The Broccoli Connection

(considering the Future of Health Care in America, and Life on TV in the Office)

This week’s NEJM is filled with good stuff.

There’s a super-extra-really important article on a new breast cancer drug, a PARP inhibitor called iniparib, for patients with triple negative breast cancer, and an accompanying editorial that matters. (Some ML readers might want to take a look at an article I wrote for Cure Magazine on new drugs, including PARP inhibitors, for treatment of metastatic breast cancer.)

There’s a perspective I still need to read on the scope of what nurses might do. Another on future nurses, and another on how to assess an ACO, which by the end of this health news-rich week every citizen should know stands for an Accountable Care Organization.

And there are some stomach-churning letters about the mammography screening debate.

But for this Friday morning, I’ll just mention the perspective piece called Can Congress Make You Buy Broccoli? And Why That’s a Hard Question. Really I think the better question is whether or not the government can force people to eat broccoli.

And how could those NEJM authors have anticipated last night’s episode of the Office, that Michael would break HR rules by forcing Kevin to eat a stalk of raw broccoli, because he’d made a new year’s resolution to eat more vegetables? Kevin spat it out, forcefully and problematically for some viewers.

My tentative conclusion is that someone needs to teach Kevin and his colleagues how to cook.

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Related Posts:

• Mars Chocolate Company Advertises With Broccoli
• New Fairway Delivers Fresh Produce to My Neighborhood
• A Vitamin Chart From the National Women’s Health Information Center
• A Poster for Healthy Eating, 1940s Style
• A Medical School Problem Based Learning (PBL) Parody of ‘The Office’