I read an article in the New York Times entitled “The Expense of Eating With Celiac Disease” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/15/health/15patient.html?ref=health and it found myself pondering the subject of food shopping. One of my family members has  gluten intolerance sensitivities and boy did we learn fast that gluten free foods are considerably more expensive than wheat based foods. 

For many Americans, the goal of food shopping is to “get deals” and “save money.” Many pride themselves on using coupons and only getting what appears in the Wednesday sale inserts in their newspapers. But have they stopped to consider quality versus cost?

Due to a number of factors over the past decade, I have moved away from having the primary goal of saving money on food to considering the quality of the items I am purchasing. This can be a frustrating proposition, I remember years ago, when I tried to go completely organic (could not find enough organic products and my grocery bills soared). There are many opinions by many so called experts on what is considered healthy eating: high protein diets vs. high carb vs calorie counting, vs  the Mediterranean diet, and the list goes on. Basically, the experts still are trying to figure it out. I have often found myself unhappy at the prices of higher quality and/or organic food items, but then I think, “The food I eat has considerable impact on my health”. So, I no longer purchase the cheapest ground beef, but the leanest, and if possible organic ground beef or even better ground buffalo because it has a considerably better ratio of omega 3 to omega 6. The omega 6 found in so many of our food products is a key contributor to inflammation which leads to a whole host of chronic conditions.. 

I now focus more on eating whole grains, organic livestock, poultry and produce items when possible and when it they are not outrageously expensive. And no, I am nowhere near perfect in my quest!

I have found it interesting that the “healthier the item” (i.e. organic, low salt/no salt added, etc.) the higher the price. Hmmm, if you are adding less (salt, pesticides, chemicals, etc.) to an item, should it not be cheaper? Unfortunately for the consumer many of the healthiest foods are also the most expensive.

Other issues to consider food shopping:

1.      Sodium Content: Sodium is a major causative factor for developing high blood pressure and/or kidney disease. Individuals with one or both of these conditions need to reduce salt/sodium intake in their diets. Canned and processed foods are loaded with salt. The recommended salt intake for a healthy person (no medical conditions) is 2300 mgs which equates to 1 teaspoon of salt per day. Many of our less expensive processed and canned products easily exceed this amount of salt. New York City’s Health Department is taking on the battle to reduce salt (see http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30352252/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/ and http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/cardio/cardio-salt-coalition.shtml in processed and restaurant foods as a means of reducing high blood pressure and the diseases that can result from this condition.

2.      Low Fat/Higher Sugar Content versus Low Sugar/Higher Fat content: Have you ever looked at a processed food item that advertised low fat? Look at the sugar content and then compare it with the regular fat item, in most cases the sugar content is higher to compensate for the lack of fat. The same is true for low sugar items. These low fat or low sugar items are generally higher priced and come in smaller quantities than their regular fat/sugar counterparts.

3.      Hormone Sensitivities: Our livestock and poultry animals have been pumped full of various hormones for years. Hormones and antibiotics are stored in the fat of animal products we consume (i.e. milk, cheese, meat fat, etc). Hormones are affecting our children’s growth and the earlier onset of puberty for both boys and girls. Women who have or currently have breast cancer take hormone therapy that block estrogens (hormones in food can compromise these therapies). Eating for maximal health is no easy task, but maybe it is time we ponder the health benefits of eating higher quality food versus the cheapest. 

Ever wonder the best way to store a food or how long to keep it?  Well StillTasty is the web site for all your questions. Different foods have different lengths of freshness and optimal ways of preservation (leave a banana out if you want it to ripen versus refrigerate fresh meat as soon as you get home from the store). To find out the shelf life of various food items (fruit, vegetables, meats, fish, snacks, nuts, beverages, condiments, etc.), check out www.stilltasty.com and it will tell you, so you don’t have to wonder anymore.

Optimally all those who labor would have access to group health insurance at affordable rates through their employers. Unfortunately this is frequently not the case. There are those employees who work very hard, but for an employer who does not offer health insurance and does not give their employees a stipend to cover health insurance expenses. There are many now with unemployment being the highest it has been since 1983 that have no job and no job prospects. If they were lucky enough to have been laid off last fall, have worked for an employer who offered health insurance, had been employed at least 12 months prior to their termination and were laid off after Obama got elected president, they have subsidized COBRA benefits where they only have to pay 35% of their premium instead of 100% (that is if they can afford even 35%). Then there are those who were lucky enough to meet the above conditions who had access to COBRA even thought they had to pay 100% of their premium because they got laid off during the Bush administration, but those folks have rolled-off the 18 month limit for COBRA benefits and in most states have no access to health insurance either because they cannot afford the high rates of an individual health insurance policy or they have been deemed to have a “pre-existing condition”. Let me tell you most people have something that an insurance company can and will deem to be a “pre-existing condition”! Go ahead and try to get one of those private insurance plans – I spent months trying unsuccessfully. There was vague and unconfirmed possibility with Blue Cross of NC: $1500/month premium with a $5000 deductible – how is that for affordable???

