Posts Tagged ‘health’
4 items.
I was reading a news article this morning on a potential soda tax, and this had me wondering if this was a plausible option. Granted, there would be a ton of revenue from it, but I doubt the Coke/Pepsi lobbyists would allow this to pass (just like a ban of aspartame would never pass either.) But this article had me thinking about some of my favorite sodas:
Currently, Boylan makes one of the finest root beers that I know of. I love these, and I’ll generally pick up either their root beer or birch beer, or even their grape soda, at the market street HEB store. These are fantastic, and what I really like about these is that they are made without high fructose corn syrup.
Hansens also makes a decent soda without HFCS, and I’ve enjoyed a number of these as well. Jones Soda is good too (they make a very good root beer) again without the high-fructose corn syrup, and these are of all of the soda’s the easiest to find (in fact, they had these at the local Walmart in a case, which was great news for me.)
So if these were taxed (which isn’t likely) I’d be disappointed, but all the same, having to pay more for soda would probably be a good thing, because ultimately these aren’t exactly health food. But all the same, this is one of my lesser vices.
Why can’t they just tax aspartame and splenda? Or hydrogenated oil? That would be a smart decision.
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I thought that this was an interesting article on the Alzheimer’s risk being elevated when exposed to power lines. I’ve long wondered about some of the associated health risks with power lines, and I know that from time to time, health reports make the headlines about these things. I’m fortunate enough to live in an area where most of the power lines are all buried underground, but there are some free-standing lines not far from here, and passing by them, I can’t help but wonder what effect these things have on health.
When I was young, living in northern Pennsylvania, I remember how the powerlines would weave a path up and over the mountains, and how you could generally follow a trail beneath these giant, humming metal things. In a way I’
m grateful for them, because it gave a nice open path to getting over the hills, but at the same time, I wonder if my hiking adventures over the hills were actually just an exercise in filling myself with electromagnetic radiation?
Anyhow, I loved hiking in those mountains. Here’s a google earth snapshot of the hillside near where I used to live. You can see the zig-zag path carved into the hill, but not so apparent are the huge powerlines that also worked their way up the hill as well. Good times, but I wonder sometimes how much of that exposure is enough to mess with your health?
Annual Enrollment time is upon us again, and once again I have to make the decision between the worst of two (or three) evils.
My ongoing struggle with Blue Cross has been one of such utter soul-draining futility that when I need “unnatural” services like chiropractic or acupuncture, I just pay out of pocket. Sadly, the BCBS copays for these service tend to be equal, or more expensive than, the actual service itself, so working out a cash plan and just paying that way (having used a health spending account to dodge the taxes) seems to be the only way to get assurance that the bill will be paid.
Blue Cross Blue Shield has been notorious in how POORLY it has represented my health needs over the years, to the point that, were I to take a bullet to the shoulder, I might do the John Rambo repair steps instead of bothering to deal with Blue Cuss and their horrendously muddled bureaucracy of co-payments, co-insurance, and general headache and difficulty.
Years ago, while my wife was seeing a chiropractor for care for CHRONIC, ONGOING back pain, with medical records to verify her need for chiropractic care, Blue Curse just decided to up and stop at 20 payments, because they saw “no medical need” for the adjustments beyond the 20. But, in their twisted, evil reasoning, once the calendar rolled over to Jan. 1st, they’d cover for another 20 adjustments at the chiropractor. Huh, so as of the turn of the calendar year, suddenly… the medical need had resurfaced! Unbelievable.
Then a couple years back, we went through the arduous process of having BCBS cover service for a midwife for a homebirth. Wow, talking to BCBS about homebirth is like talking about, well, insert your own analogy of discussing something incredible, remarkable, and uncommon to someone who is only used to approving drugs and butcher-shop medical practices (“You’d like to surgically insert a small plastic band into your body and bind this around your lower esophagus? Sure, we’ll pay gladly!”), and you get the idea. Well, BCBS “approved” this midwife, but since this midwife was out of network, the “approval” only covered up to a deceptive “hidden cap”, of which they didn’t bother to mention. Their letter stated “100% coverage… but only up to a twisted and evil hidden cap.”
So we went ahead and contracted with the midwife, and then afterwords, BCBS dropped the bomb and let me and the midwife know that they’d only be paying about HALF of the full service amount. I think the bill was a couple thousand, and BCBS was just being evil about paying anything beyond their hidden amount, regardless of my many appeals made to them. The remarkable thing is, were my wife to go to the hospital and elect for a C-Section (easily over $10k) BCBS would have gleefully paid this full amount. A homebirth? How backwards and ridiculous! Never!
