Food Fix
In Food Fix, Dr. Mark Hyman explains why our nation is overwhelmed by chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, etc. As considerable research has shown, this trend is driven by our industrial diets. The food we grow, produce, and eat is what is at the forefront. Sadly, only 2% of our farmland in the United States is used to grow fruits and vegetables. The rest, 59% is used for what they call commodity crops (corn, wheat, and soy). These cheap, commodity crops are typically used for industrial farming animal feed and serve as the base of processed foods. Only driving this problem deeper is that most farmers growing food at this rate are not using healthy, safe methods.
As Dr. Hyman highlights throughout the book, cheap food turns out to be very, very expensive. Not only when it comes to our healthcare costs, but also for the environment and the climate. He very concisely explains the things that we can do to improve our quality of life and preserve our planet.
A big problem that Dr. Hyman writes about is that our current food system disproportionately affects the poor, immigrants, and people of color who actually work in the food system. “Their dependence on food stamps limits their food choices at checkout and healthy options are often not affordable enough.” This reality can be an explanation for the huge social and economic disparities that are present in our country. Food affects so much of how we think and what we do. How we grow it, process it, produce it, distribute it, consume it, and waste it affects almost everything in our lives.
Of course there are many things that determine your lifestyle. “The community in which you live, your access to healthy food, the safety of your environment, your education, your family and friends, and your level of income and employment.” These are all things that ultimately come down to personal autonomy, but Dr. Hyman describes how the food industry and our government policies are big part of this structural violence. Dr. Hyman suggests that to bring about change, we must have individual awareness, collective action, business regulation, grassroots efforts, political will, changes in legislation, and regulation of and limits to corporate actions.