Except if they're promoting, or at least not dissuading, unhealthy food, then it's either stupidity (very possible), or there's something more nefarious going on. Food is the basis of health. It's even more important than genes because of epigenetics, i.e., it often takes environmental factors to express genes. If the government were truly interested in saving money on healthcare, they'd focus on prevention, i.e. food and exercise. However, and correct me if I'm wrong, obesity is going up around the world, not just in the U.S. Presumably that would include the U.K. Having said that, the 'government' is just people, and people don't often do their job real well, so maybe a cigar is just a cigar. Still, my cynical self wants to say that's how it starts, especially in an age of austerity when government cutbacks are the rule. The government steps out, even if slowly, private practice creeps in, and we have to see what the industry will look like 20 years from now. In this country doctors are very much private, and very uninterested in healthcare. Sickcare, and lots of it, is how they make their money. Andy ________________________________ From: Judith Evans <judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Sunday, November 6, 2011 7:51 AM Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Book Your Airline Tickets Now "No doctor has ever made money from healthy people who don't need them, and doctors are making oodles of money" Here, GPs (primary care physicians) are paid a fee per registered patient (and almost all of us are registered) plus (introduced by the last Labour government) extra fees for meeting targets on monitoring asthma patients, testing and diagnosing diabetes, checking blood pressure and monitoring patients with coronary heart disease; and some other things (that they should be doing anyway). New government "reforms' plus lack of "conflict of interest rules" do though mean some GPs will make money out of unhealthy patients. Almost all our hospital doctors are employed by the NHS and paid a salary. Yes, those who also practice privately make money out of unhealthy patients, as, obviously, do those who only practice privately. See Sicko. It didn't cover the NHS in total, obviously, but what it did say was true. Judy Evans, Cardiff --- On Sun, 6/11/11, Andy <mimi.erva@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: >From: Andy <mimi.erva@xxxxxxxxx> >Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Book Your Airline Tickets Now >To: "lit-ideas" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> >Date: Sunday, 6 November, 2011, 11:27 > > >What's going on with food is very, very deliberate. It's also connected to >the medical industry. No doctor has ever made money from healthy people who >don't need them, and doctors are making oodles of money. So is the so called >food industry. It is no coincidence that diabetes and heart disease and other >obesity-related ailments are rampant. Just follow the money. > >Andy > > >________________________________ >From: Judith Evans <judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> >To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >Sent: Sunday, November 6, 2011 5:54 AM >Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Book Your Airline Tickets Now > >That's a good idea, and we could do with something like it. I suppose it >could be linked to something like Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food. > >The current Government has cut back radically on public health promotion for >reasons financial and ideological. Its healthy food initiative or rather, its >commercial "partners"', was a book of discount vouchers redeemable against >certain of the companies' products, allegedly healthy ones; a book available >to qualifying people on application/at some health-welfare centres, and to >anybody who bought the News of the World. There were also discount vouchers >for only vaguely related products, for example, dining tables. > >Oh I forgot -- the books weren't available in Wales. > >The only discount healthy food I can recall was a branded wholemeal bread >which may still have been more expensive after discount than an own-brand one, >and is no better than them. > >That was some while ago, the initiative sank without trace. > >Judy Evans, Cardiff, UK > > > >--- On Sat, 5/11/11, David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > >>From: David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> >>Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Book Your Airline Tickets Now >>To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >>Date: Saturday, 5 November, 2011, 18:30 >> >> >>On Nov 5, 2011, at 6:28 AM, Judith Evans wrote: >>>>Here's what happens to your gestural ability when you get tucked into the >>>>Scottish diet: >>> >>> >>>>Perhaps I should have written "one's" gestural ability? Poncy perhaps, but >>>>otherwise I >think it may sound hostile. >>>Particularly as some of us eschew deep-fried pizza?! -- "one"'s underused >>>now; "you" certainly can be ambiguous. I'm pondering the Welsh diet. I'd >>>say its deficiencies correlate with poverty, lack of education, and so on. >>>"Eat like the (Southern) English" isn't that sensible an exhortation, >>>perhaps. >>Here's one among several current U.S. responses to the problem. >>http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/23/foods-new-foot-soldiers/ >>http://bittman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/foodcorps-service-members-speak/ >>David Ritchie, >>Portland, Oregon