Forgetting to take care of our health amidst the controversy of healthcare....
Why is it that amidst all the recent talk about health-care, no one is talking about taking care of our health and well being? Seems to me, a lot of people are putting a lot of faith in an agency to control their food, in an agency that they turn around and bash for not being able to maintain the proper management of anything, let alone something as massive as the food industry. I have heard people complain about how they are not going to be able to afford their insurance premiums anymore, yet they aren't taking into consideration that most insurance companies provide plans with lower deductibles for people that use it less. Funny how, in general, the people that use their insurance the least (barring 'pre-existing' conditions, lifelong illnesses etc..) are not the people munching on McDonald's and Taco Bell three or more times a day. Now, that's not to say that there aren't people out there who can do that and not end up at the doctor too often, I used to be able to...when I was sixteen. So here I am, seven years later, feeling the effects of those poor decisions. There is a myriad of reasons that the rise of nutritionism has 'conveniently' coincided with a steady rise in various illnesses (diabetes, coronary heart disease, ADD, etc. etc..) that are recently (in some cases not so recently) being linked to diet, exercise and social interaction. Families that eat together and people in communities that are more social (face-to-face) live happier, healthier and longer. It comes back around to the old saying, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" that simple saying holds more truth than people give it credit for. To digress, the people that eat good, real food, exercise on a regular basis and are more social, don't go to the doctor as much. Therefore, effectively lowering their premiums. But the problem is, no one is talking about this, everyone is more concerned with who's getting what coverage, why, and most importantly, who's paying for it. The fact that the issue of "self-health responsibility" is taking a back burner in a country that has some of the highest obesity, diabetes, heart disease, ADD, ADHD and depression statistics in the modern world, seems more than a travesty. There are people out there raising their children on fast food...this does nothing but slowly murder them. These people are condemning their children to a short life full of affliction, disease, handicaps and ultimately death. Yet, we as a society, stand by and watch it happen. We encourage them to go see a doctor, get their stomach banded, or take the latest prescription drugs to ease their symptoms (along with the sister drugs that counteract the side effects of the first one, and the cousin drugs that counteract the side effects of the sister drugs, and so on, and so on). Why isn't anyone speaking out about this? Why isn't anyone passing bills and laws to restrict drug companies from advertising as if they were the latest fashions or something? I just saw a program about food on the Travel Channel and theses words came straight from the hosts mouth when he was talking about eating a large amount of food in a restaurant, "Overkill. We're Americans, that's what we're all about." He is more right than he could imagine, we are about overkill, quite literally, and we are doing it to ourselves, one Big Mac at a time. No matter how you feel about the recent legislature, no matter how much you pay for insurance, one fact remains true, the more responsibility you take over your own health, the less you will need the insurance. It will still be there for it's main purpose, emergencies, not a monthly prescription. Take care of yourself for crying out loud! You only get one body, and one life on this Earth! So remember, vote with your fork, and as always "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
