What Happened to Truth, Justice and the American Way?

As a kid in the 1970s, my favorite TV show was Superman. Every day, I would watch reruns of the old black and white show from the 1950s, and every year, I would dress up as Superman for Halloween.

The thing I remember most about this show is what Superman was always fighting for – truth, justice and the American way!

Truth has really come under the microscope recently with all of the political scandals going on in our country. I’m not a political guy, but I pay attention to what’s happening. It does make you wonder about what the truth really is.

When it comes to our health, the truth is no longer up for debate, but our country and our leaders don’t seem to want to accept it.

As Dr. Mark Hyman wrote years ago, the American healthcare system is based on the outdated notion that disease should be treated, not prevented. Our system doesn’t keep us healthy. It keeps us sick.

All of the industries that affect our health – pharmaceutical, food manufacturers, agriculture, restaurants – they all profit when we eat unhealthy food, exercise less and endure stress. The more people are sick, the more money they make.

We have a system of sick care, not healthcare. That’s the truth. Unfortunately, that has become the American way.

In fact, a recent study revealed that people will choose larger portions of food if it’s labeled “healthier” even if that food is no healthier than other options. In other words, people view a healthy label as a license to overeat, even when the label is inaccurate or, at the very least, misleading.

So what do the food producers do? They market food as being healthy because they want to sell a product and influence people to eat it, not because it’s actually healthy. And what happens? People become overweight by eating unhealthy foods, which leads to chronic illness.

These are the chronic illnesses – obesity, heart disease, type II diabetes, cancer and others – that can be prevented. Instead, they account for 75 percent of healthcare costs and drive the economy of our current sick care system.

Big tobacco didn’t stop its manipulation of the truth until lawsuits were filed and government intervened, resulting in at least some level of justice. The same needs to happen with the stakeholders in the food industry.

Until then, individuals like us need to take back our health one meal at a time, and one day at a time. This is the year of the family, and there are steps we can take to keep our families healthy.

Avoid processed foods and sugary soft drinks. Eat whole, organic, locally grown products. Enjoy slow food made from scratch with natural ingredients, not fast food. Don’t let yourself or your kids be influenced by advertising that encourages us to be unhealthy, like Coke’s new, ridiculous fitness commercials.

If we want to change the system, we need to make it profitable to produce and sell healthy, nutritious food. That’s the truth.

What are you and your family doing to change the system one meal at a time? Join in the conversation on Facebook. 

Dr. James Prood­ian is an accomplished chiropractic physician and health educator who founded Proodian Healthcare Family of Companies to help people feel better, function better, and live longer. His expertise for the past two decades has been in physical rehabilitation, and he has successfully established himself as a spinal specialist. In his practice, he advocates the science of functional medicine, which takes an integrative approach to treating patients by addressing their physical, nutritional, and psychological needs. Alarmed by the escalation of complex, chronic illness in our country, Dr. Proodian has been speaking to companies and organizations through his “Wellness at Work” program since 1994, motivating thousands of people to make positive lifestyle choices and lead healthier, more productive lives. He can be heard weekly on his radio program, “Proodian Healthcare By Design,” on Tandem Radio.