So another option this year is Aetna and a health spending account plan. Having researched this carefully, all I can conclude is that this plan is for money-minded accountants who are single and live in optimal good health. It’s a complete gamble – in fact, too much of a gamble to credibly consider. One major catastrophe medically and I’d be destroyed financially. BCBS on the other hand, after sucking me as dry financially as possible, will pay for services (assuming I get to the RIGHT hospital with the RIGHT doctors, make all my co-payments, and carefully review each bill top to bottom, and, when needed [as has been] resubmit the same bill a couple times to make sure that it’s paid.)
So I’m stuck with BCBS this year again. I wonder if things will change with a new administration, or if my suffering with insurance is just an ongoing reality to accept?
At Walmart today I was flipping through a book called “Anticancer”, an interesting enough book, but nothing really ground-shaking: at the core of it, the book is just repackaging health and nutritional information that you can find in countless other books, namely in books by the bald guy with the huge white beard who’s name escapes me now. I might have given it more thought had the book been cut down more to a handbook-size regarding health and nutrition. As it stands, it struck me in my browsing as being packed with fluff in order to fill pages and garner a $20 cover price as opposed to $5.95.
In any case, reading through this had me thinking about my own health “strategy” that I follow, if you could call it that, and I thought I’d list some of food guidelines here, if for no other reason to be interesting reading later on, to see if I veer much from this in the future. General nutritional/dietary pattern that I follow: I read all labels at food stores. Some I don’t bother reading, as I know that the product is generally “clean”. But here are the “big five” food additives that I avoid. If a product has any of these, it goes back on the shelf. I’m
listing them in order of nastiness, in my estimation:
listing them in order of nastiness, in my estimation:
- “Hydrogenated” anything. If the product has that word, it goes back on the shelf. Years ago I read a book called “Trans Fat: the Hidden Killer” (or something like that) and I was amazed by the number of scientific references describing how absolutely terrible this stuff is, not just in how it can contribute to diabetes, heart disease, but even down to the level of research showing that a pregnant mother who eats this stuff passes these plasticy fats to her unborn child, and these fats are prioritized over the healthy fats. Nasty stuff.
- Aspartame/Nutrisweet/Splenda. I realize that the FDA gives this stuff an ok, but I can speak of firsthand experience that if I eat a product containing this, I get a dry throat, a headache, and/or general revulsion from the product. It’s been like this for ages: I remember being disgusted at a Diet 7-Up when I was just a kid, whereas I generally enjoy the taste of 7-Up soda. I read once that they prepare this stuff wearing spacesuits because the chemicals that go into the manufacture of aspartame are so harsh they would corrode one’s lungs. Not sure if that was urban legend or not….
- Monosodium Glutamate/Autolyzed Protein/Yeast Extract. It can be hard to get around this stuff, but it’s possible. What I’ve read about MSG and it’s family of flavorings is that it’s best to avoid this stuff. What I find fascinating is that, from one report I read, scientists really aren’t sure how this stuff works, but somehow it gives a sense of fullness or satiety eating it. I can usually pick up that odd, off taste of MSG in a food, and knowing little about it, I err on the side of caution and try to avoid it.
- Sodium Nitrates/Nitrates. Generally in lunch meats and hot dogs. I recently read about some studies linking this to pancreatic cancer. As far as preservatives go, I think it’s best to try to avoid these. I’ve noticed that there are a number of popular brands that are packaging lunch meats, hot dogs, and bacon, etc, without nitrates. They’re on to something. I rarely eat these kinds of meats, but I do enjoy an occasional turkey sandwich for lunch, and Boars Head brand makes some fantastic meats, both turkey and chicken, without these preservatives and with minimal added ingredients. Again, I try to avoid processed stuff, but then the mood hits me…
and finally…
and finally…
- High Fructose Corn Syrup. Hard to avoid this one, but I’ve found that there are some brands, such as Jones sodas, as well as others, that avoid this stuff and use cane syrup instead. I know that I should just be avoiding sodas in the first place, but every now and then I want a root beer with my turkey sandwich! I’m also fond of fruit juices, but I generally get the ones that are 100% juice and I’ll water these down, and enjoy them with lunch or dinner. However, sometimes the best bet is just pure water with some lemon or lime squeezed in.
There are more, such as red 40 and white flour, but these are the “big five”, and granted, I’m not perfect at following many nutritional guidelines, but I’ve been working at it. It’s a fascinating things to learn more about.
** Update – just a future modification, but I now post all of my nutritional and health musing in a separate blog over here: Nutritional Musing.
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