Natick company pens puzzle publications focused on diabetes
GateHouse News Service
Sun Jun 03, 2007, 12:04 AM EDT
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The puzzle shows nine colorful drawings of cheese, bread, milk, meat, corn, potatoes, a cookie, butter and watermelon. The reader's challenge is to determine which of these foods contain carbohydrates. Knowing this information is particularly important for people with diabetes as carbohydrates raise blood sugar.
The puzzle is just one of many found in ``What Can I Eat?'' - a nutrition puzzle booklet focusing on diabetes. Created by Natick-based Potluck Puzzles, the booklet is being promoted as ``a fun, interactive, family education tool'' designed to reinforce information on diabetes. ``What Can I Eat?'' and its companion publication ``Are You in Control?'' made their debuts in February.
The 13-page booklets represent the first publications for Potluck Puzzles, which intends to release more health-related booklets this year, including Spanish-language versions of the diabetes booklets as well as booklets on adult nutrition and weight management, children's nutrition and weight management and heart health. Though the first two booklets are written for all ages, the subsequent publications will be age specific. All come with the answers in back.
``We have chosen a family-friendly educational approach as managing diabetes requires lifestyle changes which are made easier with the support and understanding of those around you,'' a company press release states.
The firm was started by the husband-and-wife team of James and Katherine Mahon with the goal of promoting patient involvement and self-empowerment through puzzle booklets. Both Mahons have health backgrounds with James having worked as a medical sales executive for more than 15 years and Katherine a registered dietitian who has worked for six years at Newton-Wellesley Hospital where she provides nutrition counseling.
``What we have for patient information now really isn't that interesting,'' says Katherine Mahon, who has a master's degree in nutrition. ``We have a lot of black and white pages with little or no art.''
Adds James Mahon, ``Most people stuff those materials in their pocketbook, or their briefcase or a garbage can on their way out.''
What good is information if no one reads it, Katherine Mahon asks rhetorically. To attract and interest readers, she took a different approach.
``If you have something that's bright and colorful and full of pictures, people stick with you,'' she says. ``That's what busy people only have time to look at. ... Everyone I've given a book to, they read it from front to back. Anything else you give a patient, they probably never open it.''
While the booklets are designed to be interactive and fun, the information they contain is serious, notes Mahon. Take carbohydrates, for example. Or don't take them. ``It's not that they're bad, but carbohydrates make people's blood sugar go up,'' she says. ``They have to be eaten in moderation, but you can't learn moderation about carbohydrates until you know which foods have carbohydrates. ... It's critical information, but the puzzles provide a fun way to learn.'' (continued on back)
Potluck Puzzles focused its first two booklets on diabetes because more than 20 million people in the United States have diabetes, according to Mahon. ``Also, 80 percent of my work at Newton-Wellesley Hospital is with people with diabetes,'' she says. ``It's one of the main reasons people come to see a dietitian. If you have diabetes, the very first thing you need to know a lot about is nutrition.''
While some of the puzzles don't require a Mensa IQ, several are challenging. Puzzles include unscrambling words in order to discover which beverages won't raise blood sugar, circling foods that contain fiber, maneuvering through a maze to avoid unhealthy foods, matching diabetes-related words with their definitions, filling in a diabetes-related crossword puzzle and separating fact from fiction on diabetes.
``Since I've been doing this six years at the hospital, I know exactly what people don't know and that's what I've put in the puzzles,'' says Mahon.
She actually came up with the idea for the booklets five years ago, but didn't know how to get them into the marketplace. Her marriage to James in December changed that.
``He heard about this and he said, `This is a great idea! Let's get them printed,' '' recalls Katherine.
So the Natick residents started the company. Appropriately, the ``potluck'' in its moniker has a culinary connection. ``Potluck refers to food and different kinds of food and our books are eventually going to be about different topics, but they'll always relate back to nutrition,'' says Mahon, who writes all the booklets.
So far, Potluck Puzzles has sold more than 2,500 booklets. Each one costs $2.50. Buying in bulk lowers the price. The booklets can be ordered online at www.potluckpuzzles.com or by calling the company's toll-free number, 1-888-545-8113.
``We don't gouge people on shipping,'' says James Mahon. ``Our goal is to get the books into as many hands as possible.''
Potluck Puzzles is currently in the planning stages of trying to get its booklets into MetroWest schools. It was scheduled to meet with a health and wellness committee in Wellesley last week.
``Our plan is to keep expanding as the market allows,'' says Katherine Mahon.
Clearly, the Mahons are on a mission.
``When you do counseling, when you work with people every day, there's nothing more rewarding than when they're really interested in what you're talking about,'' says Katherine Mahon. ``I could sit there and just lecture and they could sit there and just listen. It's boring for them and for me. This is fun and rewarding because when you present a puzzle like this to someone ... they try it. I like to see people smile and get involved, become an active participant in learning. You get more out of it.''
Adds James, ``This is a company that helps people live healthier lives in a fun, interactive way.''
In a May article appearing in Diabetes Health's e-magazine, author Linda von Wartburg writes, ``Remember the Highlights magazines that used to be in waiting rooms when you were a kid, full of mazes, crossword puzzles, words to unscramble and connect-the-lines games? Potluck Puzzles are little booklets full of the same sort of fun, but the puzzles are all about diabetes. ... Just like the old Highlights, they'd be an asset in a waiting room or anywhere else you might need a simple and entertaining educational tool.''
Oh yes, the answer to the carbohydrate puzzle. The foods that contain carbohydrates are bread, milk, corn, potatoes, cookie and watermelon.
If you missed any, you're not alone. At the American Diabetes Association Expo held recently in Connecticut, Potluck Puzzles set up a booth where the puzzle was showcased. Of the 300 people who tried the puzzle, only two answered it correctly.