The rumors started weeks ago before the cafeteria opening on the new BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee campus in Cameron Hills, Chattanooga. Murmurs, complaints, and giggles attracted my attention. The question? The cafeteria charges more for junk food than for healthy food, and healthy food is much more readily available in quantity. There was resentment over social engineering, lack of choice.
On my first visit to the cafeteria, I was ecstatic. I have tremendous food allergies (the list is very long; I won’t bore you) and I usually end up in those places with a glass of water. And maybe a lemon wedge – WooHoo! Sure there were pizza, sandwiches, and sodas, but there were plenty more fresh fruits, vegetables, and salads with added protein at your request. There were protein bars and fruit juices with no added corn syrup and even gluten free. The coffee bar included herbal teas that were also gluten free. Had I died and gone to heaven?
How fitting for a health insurance company to set the bar very high for its own employees! Living in the South, I’ve come to expect fried food, lots of sugary things, soda with everything, and creamed corn or coleslaw as a vegetable. Most people don’t have my food problems and don’t need to eat like I do. But that does not mean that this diet is good for them. Diabetes in Chattanooga and the surrounding region is rampant.
With the debate on a health bill in the United States Congress, we should all be eagerly evaluating our own eating habits. The discussion should not simply be about whether we should have a public health insurance option. After all, we already have such a thing; it’s called Medicare and Medicaid. While these programs have serious financial problems, few are willing to eliminate them under the charge of socialized medicine. We need people to have access to healthcare and to stop overloading hospital emergency rooms.
We need a great debate about the state of our food and beverage industries and the personal choices that people make. A loud raspberry for all those people who think that a higher tax on soft drinks is infringing on personal freedom. And a double raspberry for the junk food industry that adds quantity to your bag of potato chips as a reward to consumers for buying your brand, encouraging them to eat more. I understand that women are the biggest consumers of potato chips. Ladies, don’t go there!
For the consumer who pays good money to eat these things; I have no words. The impoverished consumer who has little access to decent food; You have my humble apologies and I urge you to take up political arms to protest. I have long argued that it is criminal to locate a fast food parlor next to a school in a poor neighborhood and compound the problem by not having a grocery store stocked with fresh fruits and vegetables.
Having created a monster of health, an epidemic of chronic diseases, we do not have the resources to treat all the victims medically. I want health care to be equitable, but I fear that even greater investment by taxpayers in health care will stifle this debate. Instead, tax these unhealthy items; They contribute as much to ill health and death as cigarettes. I’m not sticking with the sanctimonious verbiage that says if we tax something edible, could something be next? They suggest that it will be coffee due to the caffeine. That is supposed to make people run to the exit and end the argument. Bah! Legislators should be up to the task of negotiating some compromises; They do it all the time. These taxes could become fashionable, something like seat belts. Oh, and by the way, it wouldn’t be so terrible if people cut down on caffeine.
