Well, it's the Fourth of July, so I thought we'd talk about the US of A. When it comes to America and health, we hear a lot of negativity and criticism. Health and food activists like to pick on the United States as the epicenter of poor eating habits, unhealthy food, and sedentary lifestyles. We hear a few reasons over and over:
Culture - The U.S. lacks a national cuisine to act as anchor on our food and eating habits (as European countries have)
Corporations - We aggressively create and market processed foods (fast food, HFCS, etc.)
Government - Corn subsidies and other federal policies subsidize processed food
But is it all doom and gloom? In many ways, America can be the healthiest country on the planet:
Culture - the lack of a national cuisine means Americans may be more open to experimenting with and developing a completely new healthy cuisine (like a hunter-gatherer diet). We also have a tradition of wanting to be the best and strongest at anything.
Corporations - The U.S. is the largest and most dynamic market for finding solutions for people's health problems. All the food trends point to fewer ingredients, organic ingredients, and more health consciousness. Grocery stores have gotten consistently better over the last couple decades. Our companies respond to demand.
Government - The historical errors of U.S. government health policy (encouraging low fat, high grain, wrong-headed subsidies) actually play quite nicely into the anti-government / anti-expert strain of American history. We can be healthy in a distinctly American away -- despite the federal government, not because of it.
So on our Independence Day from those terribly unhealthy Brits, go get some grass-fed steaks and throw them on the grill -- and let's raise a fork to the US of A and to your health. Happy Fourth of July.
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As a postscript, I'll add that in addition to the Declaration of Independence being an important historical document, it's also well written: clear, succinct, and moving. For as long as I've been alive, my family has read the text out loud. As a teenager, I found this a little hokey, but now I think it's pretty cool. It's a bunch of dudes who essentially flipped the bird to the most powerful monarch on the planet. Pretty bad ass.
Here's the full text, should you want to give it a try. And don't forget to read aloud the names of the signers.
Food is on the tip of everyone's tongue these days. It even came up during Elena Kagan's Supreme Court hearings today. You can watch the video below. Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma asked if the government could pass a law mandating that people eat three fruits and three vegetables a day.
Coburn's question really was about the Commerce Clause, not food. The Constitution gives Congress the power "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes". Despite the fact that the word "regulate" did not have the same meaning when it was written as it does today, the interstate portion of the clause has been interpreted by the Supreme Court (most definitively during the New Deal) to mean that the Federal Government can regulate anything that might possibly impact interstate trade. Essentially, anything and everything. Even what we eat, is Coburn's point.
Health care and food taxes/regulations are deeply intertwined. (Health and food are deeply intertwined.) We're increasingly seeing calls for soda taxes here in New York City. It's in line with other "sin taxes" (smoking, gambling), which politicians find easier to levy. Congress definitely has the power to tax. But the public willingness to accept food taxes and eventually, more restrictive federal regulations, will only increase as people feel that they are paying for other people's healthcare.
To a large extent we already do pay for other people's healthcare via Medicaid and Medicare -- and even through private health insurance (where I am pooled with others, many less healthy than I, to arrive at a group rate). But the perception and reality of Peter paying for Paul's healthcare will only increase under the new health care legislation. And the implications are pretty easy to follow: If I'm paying for your healthcare, you better believe I'm going to tell you how to eat. This certainly won't come through prohibitions and mandates (no politician is that stupid), but through taxes and incentives.
What really scares me is that the long-time foundation of the USDA food pyramid has been a food group, grains, that humans basically did not eat prior to the Agricultural Revolution. And don't forget the decades long and deeply misguided War on Fat. Doesn't exactly inspire confidence!
The beauty of a system based more on individual responsibility is that people have the freedom to live as they please: healthy or unhealthy. Of course, then you have to let people face the consequences of their decisions, as if they were fully capable adults.
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