I have trouble understanding why so many individuals in this country are so upset about health care reform. The primary issue is providing insurance coverage for those who are uninsured that is comparable to group health insurance that many citizens receive through their employers. Of all the things in life to feel threatened about, why is that so threatening? Is it a matter of the haves versus the have-nots? If this is the case it is a sad one. For if we are to learn one thing in life it is that change is inevitable and life is uncertain. You may have insurance and a job today, but will you tomorrow??? Assuming you have good health today, will you have it tomorrow? A close friend of mine emailed me that her daughter had been diagnosed with a progressive form of MS (some forms progress slower than others – not hers). My friend’s daughter who I will call A. is probably in her late 30s and probably makes close to 75K/yr. Her husband is self-employed, so A. provides the health insurance for her family (husband and children). A.’s world and comfortable life-style started to shatter with that diagnosis. If A. is unable to work (her company only provides short-term disability, not long term), how will she be able to get access to health insurance? MS is definitely one of those “uninsurable pre-existing conditions!” Her family is now struggling with the question of how they will be able to afford the 10K in medication she will now require. So even those of us who can be the healthiest and insured can have something happen to us the severely compromises our health and robs us of our insurance (if she could not work – she would only be eligible for COBRA benefits if her family could afford them for 18 months – there is an example of how an affluent family of 4 becomes uninsured!

There are few things more important than one’s health and collectively the health of a country’s citizens. With health and periodic medical care, most individuals can lead healthy and productive lives. Without health, many citizens are unable to work and health care cost escalates for all of us – since in the end we all pay for those who are uninsured regardless of the reason. Yes, I admit there are a certain number of individuals who can be termed, too lazy to work. But if we look closer and deeper, why are they really not working? Mental health issues? Alcoholism? Drug Abuse? Many of these conditions are treatable, maybe not curable if one has access to medical care.

I implore you to ask yourself, “What is more important than my health, the health of my family, and the health of my fellow citizens?”

We as a nation have never had such high rates of obesity and diabetes. These conditions spawn a host of other conditions (i.e. heart, kidney, eye-sight conditions).  As with most chronic conditions, the longer they are left untreated (and uninsurability leads to untreated conditions) the more damage they do, the more expensive they become and the more we as a country pay on health related issues.

Have you ever considered that even though making insurance available to all our citizens is expensive, it may be more expensive to deny insurance to our citizens? Doctors, hospitals and other medical entities do not give out discounts when you are uninsured, in fact they charge you the full price (no negotiated insurance fee discounts there), these entities are going to get their money and right now they are doing it by increasing charges for those that are insured. One way or another they will get their money, so in the end we all pay for those without insurance.

So instead of becoming so outraged at health care reform, how about looking deep down inside yourself and figure out what you are really angry about. Some of the things I am angry about include: I am considered uninsurable due to a pre-existing condition; my COBRA benefits ran out; Cash for Clunkers – how about cash for health care??? – my family has two 10 year old cars that are fuel efficient, no gas guzzlers for us – the writing has been on the wall for years – gas prices will only increase – and hey, we can’t afford a new car even with a cash incentive; bail-outs of financial institutions, insurance companies and auto-makers who acted irresponsibly and greedily; high bonuses, heck any bonus for that matter for employees of companies who have had to be bailed out; politicians who want to keep getting re-elected rather than take the harder road and make ethical decisions which will benefit the most instead of the least (i.e. big health insurance companies)!                                            

Maybe we need to dig deeper on our quest to understand anger. Anger in many instances is the response to feeling hurt. Many of us don’t like to admit that we feel hurt, so it is more socially acceptable to “feel angry.” Are so many people really angry about Health Care Reform or does the media focus on them because some of the situations are so outrageous and outrageous sells? Or in our own personal worlds are we angry at ourselves (what we did nor did not do in a given situation?), our spouse (what he or she did or not due that caused us to feel hurt, unloved, etc?), our kids (misbehaving, being rude, thoughtless, not returning the love we have for them – that can hurt), our neighbor’s dog pissing on our bushes and killing them and digging up our flower bed (how could our neighbor be so thoughtless? We would never let our dog destroy their garden!). And the list goes on….In the end though it is important to figure out what we are really angry about and then direct our energy to doing what we can to work it out in a non-threatening manner – who wants to feel threatened? If that is not possible, explore other non-violent alternatives.

