How we eat: the root of most evil

While on the topic of Heathcare reform, it is related to another topic that I feel very passionate about. The way we eat.

Simply put, the way we eat is unhealthful, inhumane, and unsustainable.

Unhealthful: it's well documented by Michael Pollan and the like that we need to eat food, mostly plants, and not too much. Processed foods, meat, etc cause diabetes and cancer. This is well documented and proven so I won't bother here. In short, eat plants and seeds and nuts. And some fish.

Inhumane: Factory farming is well documented to cause misery to billions of animals each year.

Unsustainable: we simply can't keep eating like this. The green/global warming people are way misguided. The real culprit is our food (esp meat production which drives corn production) that causes the problems we have now. The Meatless Monday campaign says that if we cut out meat on Mondays, that would do more for global warming than giving everyone in the US a hybrid car.

So, I see our food system at the root of most of the evil in America: our health crisis, our environmental crisis, and, by extension, our disastrous energy and defense policy

Dear American Citizen: you need to fix this, do NOT rely on the government. Eat Plants.

Heath Care Reform

Regarding the healthcare reform debate, it seems a moderate, reform-minded approach is being overlooked, in favor of populist ideas which could end up in disaster and unintended consequences (namely, hurting those we are trying to help).

There are certain facts, which seem to me irrefutable:

1) We spend too much on "preventative" measures, such as unnecessary tests which are the basis of healthcare inflation over the past 15 years

2) Covering the 40MM uninsured at the same level that medicare or private plans cover people now, will put this country into debt beyond a level that can be tolerated (CBO estimates $2T). This risks collapse of our economy.

3) True prevention, such as exercise and diet are the only cost effective approaches that are proven to work. They are the true win-win.

4) One can squeeze the drug companies (who are headed for generics anyways) and the insurance companies (who will just exit the business), but that doesn't solve the problem. Those numbers are minor in the scheme of what we try to accomplish

The implications seem clear to me, as a matter of common sense, but do not seem to be part of any of the reform bill:

1) Adjusting cost based on on a patient's health and therefore, cost to the system. Data shows that as patients have to bear the costs of their actions, they will behave better. Pres Obama speaks of "responsibility", but there's no action there. To allow people to run up tests for "free" seems like a recipe for what we have now!

2) If Medicare is insolvent, why would any other government system be expected to work better? Any true reform needs to reform the process, as in #1