Why do we need education of health?
Every time I say that we need to educate people on health I get the response from someone they already are educated, they just don't have the time and money to eat right. This upsets me for a second, but every time I recover from my lapse of emotional comfort, I begin to propose the following:
Education
First of all, people are hardly educated about their health whether it was on TV or in schools, the American approach to health is quite as well established as it could be. The extent of what people know about their health is what we learn in health class throughout school, and perhaps brief snippets here and there online and on TV. This brings me to the question so what did you learn about eating in health class? The answer I always receive is "the food pyramid" which would be my answer as well, as I learned little beyond the food pyramid in health. So what is missing from this education? Health class wasn't actually a full on class we had it once every month for a week each time, and that was only when we were assigned PE, which was one year in high school for me. In that health class we mostly covered mostly sex ed, drugs (and what they do) and exercise. Those are both important, but when it came to health it was usually based on the food pyramid. This is not to say there is no importance in the pyramid, but really it does not cover anything about what foods are actually beneficial and why. In fact we spent more time in school discussing different diseases and how we get them then we did learning how eating right to prevent them. We learned that breathing in someones cough could make us sick, but not that Vitamin C and a multitude of other vitamins prevent sickness, much less the foods that already contain these vitamins.
For instance we learn that we need 2-4 (broad number) servings of fruit, but what we don't learn is that fresh fruit is optimal, that canned fruit is loaded with sugar, frozen fruit loses nutrients, and so on. Health is a multi-dimensional topic and the aspect of food cannot be covered solely by the food pyramid. Food education alone should be a full on class, not only should we be covering what foods we should be eating daily, but also why we should eat them. What do vitamins and minerals do for the body, which ones in specific affect the brain, which ones do we need everyday and why. Other issues to be covered would be; where to find healthy foods, what form of food should you eat and why (fresh, frozen canned etc.), why over processing food kill it's nutritional value. I could go on but I think you see the point that I am getting at, there is a lack of food education. Later I will cover each one and it's importance in detail, but for now I have a different task at hand.
We need education throughout school about health to integrate it into our lives. The only other chance people have to learn about health is from their family, which in most cases they know what was taught to them. There is a chance to learn about health after high school, but so many of us get so wrapped up in the working world we don't take the time to learn about it. People don't not eat well because they don't care too, they don't know how to. People, much like dogs, are conditioned, meaning we form habits, habits we get from others, people don't eat right because they aren't conditioned to. We need an education system that conditions people to be concerned about what they eat in the same way they are conditioned to wear a seat belt.
Time
The second excuse for poor eating behaviors is lack of time. Well the first thing I have to say to that is eating right gives you time, not only does it give you a longer life expectancy, it clears your mind so you can more clearly pre-meditate your ideas more fully, and taking the little bit of time it takes to prepare the food will make you happier through the time you "don't have". There is a quote I read once "You don't have the time? You make the time.". It isn't that difficult to pick up an apple and eat it unprepared, nor is it difficult to spend Sunday evening making your meals for the week. I'm not going to go into recipes right now, but there are ways to eat healthy with little time. I will not be going into this issue any further at the moment.
Money
Let me get this straight, you don't have the money to eat right? That is the lamest reason of all, I'm sorry but if you can afford to eat already then you have enough to eat well. I make 60 dollars a week and I still eat healthy, on top of it I help feed one other person on that budget. Even on this tight budget I eat well, I buy whole wheat bread $2.50 I buy whole wheat noodles and sauce $2.50 that is like 6 meals worth of food for 5 dollars. Yes there are ways to eat cheaper with un-nutritional foods , but is the tax it takes on your body worth it. Some of same the people who tell me they can't afford to eat well are the same people that support Obama's new forced tax plan on healthcare. I am of no political affiliation, but this bill is ridicules and there are better options.
Do you want lower healthcare? Then invest in your health, everyday! Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States it cost 414 billion dollars in 2010, but in almost every case it was PREVENTABLE. Nine out of ten people that die from this disease have 1 or more of what the CDC considers risk factors, these factors include; smoking, drinking, malnutrition, diabetes and in most cases obesity. Only one of those may not have been the choice of the individual that died and that diabetes, but despite popular views there are many plants that lower blood sugar in the body some include, cinnamon, turmeric, and dandelion root. That 414 billion equates to over 1000 dollars a year per every person alive in the US. It is not fair that people that care for their own health should have to pay a tax for those who don't. So if you want to lower the cost of healthcare quite eating food that isn't good for you, quite smoking, quite drinking so much, and by God stop with the lousy excuses and do something for your health!
You have the ability to live a healthy life, you live in the United States where healthy food is massively abundant utilize these resources. You have the internet, what you don't know can easily be found on the internet. There are many people out there including me willing to work with anyone to improve their health turn to them and ask what it is you need to know. Don't be afraid to learn something that contradicts the norm, listen to your heart and it will tell you "you are what you eat".
<----- "That's not such a bahhhd idea."
-Goat
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