Are you spending or not spending (except for essentials such as food, shelter, transportation, medicine, etc.)? Spending a little maybe on an infrequent visit to the movies or an inexpensive restaurant meal? Are you living as you would have a year or two ago, prior to the economic downturn?

I have friends who fall in the “wealthy” segment of the economy (I do not) and friends who fall into the middle class. Income and money can be tenuous things – they can come and they can go – depending on life’s events or crises. I have often observed (though this is but one small slice of all of life’s observations), that some of the wealthiest individuals I know are the tightest spenders. One might inquire if perhaps that is how they attained their wealth? One of my friends lives in a very affluent beach community (no homes are available on the beach  for under a $1 million) is doing everything she can to save money. Growing her own garden, clip every coupon, eliminating entertainment items such as eating out, going to concerts, movies, etc. She admits that what she considers wealthier friends of hers (she does not consider herself) are “hiding their wealth” live less conspicuously, by apparently not spending.

Ironically, my middle class friends who are still employed have not changed their spending habits, they still eat out, go on vacation, spend money on their children and grand-children. I have heard it said that we as a society are becoming more polarized economically, the middle class is being eliminated leaving the lower and upper class.

A question comes to mind, if we all save/hoard our money in our local communities, our local communities will suffer. Why you might ask? Without consumer infusion of money into local businesses, business declines, with a lack of customers, jobs are lost, businesses close, homes are foreclosed, former business buildings sit empty; empty businesses and homes do not make an attractive community to its residents and less so for attracting new residents and businesses.

In many cases people begin to feel hopeless and disenfranchised – a feeling of nothing to lose. Crime increases due to a lack of jobs and the sense of nothing to lose. Some individuals actually benefit from living in jail/prisons – unfortunately these entities provide free shelter, food and medical care. In this economy, prison may be the only place to find these amenities!

So, I am left to ponder by the number of individual I have heard of who are still taking their annual vacations and now all those individuals who are trading in their clunkers – is this recession/depression as bad as we are told it is or has the media blown it out of proportion. I have no doubt that unemployment is high, in fact I believe it is significantly higher than the government reports since they cull their numbers from the number of people collecting unemployment. Many people become ineligible for unemployment (their benefits run out) every month, so they fall off the rolls and are thus no longer counted in the unemployment statistics. However for another group of people who are quite fortunate and have not felt the effects of unemployment in their home, I’m not sure that “our current economic factors” have affected them. What to you think?

Imagine my surprise when I was going through my closet and put on an outfit that I had purchased (major end of year clearance sale last fall), for the first time this year and I looked at the label and saw it was made in the United States. I raced off to the store I had purchased the outfit at, Belks and low and behold their summer inventory was reduced 50% and then and additional 30%! Yes, I ran to the “Hot Cotton” sections and purchased three pairs of pants and two shirts for $112.!

I did have a moment of dismay when after going through the remaining summer selection, which due to economic times was quite signficant and found that about 15% of their items were made in China !

I  looke up “Hot Cotton” was founded in 1993 by Marc Ware in LA. It became a subsidiary of Active Brands International, Inc. in 2007.

I plan on doing more research to find out about why the majority of their items are made in the US and why a few are made in China. I hope the production of a few items off-shore is not a foreshadowing of future operations.

In the meantime buy Hot Cotton! The items are made of linen and/or cotton. Wonderful for hot weather. Appropriate for general casual wear or for a business environment that has a casual atmosphere.

Share with my readers what other clothing makers are using USA production facilities. Thank you!

The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.  Albert Einstein

I thought this was a particularly timely quote considering the wide usage of the term “evil” lately of about all things Health Care Reform. Somehow “evil” and “Health Care Reform” are just two concepts that do not go together.  This begs the question of what is the root of this concept of  “evil?” I Googled “evil and health care reform.”  The top hits were about Sarah Palin decrying Health Care Reform as evil. If Sarah Palin read the Health Care Reform Act she would know that there are no death panels, no bureaucrats who decided who should live and die, etc. She goes on to say that Health Care reform is evil because it will determine whether someone is worthy of health care, etc. 

