Health care, not just sick care is what we need.

A major issue in the USA's 2008 elections is how to deal with citizens that are not getting adequate "health care". This is really putting a bandage on the real problem: the government allows, even encourages, such a great number of its constituents to fall to poor health in the first place. Much of this is due to corruption in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and education system. For example:

• Due to the combination of corn subsidies and sugar tarrifs, high fructose corn syrup is the cheapest sweetener (detailed explanation). Moreover, it is allowed to be marketed as "natural" by the FDA, tricking the ignorant. Even further, stevia is classified as a dietary supplement, so it cannot legally be added to food.


• The USA is largely automobile dependent. That is, it is difficult to go anywhere outside of a municipality the size of Northbrook without using a car. This wastes a great opportunity for conveniently fitting cardiovascular exercise into a busy life by moving with feet or a bicycle. Solving this requires a paradigm shift in urban and suburban planning. Some sort of device like a bicycle that could be trivially compacted to a small enough size to carry or fit in a pocket would be incredibly useful as well. For example, one could ride it to train station, get off the train, then still have transportation faster than foot for the last part of the journey.
• Another problem with urban planning is how it can be inconvenient, especially in poorer areas, to buy healthy food. Eating Well is a Revolutionary Act
• Somehow some people have gotten the idea that the only reason to eat well is to lose weight. But the purpose of eating well is to live an overall better, longer, and tastier life. I do not think this cultural problem is any one entity's fault; perhaps it is largely due to weight loss pill/diet advertisements.
  

• Advertisements for obscenely unhealthy substances to put into a human run rampant. I am talking about alcohol advertisement during football games and marketing breakfast cereals of empty calories to young children.


• Health education is not very adequate. Most do not know what they do to themselves. Caffeine IS an addictive drug with withdrawal symptoms and tolerance that builds up quite quickly. It also can cause frequent urination, anxiety, irritability, nervousness, headaches, and sleep problems. Alcohol IS an addictive drug as well. Not just an addictive drug, a very dangerous drug as well that can cause severe impairment in judgment, brain damage, and liver damage among many other horrible effects. Just because a food is organic does not mean it is good for you, it means it is good for Earth. Just because a food has fat in it does not mean it will make you fat, it merely means that it contains triglycerides. Those things in the medicine cabinet could wreak havoc on you. Sleep is very important; getting 4 hours of sleep is not nearly enough.
  


• The government could make an effort to encourage the replacement of refined grains with whole grains, especially wheat. I think this would best be done with economic incentives for those in the food business.

If I spent the time, I am sure there is much more.

All together, these have created a culture of people that do not care what they put in their bodies. This will take time, I think several decades, to really fix. However, in the long run, this will save everyone lots of life quality and money.

Kudos to Mr. Fisher, my eighth grade PE teacher at Lodi Middle School in Lodi, California for introducing me to the idea of health care and sick care.