In today’s society, personal health is one of the most important aspects that one needs to consider. Without proper health, people will be unable to perform certain actions and eventually lead to quicker deaths. With poor health, there are less opportunities for people to take and the neighborhoods as a whole suffer. Proper health is not accessible to a large number of people and that is a problem that needs to change. As a society, we focus on curing diseases after it has happened instead of preventing them before it happens. It is important to reinforce proper health protocols to maintain a better society.
A problem that society faces in the health sector is the lack of healthy foods that people incorporate into their diet. It is important to eat a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables to counteract the bad effects of fats and sugars. However, fresh fruits and vegetables are not always accessible and prices are usually expensive. As a result, poorer families resort to fast food where the dollar menu is an attractive option financially. In poorer neighborhoods, there is also less grocery stores for healthier food choices which further pushes them to fast food chains.
Another problem that society faces is the reliance on antibiotic infused products. Antibiotics are important that they kill bacteria and act as a cleaning agent but overusing antibiotics quickens the natural selection process. With 99.9% of bacteria killed using these antibiotic items, that 0.1% of bacteria that live and resist the antibiotic will continue to reproduce and make more bacteria that are resistant. This creates new strains of superbugs that will have detrimental effects to populations when medicines cease to be effective. As a result, the immune system will have a more difficult time fighting against microbial threats and more money will need to be be allocated to finding new antibiotics.
A last problem is that medical operations are extremely expensive and the lower class suffers greatly if they have a life threatening disease. Health insurances do not always cover the entire bill and it leaves people with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt that they will eventually need to pay back. Even simple procedures such as drawing blood foots hundreds of dollars on the next medical bill. It is a huge problem since anyone can get sick at anytime and will have to live with financial consequences.
A solution to the healthy food issue is to promote the sale of ugly foods. In Europe, the ugly food campaign has proven to be effective and people are willing to trade aesthetically pleasing foods for a lower cost. The idea behind this campaign is to reduce wastes in fresh fruits and vegetables that are trashed because they look bad by selling them at 30% less than normal price. Ugly foods are trashed and contribute to 20-40% of food blatantly wasted and the campaign attempts to convince consumers that ugly products are the same once you chop them or blend them. This idea if incorporated in more supermarkets will decrease waste and provide affordable fruits and vegetables to the lower class.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/12/09/369613561/in-europe-ugly-sells-in-the-produce-aisle
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs194/en/
http://www.healthcarebusinesstech.com/the-10-most-expensive-medical-procedures/
A lot of the problems that you mentioned are definitely those that have a very large effect on all New Yorkers. You mentioned that there was the high cost of medical bills is one of the reasons some people get into large amounts of debt. Your idea of keeping people healthy rather than fixing the sick is a very practical idea that can help prevent these procedures. If people were healthier overall then there would be no need for these high cost surgeries. Along with this, the high amount of debt that these surgeries cause could be one of contributing factors the inability to stay healthy. Definitely the disease becoming immune to our antibiotics is a huge problem. There may be a point where we run out of ways to kill these bacteria, and we will have no way to fight the disease. Your solution is a very interesting one. I personally am a very picky eater and I know that if something that does not look so good to eat is something I would not even consider eating. Promoting these foods that are unattractive be a great way to actually get picky eaters like me to eat the healthy part of fruits and vegetables. This is definitely a solution that would get me to eat healthier.
I think that you did a good job determine three distinct health problems that New Yorkers suffer from. Obviously no having access to affordable healthy food is a big problem but I also liked how you targeted the abundance of antibiotics used in meat and produce. While labels such as “organic” and “grass fed” are thrown around to attract buyers and legitimize a higher price, I don’t think that most people are aware of why these products may be healthier for you. This can be seen in the “gluten free” trend causing people to avoid something that they do not need to. In fact, gluten is important for the body, and while people who are allergic should not consume it, many others choose to as well because of the current stigma around it. Your last problem of unaffordable health care is also a very important one. With a very privatized hospital system in the United States and the importance of medical treatment, many hospitals are charging exorbitant rates for treatment. In addition, lack of regulation has caused different hospitals to charge different costs. In New York City, the difference of 20 blocks can make the difference between thousands of dollars for the same treatment. Lastly, I think that the implementation of the ugly foods program could be very productive and make a real change in America. It is just a matter of getting grocery stores and farmers on board.
I really enjoyed reading your problems and solution set. I am somewhat conflicted about your first problem. Although it doesn’t really relate to us in New York, but rather to people that are living in the country sides with a lack of quick access to fresh foods. In the long run, I am pretty sure many families do know that they spend a lot less cooking and eating at home and it might just that they are too lazy or they do not have the time to purchase these fresh goods after a long day of work to finance their families. I also wrote about the problem of the misuse of antibiotics leading to the evolution of different bacteria; I do enjoy your better description of such process. By ugly foods, do you just mean that they just look horrible or discolored? You never really explain what it was but just gave us the idea behind this approach.
I completely agree with your point that too many foods are blatantly wasted just because they don’t look as perfect as the ones we are marketed. Furthermore I also believe that the problem of low income neighborhoods not having access to fresh foods should also be addressed. While I believe that selling ugly fruits and vegetables is a step in the right direction, there is another part of the problem that you completely omitted. These low income people don’t have the time to devote to cooking these fresh foods which is why they use the convenience of fast food restaurants. With the marketing of these ugly foods, there should also be marketing of quick cooking methods as well as slow cookers which can be left at home while everyone is at work and then come home to a hot fresh meal. The selling of these ugly foods will in general revolutionize the food market driving costs down because people will be more likely to buy cheaper produce that tastes exactly the same as the perfect ones that are marketed and remove a lot of food waste.
Les, I think you touched upon a very serious and important, and yet very complicated issue related to healthcare, not only in New York City, but nationwide. The cost of healthcare is incredibly high in the United States, making it incredibly difficult for many low-income citizens to keep themselves healthy. One can leave a life-saving treatment or surgery with the same, if not more debt, than a four-year college degree. Although no patient will be turned away in such a situations, the cost of healthcare will deter many from receiving the necessary preventative care to prevent them from reaching that state.
On another note, I think your “ugly foods” campaign idea was a different and interesting solution. You mentioned that “ugly foods” such as fruits and vegetables are sold at lower costs to promote them in European countries. Building off of that, I wanted to offer something that I mentioned in my post. I tackled the same problem, and spoke mostly about food deserts. One approach I found was to tax the unhealthier, sugary drinks and fatty snacks, and use that extra revenue to subsidize the cost of the “ugly foods” that you mentioned, in order to make them more accessible overall. I think advertisement and campaigning, as you mentioned, can be an incredibly useful tool in that process as well.