Health Wanted: Surgical Fashion

The Episode

While celebs and their stylists prepare to make an impression at the Met Gala, we’re preparing for what I like to call the “Code Met” Gala. This week on Health Wanted, we have a passion for surgical fashion.

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The Listener Questions

Are roundabouts bad for pedestrians?

Roundabouts are pretty nice for cars, because they keep traffic moving. They are also a safer alternative to traffic lights and stop signs.

They dramatically reduce serious injury and fatal crashes because the tight circle means cars have to slow down, so any impacts are at a lower speed. Because cars are traveling in the same direction, roundabouts vastly reduce issues like head-on collisions or getting T-boned. Because cars keep moving, they reduce traffic delays and stops by up to 74%. With better traffic flow, vehicle emissions and fuel consumption is also reduced, making roundabouts better for the environment too.  

But what about pedestrians? That depends on the roundabout itself.

If a roundabout is well designed, there should be a raised median in between each lane. Pedestrians are only crossing lanes with traffic going in one direction at a time, and the crossings are much shorter than trying to go across 4 lanes of traffic going in two directions. 

But not every roundabout is built with these physical barriers, and factors like the location of the pedestrian crossing within the roundabout, the roundabout’s geometry, the size of the roundabout, and the behaviors of pedestrians themselves can significantly impact pedestrian safety. There is some data to suggest that crossing roundabouts at the exit of the roundabout is more dangerous for pedestrians than crossing at an entry point, because cars are less likely to yield to pedestrians there. Research has also shown that many pedestrians are afraid to cross roundabouts, which causes them to steer clear of roundabouts altogether. So, it could also be that there’s just fewer pedestrians to hit in general.

Overall, it seems that roundabouts are an improvement to traffic flow and pedestrians, but there’s nuance in how the roundabout is built that can impact both, with some designs being better than others. Plus, roundabouts are still fairly recent to the U.S., so there’s likely a learning curve for drivers and walkers. 

Is there actually a difference between whole grains and refined grains?

A recent article in The Atlantic claimed that the food world propped up “whole grain” foods as being healthier based on studies that showed eating intact whole grain foods (like oats, brown rice, and quinoa) lowered the risk of things like cardiovascular disease and diabetes. But now, “whole grains” is closer to a marketing term that people associate with health.

Whole grains are called “whole grains” because they retain all three of the major components of a grain: the bran, the endosperm, and the germ. When you put those together, they provide you with important nutrients like fiber and vitamins. But now a lot of foods that are labeled as “whole grain” actually just contain those three pieces but broken apart.

The definition for what a whole grain food is changes based on who you’re talking to. According to the FDA, a whole grain food has a grain content of at least 51% whole grain. The Whole Grains Council (which is an industry-sponsored group) says a whole grain food has at least 8 grams of whole grain ingredients per serving. The USDA requires anything considered to be a whole grain food to have a whole grain listed as the first ingredient on its ingredient list. 

And it seems like, even though some of these foods have all the parts of whole grains, the fact that those parts have had their structures broken down during processing and refinement has changed how our bodies process them. It's like how in the fiber episode we talked about how products that have high amounts of added fiber might not be doing for your body what a food that’s naturally high in fiber would do, because the sum is more important than the parts.

The point is that you can’t just trust something that’s labeled as “whole grain” to be giving you the benefits that actual whole grains give, like high fiber, slowed digestion, and more regulated release of sugar into the blood. Instead, you should be eating whole grain products that are closer to the unprocessed or minimally processed end of the spectrum, like oats and quinoa, instead of seeing something like a pop tart that’s labeled “whole grain” but still has 30 grams of sugar and thinking that’s going to be the same kind of healthy choice.

Catch all the listener questions and Laurel’s answers on the full episode of Health Wanted by:

• Streaming at wabe.org or the WABE app
• Subscribing on Apple or Spotify
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