Lifestyle Hub

The most expensive medical system in the world, yet one of the least effective

Another point we aren't hearing much about in the debate about health care is that in the US we pay more for health care than any other country in the world.

Another cause of the health care crisis we don't hear about

We have been blogging in recent weeks about the debate in Washington and the nation on the health care crisis and how we aren't hearing any discussion about addressing the root causes of the crisis, i.e. the underlying unhealthy diets and lifestyle choices (meat and junk food based diets, lack of physical activity, consumption of tobacco, alcohol, illegal drugs, etc.) and the widespread practice of defensive medicine. Another major cause of the bloated medical system's costs to add to the list is the cost of medical mistakes.

The government actively encourages and subsidizes the diets that are the cause of the health care crisis

While we are on the subject of "Food, Inc." the movie, and modern methods of food production (i.e. industrialized animal raising and slaughter) one of the ideas to consider is the complicity of the government in this system. The government allows, and as documented by Food, Inc., actively encourages and subsidizes this inhumane system of food production that is actually causing the epidemic of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer, etc.

Meet your Meat

A number of Down to Earth team members have taken advantage of our offer to pay for their ticket to go and see "Food, Inc." showing at Kahala Mall. One leaves the movie feeling a little sick, and not feeling good about the food supply, especially about how the animals are treated. This type of food production is relatively new, having occurred over the past 50 or so years. The long term health and societal effects are yet to be realized. I encourage everyone to see the movie, especially Down to Earth team members.

The cause is the factory farms, the government solution, kill deer, squirrels, and other wildlife!

Congress passed the Food Safety Enhancement Act today. This bill creates big administrative and cost burdens and new problems for small farmers and in particular organic farmers. Everyone is in favor of food safety, who isn't. But the real culprit is the big agribusiness factory farms (which create the environment for E coli to flourish), not the small organic producers, yet this bill imposes onerous requirements on small family organic farmers which won't lead to any increase in food safety, just more costs, and more bureaucracy.

FDA To Be Sued for Health Claim Rights, Bills Seek to End Censorship of Health Claims

A story in Whole Foods Magazine details recent court cases filed against the FDA for limiting the making of reasonable science based claims for supplements, and, in addition, several bills have been introduced into Congress to enable reasonable health claims to be more easily made for supplements

Food Inc. starts showings Kahala Mall this Friday, July 31

Food, Inc., the movie that shows how the food industry really works starts at Kahala Mall this Friday, July 31, 2009.

President orders cheese burger and fries for team working on health care crisis

If you want to see President Obama ordering a healthy (not) lunch for the team hard at work on solving the nation's health crisis watch the following video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1TxMKaYHYA&eurl=http://wonkette.com/408…;

"Objecting to fun was silly"

Back to my favorite story, the Wienermobile. There was a letter to the editor in the Honolulu Advertiser today. Unfortunately, it wasn't from me or any of my friends, so instead of saying how great it was to have a law that banned the Wienermobile, it said the Outdoor Circle came off looking silly to object to the Wienermobile. Here are some highlights:

Only 1 in 7 change their lifestyle when told if they don't they will die - part 2

Aloha, yesterday's blog post generated a lot of comments, so many that I want to address a few with a second one. And of course, I forgot the most obvious action points for changing your lifestyle to save your life, which are very simple, people need to: