Commentary By Ron Beasley
The insurance industry has been taking most of the heat in the health care debate. While they are certainly part of the problem they are not the only problem and possibly not even the biggest problem. In The Medical Industrial Complex I took a look at unnecessary procedures, tests and prescriptions. When it comes to the bottom line of the Medical Industry more is better even if it does little good or is even harmful. Today we will look at another source of health care expense, the food we eat.
This appeared in my local paper, The Oregonian, a couple of weeks ago.
Amber Meyer doesn't need university studies or proclamations from
experts to tell her something's wrong with the U.S. food system.
The
reality hits the Portland resident in the gut every time she tries to
figure out how to feed her family of six on the $500 a month in food
stamps that supplements her husband's income from a print shop.
That comes to less than $1 per meal per family member.
And
that means Meyer must decide whether to pay now for healthful food that
won't stretch to the end of the month. Or pay later if the cheaper but
processed, fattening foods affect their health in the future.
"It's
really hard, but I have to choose filler foods -- it's like Hamburger
Helper constantly and loads of Top Ramen," Meyer said. "Fresh produce
is out. Meals from scratch are out. If you put enough mac and cheese on
their plates it'll fill them up, but I know it's not healthy."Food is more abundant than ever, researchers say, but it's often the wrong kind of food.
Meyer is not alone, in the United States the more a food is processed the less it costs and the less nutritional value it has.
Recipe For DisasterNinety percent of Americans' household food budget is spent on
processed foods, the majority of which are filled with additives and
stripped of nutrients. Discover which common ingredients in the foods
you eat pose the greatest risk to your health.
Grab the broccoli with cheese sauce from the freezer, the box of
instant rice pilaf from the pantry, or the hot dogs from your fridge
and squint at the ingredient list's fine print. You'll likely find food
additives in every one.
Is this healthy? Compared to the foods our bodies were built to eat, definitely not.
Processed, packaged foods have almost completely taken over the diet of
Americans. In fact, nearly 90 percent of our household food budget is
spent on processed foods, according to industry estimates.
Unfortunately, most processed foods are laden with sweeteners, salts,
artificial flavors, factory-created fats, colorings, chemicals that
alter texture, and preservatives. But the trouble is not just what's
been added, but what's been taken away. Processed foods are often
stripped of nutrients designed by nature to protect your heart, such as
soluble fiber, antioxidants, and "good" fats. Combine that with
additives, and you have a recipe for disaster.
So what makes processed food so hazardous to your health? Here are the top four common additions to processed foods.
- Trans Fats
- Refined Grains
- Salt
- High Fructose Corn Syrup
In addition there are the preservatives and artificial coloring and flavoring - chemicals.
And it starts early.
This is convenient poison that many parents send to school with their children and then wonder why they are overweight and develop type 2 diabetes.
This from The American Academy Of Pediatrics:
School lunches 101: Avoid prepackaged, processed foods
Stroll through any grocery store and you�ll see a bevy of neatly compartmentalized prepackaged foods designed to make packing a child�s lunch fast and easy. But with the ever-present threat of childhood obesity, these convenience products might be a ticking time-bomb.
It�s important to make sure your children are getting nutritious lunches instead of refined and processed foods like chips, cookies and roll-ups. In processed foods, nutrients are stripped away and all that remains are sugar and artificial sweeteners.
As we can see the cost of health care is a lot more than the insurance companies and in reform that doesn't look at are entire life style and culture will fail. Perhaps it's a Don Quixote like illusion to think we can take on all the players and actually reduce the cost of health care. We have heard some talk about soft drinks and "junk food" but in reality 90% of what Americans eat is junk food.
I'm not so convinced on the expense side. My experience has been the more processed the food, the more expensive, which is exactly what you would expect. For cheap eating, it is hard to beat beans and rice, potatoes and eggs, with some cabbage and onion on the side.
ReplyDeleteGranted, this takes more time to cook and can get old fast. But I don't buy what people say about processed food being the cheapest way to eat.