An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure
-Benjamin Franklin
There can be no real discussion on the "health care debate" without first discussing the obese, white elephant that's been sleeping on everyone's couch, eating genetically modified food products sprinkled with corn syrup and watching our high definition TVs. And what about those of us that have never struggled with weight issues, are busy chasing toddlers and thought "we were eating right" by following the recommended daily servings of the USDA's Food Pyramid and still ended up with breast cancer at the age of 37?
According to The Cancer Project (an organization founded by MDs that is advancing cancer prevention and survival through nutrition education and research) "approximately 80% of cancers are due to factors that can be controlled." And the main one is (gulp) diet. Yep! 1 in 100,000 women in China will get breast cancer during her lifetime and the number in the US is 1 in 7. (There is no dairy in the rural Chinese diet.) How can heart disease be rising, children diagnosed with diabetes at unprecedented levels and cancer rates soaring? And...we've never spent more on health care or research.
The recent health care debates, dialogue and discussions (in my opinion) are looking right past the elephant, straight through my kitchen and out past the back door. Why isn't anyone asking who or what is opening my front door and letting this elephant lounge around my home at my personal expense when I certainly wouldn't put myself or my children in harm's way. (Maybe my husband if you catch me on a bad day.) This elephant is showing up in our homes at an alarming rate and no one is asking why? He is consuming billions of dollars in research money to "discover" the latest and greatest technology to detect him and point out which end of the couch he's sitting on. We're spending billions of dollars on drugs to placate him, and we're removing him from our homes at unprecedented rates only to have him return a short time later. I wanna know why he showed up at my house to begin with and why is he sleeping on my couch? PERIOD!
Our medical system rocks when we are in a serious car accident or need emergency surgery for an appendectomy. There is none better in the world. But, again, in my opinion, and as a cancer consumer of health care that experienced several major surgeries in a very limited time frame, we have done a lousy job of addressing the white elephant of nutrition and disease. When you have a heart attack your cardiologist will tell you to change your diet and "eat healthier." As my brother would suggest, the next time you are in the supermarket lug around a twenty pound bag of dog food and ask yourself if you are carrying around that much added weight on your skeleton. A child has to monitor their food intake when living with diabetes. To lower one's cholesterol and blood pressure we are told to "eat right." while we are inundated with low fat natural food products that don't have an ounce of nutritional value but are endorsed by associations, industry sponored research and the "USDA's food pyramid."
So, what is a Supermom to do? Stay tuned...I'll post the rest later. This is depressing and it's too nice out.
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