of things, saving the 38 billion dollars that
Congress seems poised to agree upon is
not a big deal.
A big deal is saving a trillion bucks.
And we could do that by preventing disease
insteadof treating it, using proper nutrition
as the cure.
For the first time in history, lifestyle diseases
like diabetes, heart disease, some cancers and
others kill more people than communicable ones.
Treating these diseases -- and futile attempts
to "cure" them -- costs a fortune, more than
one-seventh of our GDP.
Dr. David Ludwig, a Harvard-affiliated pediatrician
and the author of "Ending the Food Fight," says,
"The magnitude of the deficit is small when you
consider costs of nutrition-related disease;
the $4 trillion that the Republicans want cut over a decade is about the same as
the projected costs of diabetes over that same period." But this is preventable,
and you prevent these diseases the same way you cause them: lifestyle.
A sane diet, along with exercise, meditation and intangibles like love prevent
and even reverse disease.
The best way to combat diet-related diseases is to change what we eat. And if our
thinking is along the lines of diet improved = deficit reduced, so much the better.
If a better diet were to result only in a 10 percent decrease in heart disease,
that's $100 billion project savings per year by 2030.
This isn't just fiscal responsibility, but social responsibility as well. And the alternative
is not only fiscal catastrophe but millions of premature deaths.
O God of mercy who performs the dance of illimitable happiness in the hall of inconceivable intelligence! The Rig and the other Vedas are thundering forth in words, announcing to us that all are thy slaves, all things belong to thee, all actions are thine, that thou pervades everywhere, that this is thy nature. Such is the teaching of those who, though they never speak, broke silence for our sake.
-- Tayumanavar
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http://www.hinduismtoday.com/
Hindu Press Today April 16, 2011
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