Health, Taken Seriously

I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately, especially with all the reading I’ve been doing (The Unhealthy Truth, The China Study) and movies I’ve been seeing (Food, Inc.)… who is motivated to keep Americans healthy?  Certainly not the drug companies, which make more money when people are sick and turn to medication for help.  Certainly not the doctors and hospitals, whose livelihood depends on people being unhealthy.  Certainly not the food companies, that can make as much cheap, poor quality food as they want while reaping huge profits.  Certainly not the FDA, that is deeply entagled with the food and pharmaceutical companies.  And not really our government either, that benefits from lobbying by all the corporations that make money on these products and services they want to keep offering the public.  No one really benefits from you being healthy except you.  But when you’re sick, many people profit.  And many companies profit by making products that make us sick, with no true reprocussions for their decisions.  In America, the corporation, its business, and its money-making power are more important than the consumer.  No wonder our country is headed in the direction it is…