The state of Mississippi tried to pass a bill that would ban restaurants from serving certain foods to overweight patrons.  It failed.  The government, both state and federal, has tried for years to get the poor to adopt a healthier diet.  They have failed.  All attempts to help low income families learn to eat healthier have failed, for the most part.

Why is this?  First of all, healthier foods are far more expensive than high fat low nutrition foods.  That is the main cause of the unhealthy diet–cheaper foods make the food budget go further.

I am sure that somewhere within the HHS catacombs there is a new plan to help the poor learn to eat healthier.  They will fail also.  With the incoming administration there will be an emphasis on health care and one of the canons will be preventive measures like a healthier diet.  And now we are back to where we began…it will fail.

I know somewhere someone is saying, “there has got to be an answer”.  Uh huh and there is.  It does not take a rocket scientist to figure it out.  The answer is in the food stamp program which many poor people are benefitting from.  Take the program and make it where if healthier foods are bought then they would be half priced or 2 of 1 type of thing.  This would not be that difficult because all stores are computerized and it would take an adjustment in the software to make it viable.

The government will want all of us to focus on the preventive side of the health care equation, but telling people about the benefits of eating healthier will not make it so.  There has got to be an incentive for such an approach

Without the incentive ALL attempts to make a healthier population will FAIL.  This is an easy approach and will have a high rate of success—but there is the problem…it is not complicated enough for government.

copyright:  CHUQ/Info Ink