Why Some People Die Early and Others Live On

What’s the most depressing part of a newspaper? It’s the obituary section where you see many people dying too early in life. What causes these untimely deaths? A Gifford-Jones Law states that one bad health problem inevitably leads to another and another, causing people to die early. One of the cardinal sins is not having a healthy and sensible breakfast. Where to lay blame? It’s the neglectful practices of food companies, governments, schools, and parents, all of whom are commonly ignoring the hazard.

The breakfast sin is found everywhere. Nearly every restaurant serving breakfast is guilty of pushing the wrong foods. We recently found sinful breakfasts in a high-end retirement residence in Toronto. Even upon request for a high fibre cereal, the response was that none was available unless we supplied it ourselves. Yet high amounts of fibre, as found in Cinderella’s typical meal of beans and lentils in the gruel, are essential to good health. The Cinderella diet at breakfast is, at a minimum, some whole grain toast or high fibre cereal.

High fibre cereal is not what most are eating – children and their parents alike. Most cereal boxes contain more sugar than fibre. The blunt fact is that sugar tastes better. The best way to make high fibre cereals more palatable is to add a banana or another fruit. It can still be a hard sell, so maybe pictures of diseased inner organs on cereal boxes are needed, like cancerous lungs on cigarette packaging.

Young children won’t care about historical studies, but maybe a few additional illustrations of the medical facts would help. Everyone wants to avoid constipation. It’s uncomfortable, causes hemorrhoids, and is generally unhealthy. But sailors on British ships suffered so badly from this problem they couldn’t do their work. Luckily, a wise ship’s doctor insisted on increased fiber in their diet, and they were all cured.

European explorers in Africa found another historical discovery. African societies didn’t suffer from constipation the same way Europeans did at the time. Why? African diets included more fiber.

What’s the magic of fibre? It holds on to water making bowel movements as soft as toothpaste. Fibre also has a filling effect, decreasing the amount of food consumed. If people ate more fiber, it would help fight the uncontrolled pandemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Few people realize how obesity, type 2 diabetes and their complications are causing heart attacks, kidney failure, blindness, and amputation of legs due to gangrene. This results in a huge medical cost to society and pain and suffering that can last for years.

Remember, the recent viral infection lasted just three years. Obesity and type 2 diabetes are increasing year after year with disastrous consequences.

The time is ripe for food producers and governments to get with it. But we know from experience that regulation alone isn’t going to solve the problem. People need to change what they buy and what they settle for from places serving food.

In the Bible it says, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” The Gifford-Jones version is, “What if hard work produces great wealth, but ill health steals it back early in life?”

The fact is high fiber products aren’t making the right pitch. Regulatory rules rightfully limit what claims can be made. But a healthy fiber cereal should trumpet the benefits of reduced risk for obesity, type 2 diabetes and a host of degenerative diseases having terrible medical complications.

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