A Hole In Your Wallet: Unhealthy Eating Habits

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Healthcare has no easy solutions. Whether it's publically funded, privately funded or both it's costly.

I believe in publically funded healthcare but I also believe people need to be a lot healthier and we all have a responsibility to be.

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Vast amounts of money spent on health care for people who are needlessly ill could be being saved or redirected for better use. If everyone lived a reasonably healthy lifestyle the money saved on paying for the taxes and direct payments for the healthcare could be spent on services and products to keep economies stronger and more people employed.

Alternatively the money could be used to improve education, environmental protection, scientific research or transport infrastructure. Things that make our lives more successful and help us progress. Unlike the obesity crisis which is making a mockery of our potential! Isn't it a no brainer that if we can find ways to be healthier that are achievable we should go for them?

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Here are my basic recommendations for people...

1. Drink a glass of wine a day.
Preferably the red wine variety called Cabernet Savignon, the wine with the most health benefits. Among other things it tricks the human body into thinking it is receiving 20-30% less calories than it actually is. Consumed in moderation this could go a considerable way to tackling much obesity and the costly illnesses it causes.

2. Don't drink much alcohol in general.
It's bad for the liver, makes people fatter and hungrier. How can we achieve this? Research why people want to drink so much. Could the pub environments be made more soothing so people needed less intoxication?

3. Drink one or two coffees a day.
Preferably with no sugar. Milk is fine and moderates the strong coffee taste. Coffees like wine prevent Alzheimer's disease, another costly and heartbreaking illness that is increasing as the elderly population rises. It also aids against Parkinson's. Both result from loneliness. Coffee seems to be the best drug there is - very few risks, especially in moderation yet with many benefits. It also helps people lose weight. How many elderly people know about these benefits?

4. Place higher taxes on takeaways/fast food joints and lower taxes on restaurants.
Encourage people to sit down at a table and eat a good meal with a balance of vegetables, protein and starches. The money saved from propping up a health service for scores of needlessly ill people could be used to subsidise via extra low tax rates restaurants, especially ones that offer plenty of fruit and vegetables and healthy options.

5. Reduce car use drastically to encourage fast transporation.
Well organised train transportation is the fastest mass transportation there is. If people have access to fast transportation they have more time to spend eating a healthy meal or exercising or socialising - all somewhat basic essentials of the human existence. Cars result in congestion and long commute times which is a waste of time and makes people more likely to opt for takeaways and fast food and less time socialising.

These pragmatic proposals could deliver a much more sustainable and happy country. Does anyone really want to be isolated in a nursing home for elderly people when they get old? Wouldn't it be lovely if we all had the time to speak to our elders, to sit down for a good meal, to exercise? I don't see many good reasons why we can't achieve these changes. There will be some challenges no doubt but the current lifestyle is a lot more miserable.

The main problem with food and health is that people are basically abusing their digestive systems. Humans are hunter gatherers who's bodies are designed for dozens of small meals (snacks) a day not a few large ones.

If society didn't teach people to eat 3 large meals a day they might realize that they are supposed to stop eating when they are no longer hungry instead of when their stomach is full and that the feeling you get from eating until your stomach is full is actually rather unpleasant because it's meant as a warning that you've eaten too much.

A persons digestive system can only extract x amount of nutrients over a given amount of time (so long as it has food in it... with 3 meals most of the time it's got nothing to work on) that doesn't change regardless of how much you eat. The more you eat at once the more of it basically doesn't get digested and goes to waste (generally people eat because their bodies want some vitamin or mineral so they have a huge meal, most of the nutrition of it is lost but the starches are so easily digested it turns almost directly to fat while they are still left hungry).

Your body adjusts to the amount of food you eat at once though and small meals are most efficient. Your stomach actually shrinks doing that (returning to its natural size) and you find that you don't have to eat as much a day or that you even can eat as much as you used to at once (I eat perhaps the equivalent to a single meal over the course of a day, am never hungry and have lost weight). People don't realize how much they have unnaturally stretched out their stomachs.

Add to that the fact that the thirst response is so weak in modern humans that it's almost always mistaken for hunger until it gets so severe it can't be ignored and it's no wonder food is killing so many people.

You forgot these:

0) Walk, do yoga. lift some weights, or do some other moderate exercise daily.

-1) Eat lots of fruits and veggies and little processed food.


