HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
Aug 14, 2003 A recent study by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FA0) shows that 'the richest fifth of the people on the planet 'eat 45 perent of all the meat and fish; the poorest fifth gets just 5 percent.' The study further states that "compared with the relatively recent past, we live today in a world of abundance...There is mroe than enough food for all...theoretically." Yet, there is ramped malnutrition. I can understand the ravages of poverty and ignorance, and how it adversely affects populations around the world. But malnutrition exists right here, in the richest country in the world, a country of abundance. Obesity has finally come to the attention of the general public. Obesity is a dietary related illness, indicating malnutrition. One of the first things my former European students noticed about Americans, is how fat we are. Malnutrition is caused by a deficiency in the intake of nutrients by the cells of the body; it is usually triggered by a combinaiton of two factors: (1) an insufficient intake of proteins, calories, vitamins, and minerals and (2) frequent infections. Hippocrates said to let your food be your medicine. What is wrong with our food and eating habits that we are no longer healthy? In the bigger picture, are we also contributing to world hunger by our habits? It has been said that you are what you eat. It has also been said that destiny follows a certain path. First there is thought, then action, then habit, then destiny. Our thinking about food, our habits, are creating a sickly, marshmellow type population. How is it possible to stay healthy if our food is not nourishing? Pumped with chemicals, or made mostly of chemicals, even a basic meal doesn't supply the necessary building blocks for a healthy body. Take our fast food industry. The food is approved for consumption, and it looks like food, but is it really? That squishy white bread with all that processed meat! We hardly have to chew it. The preparation itself is appalling. Efficient, available, but appalling. The animals that become the meal are raised on vast expanses of land and fed what would, first hand, feed whole populations. These beasts are also pumped with chemicls that eventually end up in our systems. Kurt Vonnegut has provided us with a graphic description of slaughter houses. Spiritual and religious people believe that the pain and fear of these animals suffer from being inhumanely slaughtered, end up in our consciousness. Vegetarinism is not for everyone. In the 1960's, being a vegetarin was almost as bad as being a communist. Reports were circulated in papers about young girls dying from pursuing such a diet. I couldn't understand the hysteria, then. But considering how esconomically threatened the meat industy would be, I have put it in perspective. The grain growers, all the laborers, cattle ranchers, their help, the slaughterers, the truckers, the packers, the sellers and all of their families would experiencse a downturn in their fortunes if everyone became a vegetarian. It makes me laugh, now, when I walk into a gourmet supermarket of "whole foods." It makes me cry when I see the prices. To eat a healthful diet is now almost too expensive for the average person. Abundant, "normal" food has become the province of the rich. As far as the deleterious effects of our regular fare on our national health, I am sure that the acutaries and accountants, who are behind every business decision, have calculated how many people will be afflicted by what diseases based on well researched studies of our habits. Pharmacies and the pharmaceutical industry are surely benefitting from these studies. After all, we can rectify most discomfort from a pill. Then there is our medical community and the insurance companies that support them. If pills do not work, we can always have surgery. We can evern hope to find replacement parts, either from mechanical means or animal. There are some who would say that the enemies who live among us, lose their anti-American zeal, and become soft once they live here and adopt our American life-style. So many people are worried about our life-style and preserving our heritage. I wonder what heritage and cultural values they mean. Alvin Toffler once descriabed the conceopt of a throw-away culture. For the sake of convenience and efficiency, we have thrown away substance. Our food production industry and our own habits are degrading our populations' health. Obesity and diabete and other related diseases are not only creating a health crisis, but are affecting our nation's productivity as well as intellectual development. Is this our life-style? If it is, we should hold a national memorial to the death of our own father of modern medicine, and bury our heritage. Perhaps, if common knowledge is correct, and we are dying by our own mouths, we should export this to our enemies abroad as a national priority. In this fashion, our enemies will be overcome and our superior technology will finish the remaining business. ------------ Email Risa: risa008@yahoo.com Comment on this column in the forum. Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
