America is sick and fat and sadly, this includes our children.
As advocates of Traditional Diet and movement, most readers of this blog are doing everything in their power to avoid this by eating right and exercising correctly.
One would think our government and healthcare system would encourage the same. Well wake up Cinderella, that is just another fairytale.
Let’s take a look at the real world.
You won’t believe what I recently received in the mail from Blue Cross and Blue Shield, a large provider of sickcare healthcare in the United States.
No doubt, Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS) is a well-respected insurance company. I am grateful to be able to afford the necessary coverage and it has come in handy in recent years. However, they, like other companies providing medical coverage, are contributing to sickness and obesity rather than encouraging the eating and movement habits that will improve the health of America.
Take a look at the coupons which accompanied the letter above.
“In the pursuit of health”. . . really? Let’s look at these coupons one by one:
Sugar Free Cookies: zero cholesterol! Ingredients: Enriched wheat flour (flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), maltitol, vegetable oil (canola, soybean, palm and palm kernel, sunflower), sugar-free chocolate chips (maltitol, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanillin), natural and artificial flavor, salt, sodium bicarbonate, eggs, acesulfame potassium, whey, artificial color (FD&C yellow #5, FD&C yellow #6). (5501206).
Well I’ll spare you great detail and cover this one with the artificial sweetener clause [These are not food! Creepy laboratory products with sketchy safety record. Artificial sweeteners have been shown to produce an insulin response.] Not to mention the inclusion of refined grains and vegetable oils—known contributors to Metabolic Syndrome along with a cocktail of chemicals.
Suggestion: Eat some fruit w/ raw cream or raw cheese. The natural cholesterol is beneficial to health. It is the processed cholesterol in factory foods that is to be avoided.
Hellmann’s Mayo w/ Olive Oil: sounds great and there is olive oil in it. However—Ingredients: water, soybean oil, olive oil, modified potato starch, vinegar, salt, sugar, lemon juice, sorbic acid and calcium disodium edta (used to protect quality), natural flavor, paprika, oleoresin. Man-made fake fats and vegetable oils—need I say more?
Suggestion: Make your own healthy mayo from quality ingredients such as olive or coconut oils.
Kellogg’s Cereals “Take care of your heart”: Extruded, processed grains + sugars. That’ll take care of your heart all right—make the heart surgeons a little richer.
Suggestion: Nitrate/nitrite free bacon and eggs w/ some veggies or fruit on the side. If you eat grains, make your own properly prepared, cold breakfast cereal.
Eggland’s Best Eggs: Really, excuse me I thought the free range hen that ate some bugs produced the best egg? Although this is probably the least bad out of the bunch. Watch this eye opening video.
Suggestions: Farm fresh eggs are ideal if you are able to procure; not that bad of a substitute but opt for the cage free organic if going with Egglands.
Hormel Natural Choice: Ingredients: Turkey Breast Meat, Water, Salt, Potato Starch, Turbinado Sugar, Rice Starch, Carrageenan (from seaweed), Baking Soda, Celery Juice Powder, Lactic Acid Starter Culture (not from Milk). Not the worst I’ve seen but we can definitely do better. Not a big fan of potato starch and sugar on my meat but it’s probably better than McDonalds.
Suggestions: Roast a whole chicken, grass fed beef or turkey breast instead, can slice up for leftovers.
Blue Bunny Sweet Freedom: Certainly not freedom from disease! This is from their Vanilla ice cream:
INGREDIENTS: Skim Milk, Cream, Maltodextrin, Polydextrose, Sorbitol, Contains less than 1% of Glycerine, Propylene Glycol Monoesters, Mono And Diglycerides, Guar Gum, Carob Bean Gum, Vanilla Extract and Artificial Vanilla Flavor, Cellulose Gel, Cellulose Gum, Annatto for Color, Carrageenan, Acesulfame Potassium, Sucralose, Vitamin A Palmitate.
and this is from their Caramel and Vanilla Swirl Bars
INGREDIENTS: Light Ice Cream: Milk, Skim Milk, Maltitol, Inulin, Polydextrose, Cream, Citrus Fiber, Propylene Glycol Monoesters, Mono And Diglycerides, Guar Gum, Carob Bean Gum, Carrageenan, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Caramel Color and Annatto Extract for Color, Sucralose, Vitamin A Palmitate. Chocolate Flavored Coating: Vegetable Oil (Coconut, Soybean) , Lactitol, Cocoa Processed With Alkali, Whey, Chocolate Liquor, Soy Lecithin, Sucralose, Vanillin.
Hmmm, anyone know another name for Propylene Glycol? Try “edible” anti-freeze.
Suggestions: Make your own homemade ice cream from raw dairy. Next best is store bought organic with minimal ingredients but have in moderation occasionally.
Sensa Weight Loss Product: What exactly is in SENSA®?
SENSA® contains Maltodextrin (Derived from Corn from the USA), Tricalcium Phosphate, Silica, Natural and Artificial Flavors. SENSA® also contains Soy and Milk ingredients. SENSA® is sodium-free, sugar-free, calorie free, and there are no stimulants, drugs or MSG.
Suggestions: A Primal and/or Traditional Diet and proper exercise, it’s not rocket science.
