Mark Hyman says, “Through innovation and creativity we can create a new economy based on products and services that make people thin and healthy instead of sick and fat.”
One third of our economy thrives on making people sick and fat —specific, traceable forms of structural violence promoted by Big Food, Big Farming, Big Pharma.
The default condition of a human being in the 21st century is to be obese.
Nearly 75 percent of Americans are overweight; 10% have diabetes.
This is not an accident.
Current food policies and subsidies encourage Big Farming to overproduce corn and soy which are then used to create sugary, fatty, factory-made, industrial food products sold as processed, fast, or junk food.
But in the produce isle of your supermarket you are on your own–the 2010 Farm Bill offers little support to farmers for growing fruits, vegetables, and healthy whole foods.
The resultant omnipresence of cheap, high-calorie, nutrient-poor processed foods in homes, schools, government institutions and food programs, and on every street corner creates default food choices that drive obesity.
Has everything to do with medical budgets, taxes and American debt.
What is difficult is to understand the priorities that we set in our health care policies. We read a lot about government regulation of new medicines and therapies. We hardly read anything about the importance of the very first crucial driver of our health: our food. Read more…