Food That Has A Positive Effect On The General State of Health

In 2001, two-year-old Kevin Kowalcyk died after developing hemolytic-uremic syndrome due to eating a hamburger contaminated with E. coli 0157:H7, a bacterial strain that infects the alimentary tract and induces abdominal cramps with hemorrhagic diarrhea. The food we feed the animals we eat has an indirect but drastic effect on us and nobody even knows it. The diet of many Americans contributes to 678,000 deaths each year in the U.S. as a result of the food they consume. In the last 30 years, obesity rates have doubled in adults, tripled in children, and quadrupled in adolescents. The most commonly consumed animals in America should be fed food that is healthy for them and positively contributes to their overall health.

How we treat and raise the animals that we eat has led to many forms of affliction. Countless men, women, and children have attained health problems as well as lost their lives due to the conduction and processing of our food. Obesity rates in the United States are the highest in the world. In America, obesity is a major health issue and can result in numerous diseases. Specifically, it includes the increased risk of certain types of cancer, coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, and strokes - to name a few. Obesity has been linked as a contributing factor to an estimated 100,000 to 400,000 deaths in America per year. It has also increased healthcare use and expenditures. According to David Barboza, in If You Pitch It, They Will Eat, “Since 1980, the number of obese children has more than doubled to 16 percent, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” What Barboza is referencing is how obesity has increased since 1980 due to the foods children are fed. This ties into how obesity impacts Americans today. Some Americans get obese at a young age, growing up to be an obese adults.

The policy that I propose we instill includes the proper feeding of the major animals consumed by the American people. This includes cows, pigs, and chickens. Animals are to be fed what positively contributes to their overall health of them. Feeding them food that isn’t natural and/or causes health problems within the animals would be prohibited. This should result in healthier Americans. We will tax organic food makers and give those profits to those that are required to abide to this policy to make up for the loss of revenue. As Wendell Berry said in his essay, The Pleasures of Eating, “As capital replaces labor, it does so by substituting machines, drugs, and chemicals for human workers and for the natural health and fertility of the soil. The food is produced by any means or any shortcut that will increase profits.” What Berry is saying is that the volume and cheapness of the food we eat is prioritized over its healthiness of it. This needs to change. The health and well-being of the American people should be ranked above all else. The priorities of these food companies need to change, and that starts with enacting this policy.

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The amount of unhealthy foods and chemicals that we feed our animals has a shockingly negative effect on us. As stated earlier, many Americans today are obese and have health problems because of the food they eat. If the food they ate was healthier, then America would have fewer of these problems. One of the biggest sources of this problem is due to how much corn we feed our animals. According to Michael Pollan, author of When a Crop Becomes King, “The problem in corn’s case is that we’re sacrificing the health of both our bodies and the environment by growing and eating so much of it.” This quote is referring to how our bodies are being punished as a result of how much corn we consume.

This relates to the unhealthiness of the food we eat because we feed our animals corn, which is unnatural and unhealthy for them. We then proceed to eat the unhealthy meat of those animals. The food we feed the animals we are fed have an indirect, but large impact on our health. The small changes that we can make with our animals can have an enormous effect on the well-being of the American people. The deaths and diseases that plague this nation can be eradicated, or at the very least reduced, saving countless lives. The health of our loved ones and children are on the line because of what we’re feeding them. We need to make a change, and we need to make it soon. The longer we wait, the more lives will be lost.

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