Summary of our healthcare system? The blind leading the blind.
Smart folks these days are switching to health care sharing instead.
@Rene, I agree, not good either. And, in fact I am sure if they were requiring only employees to do it, they would have held a clinic. It is all very invasive. At my husbands job, they are requiring it of spouses this year, so it’s dozens of reminders to see your doc and submit results. I am encouraged by the fact that they’ve had to extend the deadline because so many are not doing it! But, I am sure that plenty take the low fat food pyramid diet and run with it!
It’s all just so sad. Why can’t people SEE this stuff?
I bring up these subjects to my family. You know what their response is? How can YOU know more than a doctor? Plus, anything you find on the internet has to be bogus (!)
At one point I had their attention because I turned my asthma around with diet and alternative methods (something the deadly steroids won’t do…..). Now, however, they’re back to believing establishment figures like Dr. Oz.
After our 7th child was born, at home with midwives, without insurance, we inquired about buying health insurance for our family. The lady on the phone said she would need the bloodwork on the baby. I told her, there isn’t any bloodwork. She said, “What about his records from his well-baby visits?” (“Well-baby” is a euphemism for “going to the pediatrician frequently and getting all the recommended immunizations.”) I told her that we don’t get immunizations anymore, at least until they’re older. But I also told her that we all eat very well and are almost never sick and don’t even go to the doctor. But she said that if we don’t immunize, they won’t cover us. End of discussion.
Sarah Kirkell, I understand what you are saying. They want low cholesterol, we know that is not necessarily good, they want us to eat like the food pyramid, we know better, etc. I think paying the higher price for insurance is probably the best way to go. My employer had me go to their locality to have them draw blood. So in my case, my blood became their property. Not good. This was for Blue Cross/Blue Shield also but a different policy from my husband’s.
We got rid of our health insurance and joined a health care sharing co-op. Best thing we ever did, cut out the insurance industry all together.
Megan, I’ve never heard of a health care co-op. What is it and where can I find more info?
We belong to Samaritan’s Ministries, but there are others out there. SM actually encourages a whole foods diet, alternative cancer treatments, midwives, chiropractic holistic care…
Last year our youngest son was diagnosed with cancer and all of our cost were covered.
http://www.samaritanministries.org/
@ Megan/purple: This was offered to us through our church. Quite a while ago. It started off with the elderly people in our church who couldn’t afford their prescriptions anymore, nor could they afford the insurance premiums. So the members set up a sort of “savings account” where everyone who wanted to, donated or contributed each month. The church now does it through some sort of company, I can’t remember the name – but it’s still privately owned by the members of our church. I don’t know specific details because i’m not involved in the business end of things!
My DH and I do not have or want insurance except for catastophic events. We do NOT want to be told what to eat, how to live, what “tests” need to be done, when to go to the bathroom . . . no. Thank you, but no. At some point, you’ll have to start doing exactly what they say or you’ll be penalized and my DH and I just aren’t going to submit. After losing my last sister this January (lost the other one in 2006) it reminded me how insurance companies rule the roost. We need to take that power away from them. Both of them had Blue insurance too – supposedly one of the best coverage companies – but when they each got to a point in their iatrogenic illnesses from too many Rx drugs, the company basically told the families they were done. They basically told them to push the bed out into the street because they were out of benefits. The doctors, at that point, were ready to stop “caring”. How about that for “coverage”??
Read this, you’ll laugh and be completely horrified at the same time. Talk about down the rabbit hole we go . . .
http://www.mnwelldir.org/docs/history/health_care.htm
Isn’t this what Ron Paul was talking about in that famous incident in the debates where the audience shouted. “Let him die!”? Dr. Paul said churches (among other institutions) should provide for the sick.
I know a couple of people with severe health problems in Indiana and they have fundraisers to help them out, even WITH medical coverage.
Actually, I should say, “infamous incident”……
Oh, they require we do it, at our own doctor. But I think they shouldn’t be able to step between me and my healthcare provider and decide what is important. I don’t believe the standard cholesterol screens are useful. And, I will have an enormous copay for the labs and the doc visit, despite the fact that my husband works in management for a huge corporation that should be able to provide better coverage.
I prefer to think of them as Blue Cr_p/ Blue Sh_t. But that’s just my opinion. They are an illness care participant, it isn’t health care they promote.
Love your acronym!
I like to listen to Bill Handel on the radio, a very funny, call in lawyer in California. Someone called in complaining about their employer requiring a cholesterol test for insurance coverage. He said they do not have the right to take possession of your blood and that you should have your blood tested elsewhere and have the results sent to the employer. The thought is that once they have possession, they can do DNA testing and use the findings against you in the future such as having Alzheimer’s, ALS or any other serious disease potential they can glean from your blood and find some way to fire you before that occurs. My husbands Blue Cross/Blue Shield has not required this of him yet but I am sure it is on the horizon.
PS – my elderly dogs also thank you for the stock recipe 😀
How is it that we’ve come to think (We being a general “we”) that more is better? If it has 12 ingredients I can’t pronounce, then it must be better for me than what I can make for less with 3 ingredients that I can recognize on sight? Boggles the mind. If your sheep are too sick to produce, then you lose in the long run, don’t you?