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There are many reasons why our society has mistakenly turned from the simplicities of basic good health in favor of a complex medical system that emphasizes a drug culture called healthcare. Should we focus on health rather than healthcare? The answer should be an obvious and resounding 'yes!'

I am old enough to remember the time when, as a child, fast food and foods loaded with saturated fats and preservatives were introduced into American homes and lifestyle and no one was the wiser. Our parents were duped into believing that modern food choices were better than their more natural counterparts that took longer to buy and prepare. It was cool to drink Tang in the morning and believe that we were starting our day out right, especially if the Tang washed down a Pop Tart. Of course, the food never really fed our bodies and by ten o'clock in the morning, we were nibbling on donuts. TV dinners were a boon to our working moms, and because they looked so tantalizing on television, we told ourselves that they tasted good too.

Now, 50 years later, America is hearing the slow buzz of a wake-up call announcing the evils of a diet that everyone thought was healthy. Most people, unless they are in complete denial or are living under a rock, should now understand that foods high in sugar and saturated fats can kill them prematurely, promote diabetes, or cause a disabling heart attack or stroke. Our healthcare system has become focused on putting drug band aids on conditions that keep people happy without expecting them to make the needed changes in their life that could actually cure their problems. If we had good health, we would not need healthcare.

In the meantime, our healthcare system is overloaded and our resources drained by health problems often directly related to poor eating habits and ignoring the benefits of exercise. Why try a sport when one can watch it on television? In the meantime, health insurance has become so expensive, that if one is not getting it through a large group where they work, it is unaffordable.

Our corporate drug companies have been busy for many years cashing in on our own stupidity and laziness. For over 50 years their focus is on developing pills to solve conditions and diseases often a direct result of individual bad habits. They have gotten richer in direct proportion to America's obesity, all the while calling their approach quality western medical healthcare. At least that is what their ads on television keep telling us. Why would anyone not eat a huge platter of burritos, refried beans and rice washed down with a couple of beers, when they have a bottle full of Rolaids in their pocket?

How different it would be if our doctors had more time to treat us for conditions that were not self-inflicted because of our own ignorance or refusal in changing bad dietary habits. How different it would be if our healthcare system was not overloaded by the costs of expensive and often unnecessary tests. Our doctors are so fearful of law suits that they would rather send patients, "just in case", for toxic tests, many involving barium solutions digested and dyes inserted by IV prior to an x-ray. What patients do not understand is that these tests can actually make them sick. The toxic nature of many tests destroys the natural immune system for months after and makes us vulnerable to infections and diseases.

These types of testing abuses, when combined with America's focus on a "cure all drug culture" are reasons why the word health is no longer a meaningful part of healthcare in America.

Learn more about this author, Diane Quinn .
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