Also, I am not sure if your two recomendations on alcohol can be implemented. If everyone were to drink one glass of wine per day, it would lead to more people slipping into alcoholism. I am not anti-alcohol and think it is up to people to make their own choice ... moderate alcohol consumption does have some health benefits, but it can also lead to dependency. I am not convinced that a full cost/benefit analysis has been done that shows that alcohol is net beneficial, and most of the compounds in red wine can be gotten elsewhere.

I'm not 21 yet (not until january), and even if I were, I'm afraid to try anything alcoholic since I don't want to lose control of my mind... I'm already a caffeine addict to compensate for the average 6 hours of sleep I get per day; I don't need to add alcohol to the list...


Didn't that just contradict point 1 directly?

Drinking alcohol hails back to the day when water was not safely drinkable due to bacteria, etc. No reason to keep it around anymore, but some people keep claiming it calms them down (most people in my experience don't)...

I'm not saying abolish alcohol entirely (we saw how well the 18th amendment worked), but it's something that should be reserved to one's own home or private parties...


Parkinson's resulting from loneliness? I'd like to see the data on that... John Paul II had Parkinson's, and he was around people all the time... I've heard about the caffeine being able to combat the problems of Parkinson's, but I've never heard of it being caused by loneliness...

Also, caffeine can have adverse effects on the body as well... it is technically capable of producing psychoactive addiction (I cite my own addiction as an example), and one of the few freely available drugs (i.e. legal, no prescription required) capable of doing so. It can also cause a wide host of issues, especially when overdosing (although doing so requires high concentrations found in energy drinks or caffeine tablets)...


Which one would Subway be placed under? I phased out a lot of fast food eating while out in favor of subway, which is known for having far healthier selections than fast food joints...


It's only in major urban areas (particularly NYC and Washington DC) that extensive subway systems have been put into effect (and are feasible...) Since there's much more land area in the United States than over in Europe (as well as a propensity for urban sprawl), trains just aren't as economically feasible in suburban areas compared to major cities... To truly be feasible to the point that mass transit can replace cars, there needs to be a critical population density...


Pragmatic, yes, although not necessarily practical:

1) Telling people how to live is generally frowned upon in the US (even if it's practiced by some people that complain when others tell them how to live...)

2) Some of these are impractical given the population of the US and its distribution. Trains are good in high-density nations like England, but not in places like the rural US...

Subway could be considered an exceptional takeaway. It could be taxed halfway inbetween the unhealthy takeaways and the restaurants.

I understand your point people don't like being told how to live. But I think my proposals are reasonable. I'm pro-capitalism but anti-destructive capitalism.

In my opinion the people responsible for capitalism and the gains it's brought the world - the Puritans who set up in America - would not approve of today's corporations who don't take responsibility for their actions like McDonald's, Burger King and the supermarkets promoting cheap unhealthy options.

I agree totally, though not much with the stated recommendations. My own suggestions are some fruit and veg every day, little or no sugar, enough sleep, and 20 minutes of direct sunlight per day, aswell as less food in general.

However there is an awful lot of money in ill-health. Huge industries are based on it. You would need to find profit-making activities to replace them if you didn't want to cause increased unemployment etc caused by medical/pharmaceutical companies going to the wall.

And food addiction, ( usually the result of hidden food intolerance ), creates a lot of jobs too. Think of all the fastfood restaurants etc which would shut if people stopped eating out of boredom, craving, etc.

In ancient China doctors were paid by their patients when they were well, not when they were ill.

Wheat and dairy and sugar addictions fuel large parts of the capitalist system. Not only do people addicted to these things spend far more than they need on food so as to get their fix but the mental state it induces in many, ( depression, anxiety, etc ), creates a market for all the things people will then pay for in an attempt to relieve those feelings.
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Chow down topic

I gained weight eating smaller meals more often because my insulin levels did not have enough time to drop, so I was never hungry, and I would just graze all day. If this method works for 90% of humanity, great. But it was not healthy for me.

I eat dairy, wheat and sugar. I just do not overdo it. Everything in moderation.Of course, I do not have any metabolic/circulatory or allergy/sensitivity issues.

I do not drink any wine/alcohol but I take flax seed oil. Apparently vitamin E is not as effective as once thought.

Fruit and vegetables and of course activity and Vitamin D are essential on a daily basis.

Good ideas to make us healthy!

