But come on, people, moderation in moderation. And next week brings Valentine’s Day, when many of us like to treat our sweeties – and be treated – to chocolate.

Recipe and photo: eatbetteramerica.com

Don’t opt for the heart-shaped box full of high-fat creams and caramels, though. Instead, show your loved one how much you care by whipping up this relatively light and easy mousse. Each half-cup serving totals 75 calories if you use the sugar-free, fat-free pudding mix (140 calories if you use the “real” kind); make it practically guilt-free by splitting one serving and then going for a romantic walk.

In what healthy ways do you indulge your sweet tooth?

Chocolate espresso mousse

• 2 tablespoons and 1 cup light chocolate soy milk, divided
• 1 tablespoon instant espresso powder or instant coffee granules or crystals
• 1 ounce semisweet or bittersweet baking chocolate
• 1 box (four-serving size) sugar-free and fat-free chocolate instant pudding mix
• 2 cups frozen (thawed) fat-free whipped topping

In a small saucepan, stir together 2 tablespoons soy milk, the espresso powder and chocolate. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is well blended. Cool slightly.

In a medium bowl, beat 1 cup soy milk and the pudding mix with an electric mixer on medium speed or wire whisk 1 to 2 minutes, or until mixture is well blended and thickened.

Stir melted chocolate mixture into pudding mixture. Fold in whipped topping. Spoon into 6 individual dessert dishes; serve immediately or refrigerate until serving time. Store covered in the refrigerator.

Let’s Move is a campaign started by Mrs. Obama two years ago to promote healthy living amongst our nation’s kids. It is a program that was made to solve the problem of childhood obesity. The Let’s Move campaign has ‘provided children with healthier food and greater opportunities for physical activity in schools and communities, helped get families the information they need to make healthier decisions, supported a healthy start in early childhood, and have worked to ensure more people have access to healthy, affordable food.’

The Let’s Move website has many useful tools including, food pyramids, portion recommendations, tools for child care providers and day care centers to help the youngest children get off to a healthy start, resources for parents, and much more.

The first lady has chosen Des Moines as the kick-off location for a three-day national tour promoting the Let’s Move campaign. Thousands of central Iowa elementary and middle school students will descend upon Wells Fargo Arena to participate in this 2^nd anniversary event. Mrs. Obama is scheduled to speak to the crowd at 11:00 a.m. Local acts will perform for the crowd. There will also be some local and national celebrities including: Biggest Loser trainer Bob Harper, ISU basketball coach Fred Hoiberg, figure skater Michelle Kwan, WNBA player Tamika Catchings, NASCAR driver Carl Edwards, and gold-medal gymnast Shawn Johnson. Organizers have said more celebrities could be added.

Des Moines University has recently implemented a new Vision statement. I believe this event fits perfectly with the vision’s main points which include: education, leadership, wellness, and community. We get many opportunities to volunteer here at DMU, but I feel this one is very unique. Our students and employees are getting a chance to come together as one body and represent DMU in one of the best ways they know how: by giving back to our community and volunteering for an event that will hopefully have a positive effect on the future of our children.

This year’s Mini Medical School begins this evening and runs for the five consecutive Tuesdays following. (February 7 – March 6, 2012)

The theme this year is all about becoming the healthiest you possible. You will learn how to do this through the five keys to living a happier, healthier life.

1. The 10 Pillars of Healthy Aging
2. Stress Management Techniques
3. Improve Your Physical Health
4. Enhance Your Emotional Well-Being
5. Establish Good Nutrition Habits

Register online or you can just sign up and purchase your tickets tonight before the talk.

Alisdair “Rod” Philp, Ph.D., a DMU assistant professor of biochemistry and nutrition, was inspired to help students create the group because of student anxiety over genetics questions on medical licensing examinations. He is an elected affiliated scientist of the ACMG, which enabled the student interest group’s affiliation. Philp says the rapid advancement in genetic knowledge and research, along with DMU students’ interest in both, affirmed the idea for such an organization.

“The human genome project took years, around 20 world-class institutions and 2.7 billion dollars,” he says about the effort, completed in 2003, to identify all the thousands of genes in human DNA. “It revolutionized my job. Nowadays, you can sequence the coding part of the genome with one machine and one person in an off-the-shelf test for around $4,500 in 90 days.

“We are on the cusp of a paradigm shift in how genetics impacts clinicians, from family practice to the specialist surgeon,” he adds. “That’s why we need to cater for students who are interested in this area. We have the opportunity to give our students, from any of our programs, a strong advantage in a competitive field.”

