tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5889026769761133073.post3081677335279895210..comments2023-12-22T08:42:36.132+00:00Comments on Gaian Economics: The Fat of the LandMollyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12845612174674783187noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5889026769761133073.post-34913155891967672512008-04-29T23:02:00.000+01:002008-04-29T23:02:00.000+01:00I recently moved to Texas from Canada and find the...I recently moved to Texas from Canada and find the price of fresh food out of alignment with salaries / cost of living. Obesity in lower economic classes here seems to be related to a number of factors including: lack of education, distance of grocery stores, and the expense of fresh produce/ meat. My local grocery store for example has very little organic food and healthy choices are way more expensive than their over-processed and over packaged counterparts. <BR/><BR/>It seems to me it would be quite plausible or likely that here in Texas (which I keep being told is handling the current U.S. economic downturn better than many states) a person could be both obese and malnourished at the same time.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5889026769761133073.post-25584189193778536832007-10-21T12:31:00.000+01:002007-10-21T12:31:00.000+01:00A vast amount of our diets bares little relation t...A vast amount of our diets bares little relation to the foods the human animal has evolved to eat over millions of years. Refined sugar is thrown into even many savoury foods, and has only been part of mainstream generations for a few generations. Preservatives, artificial sweeteners, additives have been around for a few decades at most, some have arrived in the last few years.<BR/><BR/>Throw in 200 times the levels of EMFs that existed in pre-industrial times, traffic pollution and household carcinogens and no wonder we're facing a health crisis.<BR/><BR/>The government maintains we need to work until the grave as we're all living longer but the number of people that have severe illness in middle age is growing fast. Hearing that a 40 or 50 something at work or an extended family member has cancer is no longer shocking.<BR/><BR/>Outside of the killer diseases people suffer from a wide range of 'lack of vitality' illnesses, which can be mildly or severely debilitating. IBS, Chronic Fatigue, post-viral syndrome. Medicine usually likes to label those presenting extreme fatigue, dizzy spells, digestive problems, skin rashes, pallor as having neurotic illness when many are simply symptoms of heavy-metal poisoning (mercury dental fillings, traffic and industrial pollution, food supply) or severe yeast overgrowth (from being over-prescribed antibiotics or having a lowered immunity from poor diet). It's curious that illnesses of what are most likely general toxicity are dubbed 'all in the mind'. Is it because by writing them off as all in the mind they present no challenge to the growth of industrialism?<BR/><BR/>Have you read Samuel Epstein's book The Politics Of Cancer, which describes how the cancer industry has been historically antagonistic towards cancer prevention? The science of cancer prevention, which identifies environmental causes of cancer, often yields little in the way of 'product' compared to the science of patching up cancer victims.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5889026769761133073.post-71226482831773887492007-10-19T11:12:00.000+01:002007-10-19T11:12:00.000+01:00Interesting points but surely if N Korea's food pr...Interesting points but surely if N Korea's food problems were geographical then S. Korea would share them; which is most decidedly not the case. Unfortunately, most N. Koreans are hungry because of their political system.<BR/><BR/>Although Africa is home to too many of the worlds malnourished people, many African populations are well fed, and the overall situation, as I am sure you know far better than me, is very complex.<BR/><BR/>Travelling in Asia recently brought home to me quite clearly that some people consuming too many calories does mean less resources for the rest of the world. 'Selling' non-consumerism in the west is a hard job!Ellenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11468311554118456014noreply@blogger.com