Our current system of health insurance determines if you are worthy or not based on if you can afford to pay for health care or if you do not have “pre-existing” conditions! How is that for determining if someone is worthy of health care? Worth is literally monetary worth!

I find it a sad state of affairs when someone the likes of Sarah Palin, a self-proclaimed “hockey mom” calls the Health Care Reform plan “evil” and the terms takes hold. Note: Sarah Palin expressed her evil opinion of Obama’s Health Care Reform Plan on her Facebook page. Could it be that Facebook is her only outlet since no credible media source interviewed her? If she thinks this plan is so “evil,” why doesn’t she stop criticizing it and come up with a better plan?

So I encourage the people of this country to speak up for Health Care Reform, for the care of their countrymen, women and children because as Albert Einstein says, “The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” 

I just watched a fascinating live interview on MSNBC’s Hardball (Chris Matthews was not there tonight and I missed the name of the gentleman who was conducting the show). He interviewed the woman who questioned Arlon Specter on August 8 at a Town Hall Meeting by saying she does not want a socialist country, which she seems to think that this Health Care Reform Act will make us.

The interviewer mentioned that only individuals who made over $250K would pay additional taxes. She would not answer if the small company she and her husband runs makes more than that amount. It seems logical to me that if they made less than that, she would have said so. The interviewer then asked her if she had insurance and she said that she and her family did and she mentioned the high deductible cost of $5000 (apparently she an her self-employed husband make enough money to afford insurance coverage for their family – many self-employed people cannot especially if they have any type of pre-existing condition).

During the Town Hall Meeting with Specter, she indicated that a single payer health care plan would make the US a socialist country like Russia).  The interviewer reminded her that the H.R 3200 Act is an optional program not mandatory, so if individuals with insurance are happy with their health care coverage, they can keep it (it is for people who do not have access to health care insurance).  The interviewer asked her if her parents received Medicare benefits and she said they were close to the age, but not yet. He told her that Medicare was a single payer government run insurance program that was similar to a socialist program and asked her if she wanted to see Medicare repealed. Then he asked her if a similar socialist like program, Social Security, similar to a program developed by Bismark in German should be repealed. She looked pretty horrified at the though that either program be repealed. The interviewer then told her that Medicare covered end-of-live planning consultations with physicians and that the current Health Care Reform end-of-life section was modeled on that Medicare provision.

When the interviewee mentioned what our “Founding Father’s” wanted she said that she thought they would want citizens to look out for one an other. Is that not what Social Security and Medicare do – we are a country that takes care of our countrymen, women and children. Due to numerous reasons, many people are uninsured, is it not time to step up and help those citizens? You and your family may find yourselves in the unenviable situation tomorrow or some time in the future. So a question to those of you who have insurance today, will you have it tomorrow, next month, next year? What if you get laid-off, fired, become too ill to work, have a family member that requires a high level of care that prevents you from working, etc. how will you obtain health insurance?

A lot of folks are concerned about the costs of health care reform, they don’t want to pay for it, they do not want their tax bills increased, etc.

Have they considered that we “collectively” all pay the bills of the uninsured? Have you wondered why your premiums and deductibles go up annually. Health care providers increases their charges to offset the loss of payment by those who are uninsured.

We are all in this together, yet health care reform is like the elephant in the room, no one wants to discuss it, let alone take action on it. It has been an on-going problem for decades and it is past time that this issue be addressed. I think it is important to also remember that Obama didn’t cause this current economic crisis, he is trying to clean up 8 years George W. Bush’s administration’s blunders that led us to this state of economic decline.

As I mentioned in a prior post, I am an advocate for end-of life planning in the form of discussion and advanced directives: Living Wills and Health Care Power of Attorney documents. I remember years ago getting a late night call from my brother-in-law telling us that his mother had fallen and sustained a serious hip fracture (too complicated for her local hospital to handle) and was being transferred to our hospital. As my husband and I raced to the hospital, in hopes of getting there before she did, so she would not be alone, I asked my husband what his mother’s end of life wishes were. She was about 85 at this time and many people that age do not survive the general anesthesia necessary for surgery due to their delicate health issues. My husband told me she had never discussed end of life issues and her wishes with him or any of his siblings. So there we were racing to the hospital, facing a serious injury, wondering what decisions we might have to make if she were unable too. Talk about compounded stress!

