The Veggie Publicity Machine

It's official! Eating your vegetables can protect you from modern diseases. Which makes you wonder why we have these modern diseases in the first place, hmm? In the last 150 years or so, some relatively new diseases have killed staggering numbers of people in developed countries. Diseases like cancer and heart disease are the #1 and #2 killers of North Americans. Could it be connected to the fact that for the last 150 years, we've been eating fewer and fewer vegetables, and consuming mostly processed foods?

I was overjoyed to see this study called Eat Your Veggies To Fight Cancer put out by the American Association for Cancer Research. These people aren't going to publicize information that cannot be backed up. Although, I think the scientific reportage wavers a bit when the article encourages us to rub sprouts on our bodies. Is this nutritional reporting or Food Porn?

Eat Your Veggies and Regain Control of Your Health. This is a great message to publicize. We are seeing the message repeated everywhere these days and it can't come soon enough. The medical community is slowly starting to turn their attention to disease prevention as hundreds of thousands die or are hospitalized annually due to cancer and cardiovascular disease.

For years, fruit and vegetable farmers have stood idly by and watched as huge corporations like Coca-Cola and McDonald's lured their customers away with expensive advertising campaigns for dead processed food. None of those farmers had marketing budgets. They had no way to keep consumers interested in tender shoots of asparagus blanketed in Hollandaise sauce, new potatoes drizzled with a touch of olive oil and freshly ground pepper, or the sensuous juicyness of biting into fresh summer peaches. It's wonderful to have the health authorities now stepping in to promote our natural multivitamins: fresh fruits and vegetables. Farmers everywhere are undoubtedly sleeping soundly tonight.