The Most InExpensive Healthcare Reform-Day 80

Happy Friday. May this day bring you joy, happiness, peace and above all LOVE.

Today, my daughter and I are at another bookstore. She is reading Richard Wright, "Black Boy". This is an autobiography of the life of the black author, as he was growing up in segregated America.

I have read the same book probably about three (3) times. I absolutely loved it. Moreover, I remember a section in the book where he wrote about being very "hungry". He wrote that there was very little food for him and his family. He would go the entire day on just a can of "pork and beans". And I thought to myself, "food is so plentiful now". Instead of starving to death most people are eating themselves to an early grave.

This brings me to today's topic. The most inexpensive healthcare reform. Do you know what it is?

Ever heard of "self preservation"?

Self-Preservation- preservation of oneself from harm or destruction.

Preserve-to keep alive or in existence; make lasting:

Now can you see where I am going? In America, food is abundant. Food is everywhere. Therefore, we must make thoughtful and wise choices.

The "choice" to select foods that will preserve and maintain our overall health of our "outer shells"(bodies). If we eat healthy foods, and carefully monitor our intake, can you conclude that your body will be in a state of preservation?

But if we chose to eat greasy delicious hamburgers, fries, cakes cookies, fried chicken, and drink sodas all day, can you conclude that our bodies would break down and be very unhealthy?(sickly/diseased)

Therefore, the most inexpensive healthcare reform is reforming our own minds to understand the importance of our own daily healthcare plan. Now, we still need health insurance, to cover the cost of the necessity of essential medical care. But most healthcare problems that we suffer from here in American can be avoided.

According to "Rye and Health":

"Improved diet can help unlock the door to good health. People who lead a healthy lifestyle also pay attention to their nutritional habits. Good nutrition means adequately nourishing the body by choosing a variety of foods low in fat, salt and sugar and high in carbohydrates, especially starch and dietary fibre. Mortality is significantly lower in people consuming whole grain products (Andersson et al. 2000, Slavin 2003)."

And Bobby Hasselbring writes that, "You're at greater risk for high blood cholesterol and heart disease if you eat a diet that often includes deep-fried or breaded foods, which are high in fat. Diets high in saturated fat and cholesterol tend to raise total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol. Foods that are fried or breaded tend to be very high in fat because they are cooked in fat. When you fry foods, such as chicken, that already contain saturated fat, you simply add more fat to them."

It is important to point out that much of our diet is planned around what is convenient. But according to Tom Laskawy, convenience comes at a serious price to our health:

"What McDonald’s sells is convenience. As does General Mills. And Wal-mart. These are the companies that effectively dictate food policy. While they are aided and abetted by other big players all the way back up the supply chain, as the ultimate buyers of most of the world’s agricultural output, they are the prime movers. These companies may have been made possible by the agricultural innovations of the early 20th century, but by the 21st century, they succeeded in flipping the causal arrow—we have the system they need to survive.

When we talk about reform, about shutting down CAFOs, stopping GMOs, eliminating harmful pesticides and increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables—all of which we must do—we still have to operate under the pestilential threat of "convenience." Americans’ time and inclinations, not to mention income inequality, already conspire against food. It’s not that Americans (or anyone else for that matter) want bad food. But if offered convenience in exchange, they’ll often take it.

So which meal would you select for your own healthcare reform? French fries or a nice salad?


Have a healthy and productive day.

L. for Love