Don’t wait until an emergency or potentially life-threatening incident to have end of life discussions. Advanced Directive documents ensure that your wishes are carried out (i.e. what types of medical care is provided and who can make medical decisions in the event you are unwilling to). It is recommended that you complete these documents when you legally become an adult.

I think many Americans are uncomfortable thinking about the fact that they will die and their loved one’s will die. Many of us are afraid. None of us like to think about loosing a loved one or of our own demise and death. The one thing that we all have in common is that we will die! Some of us will die relatively quickly (i.e. a massive heart attack, a fatal accident, etc.). The majority of us will develop a chronic illness that will slowly diminish our abilities (i.e. congestive heart failure, cancer, etc.) Regardless of the circumstances advanced planning insures your wishes are followed and can provide comfort to loved ones because they are not left wondering “what would he have wanted?” or “what would she have wanted.” Think of your Advanced Directives as a gift to those who remain behind, it frees them of having to make decisions for you without knowing what you would have wanted, this uncertainty can put you in a situation you never would have wanted and can leave emotional scars on the person who becomes you default Health Care Power of Attorney because they are having to decide “what you might have wanted.” Let the end-of-life of a loved one be a time where friends and family can come together to support their loved one and each other, comfortable in the knowledge that their loved one’s wishes are being met. Give your loved ones the gift of knowing what you end-of-life wishes are.

Medline, is a service of the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institute of Health, it defines Advanced Directives as “legal documents that allow you to convey your decisions about end-of-life care ahead of time. They provide a way for you to communicate your wishes to family, friends and health care professionals, and to avoid confusion later on. A living will tells how you feel about care intended to sustain life. You can accept or refuse medical care. There are many issues to address, including:

• The use of dialysis and breathing machines
• If you want to be resuscitated if breathing or heartbeat stops
• Tube feeding
• Organ or tissue donation

A durable power of attorney for health care is a document that names your health care proxy. Your proxy is someone you trust to make health decisions if you are unable to do so.” http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/advancedirectives.html

 I searched the term “living will” on Google and found what I consider to be one of the most credible medical sources on the Internet, the Mayo Clinic’s web site, www.mayclinic.com this web site is also an excellent source for medical conditions.

The Mayo Clinic web site explains that Advanced Directives include several documents and are there for your family and your physicians to consult in the event you can not make your own decisions

“Advance directives include:

• Living will. This written, legal document spells out the types of medical treatments and life-sustaining measures you do and don’t want, such as mechanical breathing (respiration and ventilation), tube feeding or resuscitation. In some states, living wills may be called health care declarations or health care directives.
• Medical power of attorney (POA). The medical POA is a legal document that designates an individual — referred to as your health care agent or proxy — to make medical decisions for you in the event that you’re unable to do so. A medical POA is sometimes called a durable power of attorney for health care. However, it is different from a power of attorney authorizing someone to make financial transactions for you.
• Do not resuscitate (DNR) order. This is a request to not have cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) if your heart stops or if you stop breathing. Advance directives do not have to include a DNR order, and you don’t have to have an advance directive to have a DNR order. Your doctor can put a DNR order in your medical chart.” http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/living-wills/HA00014

The Mayo web site also encourages your to review these documents from time to time. Things change in our lives that may cause us to reconsider earlier decisions and revise them.

 Having been a Health Care Power of Attorney, I would encourage the readers of this posting to give serious thought to whom they choose to carry out this important role if it ever becomes necessary. Pick someone who can think and function well under pressure. Also consider having a secondary Health Care Power of Attorney in the event the primary one is unavailable.

 Follow the Boy Scout motto: Be prepared!

According to Wikipedia, the term “Town Hall Meeting” is defined as, an informal public meeting derived from the traditional town meetings of New England. Similarly to those meetings, everybody in a community is invited to attend, voice their opinions, and hear the responses from public figures and elected officials, although attendees rarely vote on an issue. In today’s heterogeneous communities with large populations, more often, town hall meetings are held so that people can influence elected officials in their decision making or to give them a chance to feel that their voices are being heard. “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_hall_meeting

If a Town Hall Meeting is for those in a community, why are people being bussed in from other communities to stir up trouble and disrupt these meetings (i.e. Americans for Prosperity)? I think this organization could be renamed to Prosperity for Certain Americans (those who belong to our organization)!

Let’s keep Town Hall Meetings for the locals, so that they can hear about the Health Care Reform Act and politely ask questions and debate the topic.