Tag: MAHA

Good Health

With the MAHA movement, perhaps we should be asking: What defines good health? It’s easy to assume we all have the same definition of health. But is that true?

closeup of dictionary page with the definition of dictionary

The top 3 definitions of the word health according to The American Heritage® Dictionary are:

health /hĕlth/

noun

  • The overall condition of an organism at a given time.
  • Soundness, especially of body or mind; freedom from disease or abnormality.
  • A condition of optimal well-being.

Merriam-Webster defines it as follows:

health

nounˈhelth  also ˈheltth

  • 1a: the condition of being sound in body, mind, or spiritespecially:freedom from physical disease or pain
  • 1b: the general condition of the body
  • 2a: a condition in which someone or something is thriving or doing well:well-being
  • 2b: general condition or state

Medical Dictionaries recognize health as a range of potential within an environment: “a relative state in which one is able to function well physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually in order to express the full range of one’s unique potentialities within the environment in which one is living.”1

While all are similar, there are some notable differences. American Heritage does not mention the spirit, only the body and mind. Merriam-Webster mentions the spirit, but emphasizes physical disease and pain. Of the three, the medical dictionary is the only one to mention potential and environment.

Why does defining health or good health matter?

To Establish The State We Wish to Achieve

Keeping it simple, if you don’t know what it is, you can’t recognize when you have it.While that’s stating the obvious, we spend lots of time, energy, and money trying to achieve good health. If we don’t define what it is, not only may we fail to recognize it when we achieve it, we can’t devise a reasonable plan to get to the state we strive for.

To Create Reachable Goals

Health, good health, and optimum health are not the same for everyone. I don’t have the same health potential as someone with a different genetic makeup, history of illness, background of injury, exposure to environments, and reliance on medication. That’s why the medical dictionary uses words like unique potentialities and environment. Understanding what’s realistic for me is key to developing appropriate and achievable goals.

To Make Sure My Health Choices Reflect My Priorities

I may not have the same priorities as my physician. This can mean I request an alternative route to get to the same goal. My doctor might prefer I take a certain medication that will get a result quicker. I may prefer a lengthier path that leads to the root cause of my issue. As a team, we can devise a treatment plan in line with my priorities.

Other priorities may extend beyond my personal health in order to protect vulnerable family members, those with disabilities, and the elderly.

To Balance Time Spent On Each Component Of Health

If I spend too much time working out, I may not have time to prepare food that most benefits me. If I only focus on physical health, I may neglect social connections, creative projects, or practices that contribute to a positive state of mind.

To Get Results

Without any clear definition, goal, or plan, there’s no way to measure results. Even if our health plan is mostly about the process, we won’t know whether we’re on track unless we’ve outlined that process & where we hope it to take us.

There’s no better time than now to define good health, determine our priorities, and develop a plan to meet our health goals. This will make the path more clear as information becomes murkier.

1 https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/health

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Get to Know Your Food

If you really get to know your food, will you want to eat it? When it comes to processed food, probably not. But will you make more informed choices? Obviously.

Photo of book cover

Withholding information as a way to influence or control has been a theme in my life. As a result, I like information, the bottom line, evidence. Give me the bad news. I can take it.

I’m not saying I’m tough. I just understand that withholding means I cannot make the best decision possible. We simply must know what we’re dealing with to make informed decisions. Data before the fact is a better option than recalls.

Information is power. You and I may make different decisions based on identical data, but having the data gives us that choice. Without it, we are at someone else’s mercy. Often, withholding information is used as a power play. When anyone or any entity refuses to provide or goes to extreme means to tightly control information, their motives are suspect.

In the food industry, we know the motive is profit. Since Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel, The Jungle, we’ve been aware of the lengths to which industry will use and abuse humans in service of profit. We like to think industry is more enlightened, business more humane, and ourselves less tolerant of abuse now. But are those facts?

Alice Driver’s 2024 book, Life and Death of The American Worker gives an inside look at conditions we currently tolerate as well as what’s really in those chicken nuggets we’re feeding our kids. Tyson Foods, the largest meatpacking company in America, is the study of this book.

With regard to chicken nuggets, a product Tyson created for McDonald’s, here’s part of the description: “The nugget recipe involved forty-pound frozen blocks of chicken parts: three blocks of chicken breast; two of ground skeleton mixed with blood, necks, and other bits; and one of chicken skin and fat. Victor began his shift by using a crowbar to open the frozen boxes of chicken parts. In his experience, ‘Many times, the chicken is rotten. It smells. It arrives like a rock. When we open it, it is already a different color, not pink. It is green or purple.’”(1)

I know, it’s a shocking and disgusting description. But it’s real. This book has been painstakingly fact-checked. And it’s knowledge. And knowledge is power.

So why aren’t the alleged harsh conditions, inadequate medical treatment, and child labor in the food industry front and center on the news? Well, as you know, money is also power. Besides, in 2024, John Tyson brought the Arkansas (where Tyson Foods is headquartered) Razorbacks a hall of fame basketball coach. And we all look to sports for role models.

Also, there are Ag-Gag laws in some states. Arkansas is one. Enacted in 2017, the law seeks to gag whistleblowers and undercover activists and empowers businesses to sue whistleblowers for exposing the truth about industrial agriculture. Arkansas’ law goes further by banning undercover investigations of nursing homes and daycare centers.

It is hard to see economically successful members of our communities as anything but upstanding and morally centered. And they sometimes are. But the bigger story may be more complicated.

To get to know your food, you may also get to know sad, unspeakable abuse. And you may learn some unpleasant truths about people you have trusted. That’s how it is with truth knowing. Many truths are heartbreaking.

But embracing knowledge, shouldering heartbreak, and deciding what we can and are willing to do to make things better is a more courageous choice than looking away or trying to whitewash the story.

Want to make informed choices? Read Alice Driver’s book, I am. It’s an important way to get to know your food.

(1) Driver, A. (2024). Life and death of the American worker: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company. Simon and Schuster, p41.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”