There's not much money in preventing disease, but there's a fortune to be made in treating it. Birth defects like these neural tube defects cost just pennies to prevent (folic acid is dirt cheap), but babies that are born with defects create hundred of thousands of dollars in revenues for hospitals, surgeons and pharmaceutical companies. It sounds brash, perhaps, but it's economic reality.
That may be one reason why so little has been done in the United States to try to
prevent disease. Virtually every modern disease now threatening our population -- cancer, diabetes, heart disease, depression and more -- has a nutritional basis... meaning that each is preventable through dietary changes alone.
In reality, the problem isn't that we haven't been putting folic acid into flour, the problem is that we're stripping out all the folic acid in the first place. In the United States, people love to buy and eat foods that have been stripped of the majority of their natural nutrition. The milling process removes virtually everything that's good for you, leaving only empty calories. White flour, sugar, corn syrup... it's all the same disease-promoting stuff after it leaves the mill.
Only whole grains are healthy grains. Whole grains contain the bran, the fiber, the oils, the vitamins and the minerals that promote human health. Instead of debating over what isolated nutrients we should
put back into the foods sold at grocery stores why don't we stop stripping them out in the first place?
You already know the answer, of course: because healthy
food has limited shelf life. And that makes it expensive for consumers and unprofitable for food producers. Most people won't buy food that's good for them for the simple reason that it costs more than healthy food.
So they'll save fifty cents right now by buying the cheap, processed food, and they'll spend a hundred thousand dollars on hospital bills ten years later as a result. Of course, few people connect the two events. Most people are short-term thinkers.
In addition, as I'm sure you'll agree, many people just don't know any better. That's why Internet education efforts are so critical to helping people get healthy. Keep reading, keep learning. And spread the word to help others.
About the author: Mike Adams is a consumer health advocate and award-winning journalist with a strong interest in personal health, the environment and the power of nature to help us all heal He has authored and published thousands of articles, interviews, consumers guides, and books on topics like health and the environment, and he has published numerous courses on preparedness and survival, including financial preparedness, emergency food supplies, urban survival and tactical self-defense. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In 2010, Adams created TV.NaturalNews.com, a natural living video sharing site featuring thousands of user videos on foods, fitness, green living and more. He also founded an environmentally-friendly online retailer called BetterLifeGoods.com that uses retail profits to help support consumer advocacy programs. He's also a noted pioneer in the email marketing software industry, having been the first to launch an HTML email newsletter technology that has grown to become a standard in the industry. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and enjoys outdoor activities, nature photography, Pilates and martial arts training. He's also author a large number of health books offered by Truth Publishing and is the creator of numerous reference website including NaturalPedia.com and the free downloadable Honest Food Guide. His websites also include the free reference sites HerbReference.com and HealingFoodReference.com. Adams believes in free speech, free access to nutritional supplements and the innate healing ability of the human body. Known by his callsign, the 'Health Ranger,' Adams posts his missions statements, health statistics and health photos at www.HealthRanger.org
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