Decaturian

Millikin lives heart healthy

Millikin+lives+heart+healthy
Nicole Johnson

Millikin is in the middle of a heart healthy initiative, which involves three events: a heart healthy luncheon, National Heart Walk Day, and the Heart Walk in Nelson Park.

 

In the last issue, the Macon County Heart Walk was discussed, as well as a mention of the heart healthy luncheon, the “I Heart You” campaign, and the benefit for Matt Alward.

 

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On Thursday, March 28, Chef Brian Pehr served a lunch that had taste and was healthy for the heart. The three dishes he served were pan sautéed turkey scaloppini with French fine herbs, sauté of fresh vegetables with citrus finish and oven toasted couscous with mirepoix and sundried cranberry. Upon asking Pehr where the dishes came from, he said they were his own ideas. The dishes were self-served by the guests, and Sobe Life Water, donated by Pepsi, was offered to drink. Small Hershey’s and Dove caramel chocolates were placed at the tables for the guests to enjoy.

 

Interim President Richard Dunsworth introduced Pehr.

 

“We welcomed him to our campus three years ago, and it feels like most days he’s been here forever,” Dunsworth said. “If you ever see him upstairs with our students on visit days or on Saturday mornings when students are running to brunch, he owns Wornick Dining Room, and that is a wonderful, wonderful thing.”

 

While everyone was eating their lunch, Pehr and student chef Stef Davis prepared the dishes on stage for everyone to see how simple they were. Pehr made occasional comments as he cooked.

 

“If you don’t hear the sizzle, it means your skillet’s not hot enough,” Pehr said while cooking one of the dishes, steam rising from the sizzle. Making all three dishes took under a half hour, and recipes for guests to try out were compiled in a packet at each of the tables.

 

After Pehr, Dr. Tina Cloney took the stage and presented on heart disease and how to make heart healthy choices. She first shared her own story of loss due to heart disease.

 

“This is a picture of me on my wedding day with my music degree Millikin husband and my grandfather,” Cloney said, “and as you can see, there’s someone missing here. My grandmother’s missing. Heart disease robbed my grandmother of fifteen years of her life if you compare when she died with the average life expectancy.”

 

Cloney went on to say that males are at a higher risk for heart disease because estrogen protects the women from disease, but when menopause hits, women’s risk goes up. Body mass index (BMI)  is also something important to watch out for and maintain.

 

“Once it hits 25, it increases your risk of heart disease as well as numerous other lifestyle diseases, like high blood pressure or diabetes,” Cloney said. “Once you move into the overweight category, your risk of all of those diseases, including heart disease, goes up. When you hit the obese and then the extremely obese, your risk continues to grow.”

 

Two of her students, Owen Raymundo (?) and Katie Callahan (?), assisted throughout her presentation as they demonstrated how to measure BMI, gave handouts to evaluate the audience’s heart risk, and showed the content of fat in common foods, displayed in test tubes.

 

“Dairy Queen Blizzard…if you decided to go through and get a small one, [it’s three tubes of fat],” Cloney said. “If you decided to go through with a large one, it would be six of those.” When talking about movie theater popcorn, ten test tubes were held up by Callahan.

 

When looking at making lifestyle changes, Cloney advised to do only one thing at a time to avoid burnout, such as one nutrition-related and one physical-related goal. It takes less than 21 days to change a habit, according to the handout.

 

Dunsworth closed the luncheon by thanking Pehr and Cloney for speaking, and he reminded everyone to join Millikin for further heart healthy initiatives, such as the National Heart Walk Day on April 3.

 

Millikin will be hosting its own heart walk that day that will involve walking around the core of campus. It will start at 11:45 a.m. in front of Shilling, facing the New Halls, and participants will walk on the outer edge of campus, only coming on to campus to walk between Leighty Tabor Science Center and ADM Scovill. It will end in front of Shilling, and Pehr is opening Wornick for participants to enjoy another heart healthy meal at $6.50 a person.

 

The American Heart Association will have media there for the event, and it is highly recommended to wear comfortable walking shoes. If you have red, you are welcome to wear that as well.

 

On April 6 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., the benefit for Matt Alward will talk place at “The Shed” in Moweaqua. Tickets are $8 for a pork chop dinner if paid in advance, and it is $10 at the door. Musicians and live and silent auctions will occur to help raise money. Volunteers are welcome to help at this event. If you wish to assist, contact Cassie Monifiston at [email protected].

 

Finally, on April 13, it will be the Macon County Heart Walk at Nelson Park, which, as mentioned in the previous article, will occur at 8:00 a.m. if you wish to participate in the 5K Run and at 8:45 a.m. if you wish to participate in the 1 and 3 mile Walk.

 

The “I Heart You” campaign will still continue.

 

Millikin is taking several strides to ensure heart healthiness awareness is promoted, which is something that Monifiston thinks is good.

 

“The fact that Millikin is even doing this is it’s not just a single event,” Monifiston said. “We have [the luncheon] and then we have the walk around Millikin and we have the actual heart walk. We’re taking different steps. Millikin always tackles one initiative or branches out and does several events under that initiative, which to me is pretty cool because there’s so much to go to, and people will be able to take something from it.”

 

Be sure and join the Millikin community for National Heart Walk Day on April 3, and come out to the Macon County Heart Walk on April 13 at Nelson Park.

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