As genetics knowledge expands, health care providers will be expected to translate it to their patients.

The parents of a child who’s losing his eyesight due to a genetic disorder, for example, may be better prepared with accurate prognosis for him as well as the risk for any future children based on correlations of genotypes and phenotypes. Members of a family plagued by diseases such as diabetes may be able to have better crafted medications as scientists discover the subtle genetic changes that influence individual patients’ responses to drugs.

In addition, diseases that were always considered too complicated for genetic analysis, such as coronary artery disease, are rapidly being deciphered. Recent advances in the U.S. and Europe have seen successful gene replacement therapies, based on the accurate identification of the causative gene. And as more companies bypass the physician and diagnosis – “an alarming prospect,” Philp says – with services that genotype individuals’ DNA, health care providers will be asked to analyze and translate their patients’ results.

“Medical genetics is a rapidly expanding field and will likely be integrated into nearly every branch of medicine pursued by DMU students,” says DMU osteopathic medical student Arman Cicic, president of the genetics student interest group (SIG). “By providing comprehensive and up-to-date genetics education, the SIG hopes to keep our students at the forefront of contemporary medicine and maintain DMU’s mission to produce highly competent health professionals.”

The mission of DMU’s SIG, says vice president and student Scott Miller, is to “provide students and staff, along with local physicians and residents, with comprehensive medical genetics education to better serve and advocate for the health of our community.” In addition to providing a forum for students to research topics in medical genetics and present their findings, the group will seek to foster networking among health care providers and researchers at other universities, hospitals and more.

The group also plans to survey DMU alumni in family practice and who are physician assistants in central Iowa to learn the most common genetic diseases they encounter in their practices, what they wished they had learned in genetics and what DMU should teach students about genetics today. That information may lead to enriched curriculum and will allow the SIG to design additional courses and continuing education for those practicing in the field.

“This is a student-driven effort to demystify genetics for students, physicians, residents and others,” Philp says. “The field changes so quickly that many practicing physicians can get left behind by uninformative technical terms. Often it appears that the new advances are very complicated, but the beauty of genetics is that it’s like Legos. It fits together one way; you just need to have someone show you the how the trick works.”

The group is also in the process of arranging a genetics grand rounds that draws together oncologists, pediatricians, surgeons, family practice physicians, genetic counselors, nurses and other interested professionals from local health care institutions, a win-win for those participants as well as DMU students and faculty.

“For a basic scientist, I believe it is essential for us to maintain close contact with the health care professional,” Philp says. “If we do not, we run the risk that what we teach students will be out-of-date and irrelevant. Furthermore, these rounds, I hope, will present the opportunity for practitioners in Des Moines to take a seat at a truly interprofessional forum.”

That’s why these recipes, in the February issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine, caught my eye: These healthful mashes will sate your comfort-food cravings without wrecking your waistline.

No offense, Mr. Potato Head, but you're just a little boring.

Cauliflower: Steam until tender, then puree with sauteed onions and a splash of low-fat buttermilk.

Parsnips: Peel and chop into chunks. Roast at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. Mash with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of nutmeg or thyme or horseradish.

Sweet potatoes: Bake whole at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. Smash with a splash of orange juice and a pinch of cinnamon and chili powder. Or mash two baked sweet potatoes with a packet of dry ranch dressing mix.

We plan on releasing a new DMU wallpaper each month so we want your requests. We want to hear any ideas you might have for a wallpaper, it can be professional, funny, artistic or maybe even a little quirky. The only guideline is that your idea has to relate to DMU somehow. Either comment below with your idea or send your idea to me at seth.stevenson@dmu.edu.

View all the DMU wallpapers at www.dmu.edu/wallpapers/ and check back each month for a new one.

This February’s wallpaper is a bit of a Valentines theme with anatomy twist and was created by Nicole Branstad.

Some of the wallpapers are generic DMU and others holiday themed, so check them out.

SAVE THE DATE to attend the fourth annual Des Moines University Foot & Ankle Surgery Symposium!

TOPICS:

• Complicated First Ray
• Controversies in the Hindfoot
• Evidence-Based Medicine
• Decisions in Nerve Surgery
• Sports Medicine
• Trauma 8 to 5

DATE:
April 27 – 28, 2012

LOCATION:
Des Moines University
Student Education Center Auditorium
3300 Grand Avenue
Des Moines, IA 50312

Campus map and directions

REGISTRATION:

• Physicians – $125
• Students – $25

Registration is open. For questions, please email cme@dmu.edu, or call Vanessa at 515-271-1541.