Food for thought and maybe not for eating?

[Cotswold]

On the Bovaer and the Gates equivalent Rumin8, organic farms cannot feed those synthetic feed additives to their cattle. Hopefully, only buying organic milk, cheeses and yoghurt will avoid any future issues. We'll see. Last week I did see some advice that those additives should not be Fed to beef, or pregnant cows but it appears to have been removed.

 

[Steve R.]

Great idea. Its been many years since Coke switched to High-Fructose Syrup, but My recollection is that cane sugar Coke tasted much better. Something else too. Coke switched from glass to cans and I've been wondering ever since whether that was also a factor in Coke not tasting as well.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1875510591546380684

 

[Isaac]

It does seem like we might need to bite the bullet and accept more regulations to force companies to stop promoting ultra processed foods, and maybe even have an age limit. If you want to eat junk that's going to kill you, you have to be over a certain age.

I know some will say this is draconian, but the consequences are ruining our nation of kids who become sick adults. Time to make America great again

 

[Pat Hartman]

If you want to eat junk that's going to kill you, you have to be over a certain age.

I love it. You can't buy candy bars unless you're 21+

Reminds me of the days when my mother would give me a nickel on Friday morning if I was good all week so I could stop at the tiny convenience store on the way home and buy some penny candy. I'll have 2 caramels and 3 squirrels please Mrs Johnson

 

[Cotswold]

It does seem like we might need to bite the bullet and accept more regulations to force companies to stop promoting ultra processed foods, and maybe even have an age limit. If you want to eat junk that's going to kill you, you have to be over a certain age.

I know some will say this is draconian, but the consequences are ruining our nation of kids who become sick adults. Time to make America great again

Maybe the older you are the less you should eat that stuff? Not the other way around.
But why do we need to be mandated? Why must draconian rules be enforced against the population.
We all know that drugs will cause serious damage and it is illegal to use them but stupid people still buy them.
We know that opioids will shorten and ruin you life but they are illegal unless provided by your doctor. Who is basically a legalised drug dealer who sells them knowing full well that they are dangerous. Often increasing dosage and never advising against taking them. Those legalised drug dealers sell them purely for their own benefit. Same as all drug dealers. They also advise the use of vapes which they know contain addictive substances inserted by the manufacturers to increase and maintain sales. Why would they do that you may ask? Well the doctors know that in ten or fifteen years the vapers will be a continued source of income due to the illnesses they will succumb to.

It is stupid to live on junk foods and drugs. But is that not an advantage as it will reduce the number of stupid people in society that are costing us all money?

 

[AngelSpeaks]

It does seem like we might need to bite the bullet and accept more regulations to force companies to stop promoting ultra processed foods, and maybe even have an age limit. If you want to eat junk that's going to kill you, you have to be over a certain age.

I know some will say this is draconian, but the consequences are ruining our nation of kids who become sick adults. Time to make America great again

I wonder what would happen if insurance companies refused to cover ailments caused by bad choices? Would people make an effort to take better care of themselves or just moan and protest that their treatment isn't covered.

 

[Pat Hartman]

I wonder what would happen if insurance companies refused to cover ailments caused by bad choices? Would people make an effort to take better care of themselves or just moan and protest that their treatment isn't covered.

The problem with this philosophy is that it is similar to simplistically blaming "climate change" on too much CO2 in the atmosphere. Although bad dietary habits contribute to or exacerbate some conditions, there are always other factors in play and you may still die too young of heart disease or diabetes even if you never touched a candy bar or potato chip in your life. So, no. Insurance cannot try to punish people into doing the right thing.

The problem with drug companies these days is that they have discovered it is way more profitable to "treat" a disease than it is to "cure" it so they devote their R&D budgets where the money is and look for treatments rather than cures.

 

[Isaac]

But is that not an advantage as it will reduce the number of stupid people in society that are costing us all money?

No, in an advanced society such as ours it will just increase healthcare costs. We have a longer longevity than ever before, sick or well.
I realize your point/argument about forcing things on people, but I don't WANT to live in a nation that keeps spiraling downward, before we know what happened we'll be a 3rd world country due to increasing corruption and decreasing employability.

Even as it is now, unfortunately Musk and Ramaswamy are right - they can never find enough regular Americans to fill tech jobs, they must mostly be filled with foreigners who did something other than smoking pot in high school but were concerned instead with good grades and mastering th basics and going on to learn a high paying skill. I don't want this problem to go any further, we must stop producing dumb, sick kids.

Go to the grocery store, pick 10 kids out of the store. Try to find a single one who isn't either dumb or sick.

 

[Cotswold]

Go to the grocery store, pick 10 kids out of the store. Try to find a single one who isn't either dumb or sick.

When I employed people, I used to think that maybe around 10% of them were really good. Ten percent were bad but often necessary hands and the first to go in a downturn. The rest were also-rans varying from good to mediocre.

 

[Cotswold]

A column today in the Telegraph, PDF attached.

In a similar vein, although no stats to support this but I wonder just how much of the surge in dementia, Alzheimer's etc is caused by alcohol and drugs. If someone has medication for depression to help them forget, they can hardly be surprised if eventually they don't remember everything.
I know nothing about the US but until 40 plus years ago in Britain the majority of drinking was once or twice a week in a pub. There was little at-home drinking, which is popular today. At home it is easy to drink far more than you would in a pub. Also, back then your doctor would tend to attempt a cure of the cause, rather than treat the symptoms. Not that I care because I stopped drinking eight years ago and don't even take paracetamol. I have sciatica but just try to ignore the pain, particularly so when I see the admitted side effects on the drug solutions on offer.

Another thought of mine is coffee. Back in the 70s a friend who was a nurse came back from Canada where she took part in post-mortems. Then in the UK we drank little coffee. She was surprised just how black the insides were of the coffee drinking Canadians. In fact, if you don't wash a coffee cup well, it will eventually stain, which will be near impossible to remove. You have to think that it must be the same inside a coffee drinker. Can, or does it get into your veins? I don't know. Not that I worry about coffee, or tea, as neither my wife or myself have had any for fifty years or so.