[231] in Vegetarian_Support_Group
Re: a thought-provoking piece
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ed Piekos)
Tue Nov 1 18:28:17 1994
To: vsg@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 01 Nov 1994 16:27:55 EST."
<9411012127.AA15552@m36-529-1.MIT.EDU>
Date: Tue, 01 Nov 1994 18:27:29 EST
From: Ed Piekos <espiekos@MIT.EDU>
Re: Laura's forward:
> Given that diet plays such a
>large role in our physical, mental, and emotional health, and that health
>is really the most important factor in our well-being, how can it be that
>diet is not the most important area of scientific research, with billions
>of dollars spent on it every year?
It is doubly puzzling since we spend billions of dollars on medical
care and lost productivity for disorders which are directly traceable to
diet. This is the same logic that lets us spend thousands of dollars to
treat a premature infant while cancelling prenatal care programs which would
have prevented the problem at a small fraction of the cost. I'm frightened
by how silly and short-sighted we can be; we would rather stick more bandaids
on our feet than remove the glass from our shoes. I think a little money
for diet education would go a long way toward reducing our medical
expenditures. I haven't heard anything like this even proposed, however.
It would probably never fly because there is a lot of power behind unhealthy
eating (meat packing industry, McDonalds, etc.). I guess the best we can
do is try to educate the people around us without being obnoxious about it.
As has been said here many times before, leading by example seems to be the
most effective method, though it is, admittedly, very local and slow
(frustratingly so sometimes).
<<ESP>>
