Nutrition at it's best?

   For my last blog post, I decided to discuss some main points from an interesting book that I just read called "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan. I think it is very relevant to health because he discusses how the ways that we eat and out "Western diet" are not very beneficial to our health at all and how since the age of "nutritionism" has began, Americans have gotten no healthier and the health of society has not improved much as a whole.
   First, Pollan points out how now that scientists are focusing more on the nutritional quality of foods and simplifying them down to their basic nutrients, they are failing to see the whole picture and try and figure out how the mixture of foods is beneficial to our bodies. Focusing on just one nutrient in one food item is not very good for us because then we deprive our bodies of other important nutrients contained in those foods by genetically enhancing or breeding them to produce more of the nutrient that we want.
  Some examples that Pollan uses are the fact that scientists and food manufacturers have been trying to make foods more rich in Omega-6's, which while necessary for the body, are not necessary in the amounts that we receive. It more beneficial for out bodies to receive Omega-3's, which are found in things like fish and other food products. It was proven that children who received more Omega-3's than children who received more Omega-6's, scored better on test they were given to determine if the amount and types of Omegas affected brain development. They learned that children who receive more Omega-3's have better and more advanced brain development than the other group.
   Another example that he used was about a study done on Aborigines in Australia. After altering their diet to a more western diet, the Aborigines have noticeably more health related problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol, and heart problems. This group was taken "into the bush" and told to eat and forage like they would in their culture for a few weeks. At the end of the study the Aborigines had lowered blood pressure and cholesterol, less severe diabetes, and some heart conditions completely went away. After dieting on wild things such as animals and plants, they became noticeably healthier overall.
   Pollan's main point was that there are many diets in the world and our body is able to handle any of them, but the western diet is one that out bodies can neither handle or cope with as it is detrimental to our bodies and health.

Discrimination

   In everyday society, most people tend to think that racism is no longer a large issue because of things like affirmative action, more minority representation, and other things. The fact of the matter is that even in today’s society it still exist, even in health care.
   When you go to your doctor you probably expect him to listen to what you have to say and the problems you have. For minorities, this can sometimes be very difficult to do. Sometimes you feel as though the doctor is not listening to what you have to say or explaining things to you properly. It is a very difficult thing to explain, but being a minority myself, there are times when I have gone to the doctor and felt as though I was not treated equally or not given the proper attention to my problems.
   Issues like these can lead to serious consequences in a person’s health. Studies have found that African-Americans are more likely to develop hypertension because of constant stress felt as a result of racism from everyday life or from health professionals. Minorities overall are more likely to develop chronic problems such as hypertension or worse conditions because of the constant stress that they go through on a day to day basis.
   One of the most shocking theories recently presented, is that African-American women are more likely to deliver premature babies as a direct or indirect result of racism. Researchers have found that the constant stress felt by minorities, particularly African-Americans, can lead to increased hormone levels within the body that effect the development of the fetus or length of time in the womb. While years ago this theory may have simply been brushed aside as nonsense, today many researchers are starting to accept this idea more and more.
   These issues could drastically effect the health of the nation overall and something needs to be done to curve these effect or stop them overall.

Health Care Reform

One of the big issues that we have currently been talking about in my classes is the current health care reform debate that has been going on. After learning what some of things that people are proposing in an easier way to understand and why or why not they would work, I would like to give my thoughts on health care reform. Something needs to change now. We have sat by too long and done too little, too late for so many people and if we plan on getting out of this a drastic step needs to be taken. A lot of people may not like this idea because many conservatives and other lobbyists consider what President Obama is doing is converting us to "socialized" medicine. We already have a form of that and it's called Medicare and the people on it wouldn't trade that for what we have in our private insurance.

Currently there are almost 50 million people in the US without health insurance of any form or inadequate insurance. This is costing the US billions of dollars every year and causing an ever increasing strain on US hospitals and ER's. The fact that people seem to want to leave our system the way it currently is and change it slowly verges on complete insanity. For those people that claim "America has the best health care system in the world" just look at our rankings in health care according to the UN. We rank in the late 20's after such countries as Colombia, France, Japan, and the UK. America may have the best medical technology and pharmaceuticals in the world, but when the financial obligations of patients who need these treatments cannot be met and they are forced to suffer and have their loved ones see them suffer, is it truly a display that America has the best health care system in the world?