Taking Care of Our heart, liver, lungs and Kidney: Our Health Matters! –Final Part.
Does our food sometimes comes too easily?
The food processors and the fast food chains can argue that they
do not force the consumer to eat their unhealthy foods, whether it is unhealthy
because of the proportion of some of its contents or because of the portions
served and eaten. However, although they might not be breaking any laws in
processing and selling their foods the way they do, it remains the fact that
their method of manufacturing, marketing and selling it is designed to entice
the consumer to come back for more, by 'conditioning' them with ingredients
such as salt and sugar.
The harm which smoking cigarettes does to people's lungs is,
fortunately, now well known, and it is encouraging that many countries have
taken forceful steps to reduce, if not wipe out this very harmful practise. Of
course, while the cigarette manufacturers and the tobacco farmers make the
transition out of this harmful industry, they have resorted to massively
exploiting the peoples of those countries which are slow or have refused to
take effective action to protect their citizens.
Alcohol is another product which can wreak havoc on people's
health and socio-economic
lives, when it is persistently used in excess. As is already known, excessive
usage of alcohol can affect the liver and causes major health problems.
On a more global level, there is the major problem of people's
breathing and health being harmed by smog caused by industrial processes, as we
have more recently seen in China and India, or, as in the case of countries
like Indonesia, the annual forest burning of massive areas of forest by
unscrupulous commodity farmers, probably with the connivance of people in the
government.
People's health can also be affected greatly as a result of the
local environment being harmed by industrial chemicals used in the production
of crops, such as soya beans, and the extraction of oil, such
as we have seen in places such as Nigeria and South America.
In these cases people have to look to their governments to protect
them from hazards which they themselves are powerless to do anything about;
except probably for mobilising to encourage or force their governments to take
effective action. Part of the problem is that there are times when
governments, either due to corruption or links with the perpetrators of the
harmful action, or because of 'national priorities' to rapidly increase
industrialisation, are not averse to sacrificing the health of some, if not all
of their people.
If we, as adults, families, communities do not take care of our
health and make it our priority, it is unlikely that governments and for profit
industries will do it for us; especially when it is often their actions and/or
inaction which causes or makes the problem worse.
The Garden of Plenty does not have to mean unhealthy overindulgence.
OWOHROD
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