Do Health Ministers Protect Health?

What impact does affordable food have in your community?  I encourage you to call your local food bank, find out first hand what's going on in your home town, and report your findings here so we can all learn from it.  Enter your comments below.

I blogged a few days ago about the critical effects on health from lack of affordable food.  Here is some additional support for that idea from Michael Pollan, best selling author of The Omnivore's Dilemma (and many other books)

 
Today, I thought, "Why waste a good posting; turn it into a letter to the person responsible!"

So that's what I did.

Here is a copy of the letter I wrote to Ontario's Health Minister, with a copy to the Dieticians of Canada.

Some scientists estimate that 75% of all disease today is directly caused or contributed to by poor nutrition.

The consequences of not being able to afford the food you need is immense.   Just one of the many consequences is causing or contributing to the onset of Type II Diabetes.

Here are some key facts about Diabetes:

• 2.3 Million Canadians have Diabetes today
• Of those, 621,000 reported that they suffer some degree of nerve damage from their diabetes
• 345,000 (~15%) will develop a diabetic foot ulcer sometime during their life
• Diabetic foot ulcers cost the Canadian health care system $150 million per year
• Diabetic leg ulcer cost Ontario $15.6 Million in 2005
• Diabetics are 23 times more likely to have an amputation than non-diabetics
• More than 4,000 Canadian diabetics had a limb amputated in 2006
• 1,500 diabetics in Ontario had a limb amputated in 2008
• 85% of amputations are from non-healing diabetic foot ulcers
• 50% of all lower limb amputations in Ontario are directly related to diabetes
• 30% of Canadian diabetics will die within a year of their amputation
• 69% of Canadian diabetics will die within 5 years of their amputation

Hopefully Ontario's Health Minister (and the Dieticians of Canada) give sober second thought to the benefits of ensuring affordable food for all Canadians.

That's hard to do when the #ChickenMafia are encouraged to price gouge Canadians 300% more for chicken, and the #EggMafia price gouge 52.6% more than fair pricing.

Will Ontario's Health Minister, the Hon. Deb Matthews, MPP take actions to save the people, and the taxpayers from all the expensive and wasteful consequences from food insecurity?  Can she convince her Cabinet colleagues to take action all across the government, that is both MOHLTC and OMAF (Ministry of Agriculture & Food) for the unjustifiable excesses of the #ChickenMafia and #EggMafia?

If she is successful, Small Flockers will be standing at the ready, waiting for the clarion call to feed our communities.

Bring it to the Poor

Yesterday's Blog posting showed the health consequences of unaffordable food prices created by the #ChickenMafia and #EggMafia of Canada inflating food prices by up to 300% .

In the last 24 hours, I have been privately attacked with malice and spewing venom for yesterday's Blog posting; far more so than anything else I have posted here in the last 8 months.

I wonder why?  Is it that yesterday's posting hit a nerve for these #ChickenMafia and #EggMafia members and their supporters?

Perhaps so.

They accuse me of smearing their good reputation with pseudo-science, rumor, wild accusations, and make-believe. I have been told to drop this Blog and get a real life.  They feel that I am so far into outer space that I have no credibility whatsover, and therefore get rejected as a quack and nut job, which then ends up painting the #ChickenMafia and #EggMafia as the more reasonable and moderate parties around whom all Canadians should rally and defend.  My critics say that I am a fool, and therefore a tool for the #ChickenMafia , pushing people to join forces and defend those whom I attack in an unreasonable manner.

Very interesting.  Thanks for your feedback.

Well, here are some more facts from the government and university academics who have researched the subject far more than I.  I focus for the moment with Metabolic Disease, but there are many similar indicators; all of which point to the same culprit:  excess carbohydrates.  Perhaps you will believe them. 

Metabolic Disease for men in Southern Canada.  I guess they thought
Yukon, NWT, and Nunavut aren't important enough to study.  Too bad.

The graph above is 1986 - 1992 data analyzed by Queen's University for men showing as much as 22.4% of them have Metabolic Syndrome.  Note that ON, SK, NB, NS, and NL are the worst off.  Men are worse off than females, so I focus our attention there, but you can click on the link above and see the whole report.

As income increases, prevalence rate of
Metabolic Disease consistently decreases

For those who are better educated, they
consistently have lower rates of Metabolic Disease

Still not convinced this is a real problem that needs a real solution?  They also show that it seems to be consistently correlated with income level, as shown in this graph.

The higher the education you achieved, the lower the risk of Metabolic Disease.

Still not convinced?

Here is data showing that Metabolic Disease is related to education level.  Note the similar relative heights for the three bars, the same shape for all regions of Canada.  This is a Canada-wide issue.  I assume it would be the same or worse for Yukon, NWT, and Nunavut.

I have no proof, but I'll suggest that poor education makes it hard to find a good paying job.  Without a good paying job, it's hard to afford the gouging monopolistic prices charged by the #ChickenMafia and #EggMafia, so you are forced to dumb-down your food purchases to what you can afford, which usually means an excess of carbohydrates.

There is solid scientific proof that too many carbohydrates tends to cause you to have low energy as your body thinks it's nutritionally starving and therefore needs to conserve energy in spite of too many calories from too many carbs.  Poor nutrition in the past causes you to eat more carbs (ie. you can never get enough of what you don't really need), compounding the problem.  The low energy you feel causes a more sedentary lifestyle, further compounding the problem.  Over eating of carbs and less exercise primes you for Metabolic Disease.  See Dr. Lustig, Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, University of California; and Director of Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health (WATCH) Program, and his series of UCTV videos on The Skinny on Obesity

Still not convinced?  Here is  is some more info from Public Health Canada for 2007 to 2009.

Canadians and their scores on the
5 precursor diagnoses that make up Metabolic Disease for 2007-2009

This data is 4 years old.  Guess what, it's probably much worse today, and gaining speed like a runaway train.  Canadians know what happens with runaway trains, don't we?  This will not end well.

Somebody needs to do something about the #ChickenMafia and the #EggMafia, and soon.  I'm doing my part, for I have brought this issue to your attention.  Now it's your turn to do something.

What will you do today to help?

I hope this is adequate for you to agree that these are not wild rantings and baseless accusations I have posted in this Blog.

If you have alternative facts by credible, unbiased sources that you wish to use to counter Small Flocker's position, then type it up, send it to me, and I will post it here unedited, then we can have some balanced discussions of both viewpoints.

If instead, you just want to be angry, or stubborn, or don't want to listen to facts, then I think that goes to prove one of my other points I have made against the arrogance and hubris of the #ChickenMafia , #EggMafia , and their supporters.