I work for a Health Insurance company and we have a huge web presence. The main theme is how to eat, live and breathe health and healthy life.

www.regence.com

I work for the Government Programs department, where we administer Medicare replacement policies - (medicare is government sponsored health care for people over 65 years of age or with disabilities or end stage renal disease that pays 80% of health costs, the "replacement" policies pay the other 20%)

I talk to mostly seniors who have eaten the American Diet of the 1920's though 1970's, and the number one perscription is expensive anti cholestorol medications. So many animal fats over a lifetime can severely damage your health.

Granted, I only talk to those who have survived, goodness knows how many others have long gone to their reward, but as I scan down their summary of medical claims these people live their lives around going to the doctor! 4 to 8 visits to various medical providers a WEEK!

So I can understand why my company (which has no stockholders, we are a not for profit company of members that pool our money to get discounts and insure each other for medical expenses, etc.) puts so much concentration on good health habits for the internet generations.

Merle

Last edited by sinsboldly on 09 Dec 2008, 10:07 am, edited 1 time in total.

Red Wine is expensive, and growing more expensive as the Government insists on adding tax after tax to it. And the "pub environment" being more soothing? WTF are you even trying to claim here? People do not become more intoxicated because pubs are stressful. In fact that's probably the least applicable factor to excess drinking.

Couple of points here: You will only lose control of your mind if you drink to excess.
Alcohol IS a social de-inhibitor and, in moderation, can have a beneficial effect, especially for those with social issues. As for reserving alcohol to private use.... It is UNSUPERVISED alcohol consumption which causes the most problems for society and health, as there is no force or factor stopping you from drinking. In a well-run establishment, excess consumption is more difficult, if not impossible, as is illegal (ie underage) drinking. You are generally safer in supervised premises than a party with alcohol.

And english trains are s**t. No two ways about it. They are only good in principle.

The single best and most cost-effective thing we can do for everyone's health benefit is:

Get the emphasis off weight and onto health at every size.

We hear so much about the so-called 'obesity epidemic' that we don't check the facts. Which are not what most people think they are. Goalposts have been changed (you can now, without having put on an ounce, be overweight or obese at a lower BMI than you were in 1998), good hard studies have been ignored or misreported, and basically everything is now skewed in a direction from which certain companies and industries profit very muchly...at the cost of a whole load of human misery.

The weight loss industry is part of the problem, not the solution. And while eating healthily and exercising are great, and should be encouraged and made easier, they will not necessarily ever make everyone thin.

If you want a look at what's really going on, have a read of this:

http://www.junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/

Understand, I am not by any means against health. But we look too much at what makes us thin and not enough at what makes us healthy, and they are not necessarily the same thing at all. It's time we realized that heathy people come in different shapes and sizes.

Looks like you've got cause and effect the wrong way round here



Seconded! Sure obesity is a genuine problem, but the number of not-really-fat people obsessed with losing weight is muddying the waters.

Each age has it's obsessions and fads. Looking through old newspapar ads, for the first half of the 20th C, people were obsessed with digestion and 'regular movements' and bought all sorts of rubbish as a result. Today it's weight loss and in 50 years people will look back and laugh at our primitive beliefs.



Makes sense. Doctors would be just the start, though. This should apply to dentists and car mechanics, too.

Sure, there were rubbish products. But in the first half of the 20th century, many people living in US cities got 50% of their calories from refined (white) wheat products (bread, noodles, etc) and ~40% of their calories from sugar, meat and lard. They needed something for regular movements - fiber. Modern breakfast cereals were invented to provide some of that, they were whole grain.

I remember in the book "Deliverence" (that made the movie of the same name) by James Dickey where he talks about driving up to the river head in Georgia in the US. He said the lard biscuit billboards competed with the 'Black Draught' laxative billboards in the eternal drive to plug up and unplug the Southern bowel.

I remember stuff like that.

Merle

the thing ive learned from grochery shopping is the the better food is for you the more expencive it is. also i read somewhere that the less you eat the longer you live

Granted that may be true, but I don't want to find out since alcohol intoxication is one of the things I have a real fear of... One drink can do a number on your coordination, which is one of my only 3 talents in this god-forsaken world, and I want to keep it...


Is a a bar or pub really "supervised premises"? Wouldn't it be better for business if that weird-lookin guy kept ordering the drinks? I'm talking about being alone at home, with nobody around to make me drink that next beer... no doubt my resistance to peer pressure would be incredibly weakened if I were intoxicated...