New Year's Resolution to Eat Right and Exercise? Do Both in the Garden!
By John Hershey
Freelance Writer
Freelance Writer
The seasons change in the garden, but the debate over health care reform still rages on in Washington. For all the complex proposals to "bend the curve" of the unsustainable increases in medical costs, nearly everyone seems to tacitly acknowledge that this is very difficult to do by tinkering with the kind of incremental reforms you have to settle for to get Joe Lieberman's vote. There is one thing that would probably make huge difference: a massive nationwide shift toward healthy living, so we would need less treatment for heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and other health problems in which lifestyle can be a factor. But there is really not much the government can do to affect people's eating and exercise choices. This conundrum probably makes our policymakers frustrated and depressed enough to binge on a quart of Ben & Jerry's.
The government has plenty of programs to promote wellness. One hopes they do some good, but efforts like the confusing food pyramid ("Ooh, sweets and fats are right at the top — they must be the most important things to eat!") don't inspire much confidence. And of course the federal government could change the system of subsidies that promote bad eating by making processed food cheap, so we should keep pushing for that. But Congress can't legislate healthy diets. The President isn't going to issue an executive order mandating 30 minutes of daily cardiovascular exercise. The best thing our leaders can do is probably just set a good example,
