“You are what you eat!”…How many times have we heard that, especially from our Moms when they were trying to get us to make wise food choices? Well these days it seems that many of us stay so busy that it’s hard to take time to think much about what we are eating.
A fascinating book came out earlier this year by Michael Pollan called In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. It is a really interesting read, tracking why we are where we are nutritionally in this country and how we should rethink things a bit. So, you might be wondering, ‘where are we nutritionally?’ According to Pollan, we don’t really eat very much food anymore. Instead we are eating food-like substances, which are basically products that have been developed from “food,” but have been processed so much that they really aren’t of much (if any) real nutritional value any more.
Like any book, it’s difficult to summarize his main points in a few brief comments, so you might want to check it out for yourself. But his seven-word mantra helps give us the gist of his solution to the problem: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” In other words, Pollan suggests that we should be eating real food, whole foods like fruits and vegetables, and that we shouldn’t eat too much. In case you think it sounds too simple, in the book you will finds lots of other great tips to help you figure out a healthy eating plan, but really when it boils down to it, remembering the mantra above is a pretty comprehensive guide.
In this blog we’ve discussed nutrition before. Many insurance companies are working hard to try to educate people about obesity in particular and eating habits in general. Why are they doing this? Because really, we are what we eat to a large extent. In the book, Pollan points out that health care costs have risen while food costs have decreased oven the last couple decades. He says we are spending about the same amount of money on food and health care combined, but that the amounts have switched. We used to spend much more on food and less on healthcare, and now we spend less on food and much more on health care. Pollan believes our eating habits are fueling many of our illnesses and leading to increased healthcare spending.
So what is a person to do? Think more about what you eat. Eating “food” doesn’t have to be more time-consuming or more expensive than eating food-like substances. It’s a matter of setting priorities and rethinking something basic that we have begun taking for granted.
At Preferred Benefits LLC we can help you do a realistic assessment of your current insurance portfolio. We can make suggestions that may save you money and in other cases even expand your coverage for the money you are currently spending. Such an assessment should be done annually.
Please contact us for a FREE assessment of your insurance portfolio. This personalized customer service is a cornerstone of our business. We look forward to being of service to you.
TOLL-FREE 877-302-5810
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