There are many pet peeves that I have. One is our education system. One would think that we should learn a lot more than we do about our health and wellness, but we are never exposed to it – or, rarely. And, even then, the quality and reliability of the information might be questionable.
Another area of education that we all should have is financial. We should know how to take care of our finances ourselves – how to assess risk and how to invest. But, we have developed a system whereby others assume that role for you.
There are other areas of concern, but these two are probably in my top three. What is so difficult about learning the basics of taking good care of your body? Many of us never read a food (or personal care) label. There is a lot of information, but you have to realize that many times there is stuff left off the label – because they legally can get away with it.
The myths that grow each year, even when they have been dispelled is amazing. Take the low-fat craze of a couple decades ago. It has been proven to be absolutely false, yet take a look at how many foods are ‘low-fat’, ‘no-fat’, ‘reduced fat’, etc. It is catering to the idea that fat causes you to get fat, therefore, eat more no-fat foods and you’ll be skinny. It doesn’t work that way – carbohydrates cause fat – not fat.
If we really ate like our lives depended on it there would be many changes in our medical, insurance and pharmaceutical industries. Supply and demand functions would be reversed. Maybe not immediately, but certainly over time.
I speak at groups and talk about balanced nutrition and the need to eat organic as much as possible and the one question that always comes up is the cost. ‘Pay me now or pay me later’ was the byline of FRAM oil filters. It applies to our health care also. Buy the right stuff now and don’t pay higher health costs later. If you reduce the total number of calories, the cost per meal is significantly reduced also.