DIY Health Care Reform

Dear Friends,

Like it or not, health care reform has passed into law in the United States. I don’t know about you, but the debate/fighting and demonizing really got on my last nerves. I found it stressful to even watch news reports on it anymore. But that isn’t what this Food for Thought is about.

I am of the opinion that true “health care reform” happens in your grocery store, not the drug store or in hospitals. Taking care of the only body you will ever own is a huge responsibility and, needless to say, so many folks just don’t take it seriously.

Eating the right food is less obvious than obeying the speed limit, wearing your seatbelts, quit smoking and bungee jumping, right? I mean those things are pretty obvious.

But the fact is your odds of living a long and healthy life are dramatically impaired by what you eat and what you don’t eat. The old adage is correct; you are what you eat. And I would take it a step further—your food choices are a direct reflection of whether you value your health or not. I know some people aren’t going to like me for saying it, but it’s not my opinion, it is fact: 147 billion dollars are spent every year on obesity-related illness. This figure has gone up 37% since the late 90’s.

I want to be an agent for change, to use a term I’m not too fond of. But I don’t know what else to call it, so agent for change is it. I have some ideas that I believe could help folks have their own DIY Health Care Reform. In fact, I believe it could be revolutionary if taken seriously.

Here then are my 10 ideas for DIY Health Care Reform that you can implement before Congress reconvenes!

  1. Skip the sodas, diet and otherwise and drink water.
  2. Eat foods in their natural form—potatoes instead of potato chips or French fries.
  3. Buy from the local farmer/rancher and support your community.
  4. Eat foods that don’t do drugs (ie: no hormones, antibiotics in your food)
  5. Make soup and eat it. Studies show soup eaters eat more veggies and weigh less.
  6. Make dessert a very special occasion. It’s not special if you have it all the time.
  7. Learn to cook.
  8. Grow a veggie garden and do it organically.
  9. Avoid fake foods; margarine isn’t butter, it’s just a few molecules away from plastic.
  10. If it comes in a box with cartoons, with 2 inches of unpronounceable ingredients on the side and a huge advertising campaign, you don’t want it.

I could probably come up with 10 more!

Taking personal responsibility for the food you eat is the first step to good health. Good health isn’t a crap shoot for most people; it’s an intentional way of living to help maintain and protect the body God gave you.

I’m going to leave it at that. No guilt trip necessary; just get serious people. This is your LIFE we’re talking about.

Love,
Leanne Ely, your Dinner Diva
www.savingdinner.com get a free menu when you sign up for our newsletter!
Watch this week’s new webisode, www.savingdinner.tv

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

0 Responses

  1. Great post! I just read “In Defense of Food,” and while I thought my family ate reasonably heathly, it was a wake up call. Then my husband, whose a medical lab tech, had me proof read a paper he’d written. According to his research, there is a staggering increase in the rate of infection after hip and knee replacements, which are increasing at staggering rates themselves. The bacteria are becoming resistent to all known antibiotics, and the conclusion of those in the medical community is that we have to develop new antibiotics. What!?!?!?! Why isn’t the conclusion that we have to reduce rates of obesity and increase activity so that fewer people need joint replacements in the first place? We have gotten far too comfortable relying on modern medicine to fix us. It’s time we realize that medical science cannot and should not make up for a lifetime of poor eating habits and sedentary days.

  2. That’s nice, but “eating right” won’t help you re: being able to afford healthcare if, say, your child is born with a skull deformity, and due to that “pre-existing condition” there is no insurance company who will even SELL you insurance, forget the cost. Eating right can certainly help you (in theory) live a longer and healthier life, but I think you’ve completely missed the point about healthcare. Not all conditions have anything to do with eating??? Maybe take a Tylenol and pay a little more attention.

    P.S., my father ate extremely healthy and exercised TWICE A DAY, and suddenly died of a brain tumor at 64. So…it’s nice to eat well, but maybe we should help people be able to afford healthcare JUST IN CASE. :-/ Sheesh.

    1. Hi Bessbonney,

      Thanks for taking the time to post your comments on Leanne’s article. You are right, health insurance and health care reform is still a very real necessity. You are also right that you can eat well all your life and still have heath problems. However, I think Leanne’s point is that you can take a few “typical heath risks” off the table just by putting healthier food on your table. There is not a single solution to health problems but eating right and feeding our families good real food can certainly help. 🙂

      With smiles,
      Nikki
      (P.S. I did remove the link to the other blog from your post as we do not allow links in our comments unless you are linking back to your own blog. 🙂 Thanks for understanding. )

  3. I always find your articles to be very informative, and this one is very good up to # 9, I was very disappointed to see you quote a meaningless and misleading piece of “information” that has been floating around the internet for the last while. Is margarine only a few molecules away from plastic ????? Maybe………………………. but many good and natural things (water included) are only one molecule away from deadly poisons.
    Using vague scare tactics only lowers the quality of your work.

    1. Maggie,

      Perhaps more of us should be scared of what we are eating. Is it one molecule away from plastic? I dunno… what I do know is that you’ll never find that in my fridge. 🙂 Thanks for your comment. We appreciate you opinion and support.

      With smiles,
      Nikki

Leave a Reply to Yeah... Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *