5 ms·

The food part certainly is a true statement. It's pretty clear both how it can ruin you, and how it (in the form of the processed food diet) has ruined the Amer

The food part certainly is a true statement. It's pretty clear both how it can ruin you, and how it (in the form of the processed food diet) has ruined the American health system. Even people like me, who eat pretty healthily, end up subsidizing the lifestyle diseases of the rest of the population that doesn't.

tptacek 18y ago
You will have a hard time backing up the argument that American eating habits have proven "ruinous" to society.
- yummyfajitas 18y ago
  Our eating habits are causing serious and pervasive health problems. For instance, life expectancy is several years lower than other rich countries. Increased demand for medicine due to overeating-induced disease is straining our economy, and is a serious point of political contention. "Ruinous" may be an exaggeration, depending on how you interpret the word. But it's fair to say that overeating is a serious problem for society and the individual.
  - tptacek 18y ago
    Increased demand for medicine, straining medicare budgets, is a side effect of the increased availability of life-prolonging medications that weren't available to our parents; for instance, one of the largest pharmaceutical blockbusters of the last decade has been Lipitor, the market substitute for which was simply death. It's a particularly lame, superficial argument to point out that overeating (or, in my opinion, the saturation of our diet with high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated fats) causes health problems. Of course it does. Despite that, our life expectancy continues to increase. Where's your evidence that it's lack of personal responsibility that is straining the health care system? From my vantage point, the problems we face are structural; we have a uniquely fragile and inefficient health care system, and --- what a coincidence --- a uniquely corporatized system of private health insurance funded by employers.
    - gravitycop 18y ago
      the market substitute for [Lipitor] was [...] death. What about red yeast rice extract? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_yeast_rice#Modern_Medicine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_yeast_rice#Modern_Medicine Or, better yet, a healthy regimen? http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2005/oct2005_cover_arteries_01.htm http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2005/oct2005_cover_arteries_0...
    - yummyfajitas 18y ago
      There is another market substitute for Lipitor: eating right (and getting some exercise). As for figures: as of the 90's, obesity alone directly accounted for 12% of our health care spending. I think that's a pretty reliable underestimate for spending today, since obesity has only increased since then, and medicine has only gotten more expensive. http://www.libraryindex.com/pages/2741/Economics-Overweight-Obesity.html http://www.libraryindex.com/pages/2741/Economics-Overweight-... It may not rise to the level of "ruinous", it's definitely a big issue.
    - mattmaroon 18y ago
      Our life expectancy, as you mean it, has not significantly increased in a very long time. Overall life expectancy appears to have increased because it's generally expressed as from birth, meaning that small reductions in infant mortality have large effects. The life expectancy of an 18 year old now is barely less than it was before even antibiotics. The last really large jump came with the advent of indoor plumbing. If you want more about the effects of diet on health, read In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan.
      - tptacek 18y ago
        I concede nothing in my core argument --- I read through this writer's previous work at the Turbo-Conservative Hoover Institution, and I'm convinced she's a culture warrior, and that the subtext of this article is that if we fail to oversee the compliance of our neighbors sex lives to her standards, we'll all die of Super AIDS --- but the bit about life expectancy vs. infant mortality was new to me, and thanks.
- mattmaroon 18y ago
  Define ruinous. They've destroyed our health, and turned our health care system into the laughing stock of the first world. We haven't fallen into anarchy yet if that's what you mean, but if so you're probably taking the original author too literally.
  - tptacek 18y ago
    Our health care system is the "laughing stock" of the (industrialized) world because of the way it is funded and managed structurally. If we shook off the cartel of profiteering private insurers... well, maybe then we could attribute our problems to food.

tptacek 18y ago

You will have a hard time backing up the argument that American eating habits have proven "ruinous" to society.

yummyfajitas 18y ago
Our eating habits are causing serious and pervasive health problems. For instance, life expectancy is several years lower than other rich countries. Increased demand for medicine due to overeating-induced disease is straining our economy, and is a serious point of political contention. "Ruinous" may be an exaggeration, depending on how you interpret the word. But it's fair to say that overeating is a serious problem for society and the individual.
- tptacek 18y ago
  Increased demand for medicine, straining medicare budgets, is a side effect of the increased availability of life-prolonging medications that weren't available to our parents; for instance, one of the largest pharmaceutical blockbusters of the last decade has been Lipitor, the market substitute for which was simply death. It's a particularly lame, superficial argument to point out that overeating (or, in my opinion, the saturation of our diet with high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated fats) causes health problems. Of course it does. Despite that, our life expectancy continues to increase. Where's your evidence that it's lack of personal responsibility that is straining the health care system? From my vantage point, the problems we face are structural; we have a uniquely fragile and inefficient health care system, and --- what a coincidence --- a uniquely corporatized system of private health insurance funded by employers.
  - gravitycop 18y ago
    the market substitute for [Lipitor] was [...] death. What about red yeast rice extract? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_yeast_rice#Modern_Medicine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_yeast_rice#Modern_Medicine Or, better yet, a healthy regimen? http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2005/oct2005_cover_arteries_01.htm http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2005/oct2005_cover_arteries_0...
  - yummyfajitas 18y ago
    There is another market substitute for Lipitor: eating right (and getting some exercise). As for figures: as of the 90's, obesity alone directly accounted for 12% of our health care spending. I think that's a pretty reliable underestimate for spending today, since obesity has only increased since then, and medicine has only gotten more expensive. http://www.libraryindex.com/pages/2741/Economics-Overweight-Obesity.html http://www.libraryindex.com/pages/2741/Economics-Overweight-... It may not rise to the level of "ruinous", it's definitely a big issue.
  - mattmaroon 18y ago
    Our life expectancy, as you mean it, has not significantly increased in a very long time. Overall life expectancy appears to have increased because it's generally expressed as from birth, meaning that small reductions in infant mortality have large effects. The life expectancy of an 18 year old now is barely less than it was before even antibiotics. The last really large jump came with the advent of indoor plumbing. If you want more about the effects of diet on health, read In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan.
    - tptacek 18y ago
      I concede nothing in my core argument --- I read through this writer's previous work at the Turbo-Conservative Hoover Institution, and I'm convinced she's a culture warrior, and that the subtext of this article is that if we fail to oversee the compliance of our neighbors sex lives to her standards, we'll all die of Super AIDS --- but the bit about life expectancy vs. infant mortality was new to me, and thanks.
mattmaroon 18y ago
Define ruinous. They've destroyed our health, and turned our health care system into the laughing stock of the first world. We haven't fallen into anarchy yet if that's what you mean, but if so you're probably taking the original author too literally.
- tptacek 18y ago
  Our health care system is the "laughing stock" of the (industrialized) world because of the way it is funded and managed structurally. If we shook off the cartel of profiteering private insurers... well, maybe then we could attribute our problems to food.