Continuing in the thread of “bad eating,” so far we have learned that there are MUCH better food choices out there that we could be making when it comes to feeding our bodies. Another prime example is ice cream. Ah, ice cream. What would summer days be without a nice pint of Haagen Dazs ice cream to finish off your dinner? For the sake of preserving my own sanity, I am not even going to bother listing how much FAT is in a pint of Haagen Dazs ice cream. I will only suggest that a healthier alternative to ice cream is non-fat frozen yogurt. Depending on where you go to get it, you can’t even tell the difference between good frozen yogurt and a pint of ice cream. If the idea of frozen yogurt doesn’t sound appealing, then consider having a sorbet instead of ice cream. It’s just as delicious without all of the fat!

Americans looooove their coffee, but at what cost? If you thought the price on a venti mocha was high, consider the price you’ll end up paying in the long run when it comes to your health. For instance, did you know that in one 20oz cup of Starbucks Venti Caffè Mocha made with whole milk and topped with whipped cream that there are approximately 450 calories and 13 grams of bad fat?! A healthier alternative would be to have a cup of tea, but for the die-hard coffee drinkers out there who absolutely HAVE to have that coffee, consider getting your next beverage made with skim milk and light whipped cream or no whipped cream at all. Or you can even downsize the cup.

If we go by past records, we will find that medical care consumers do not shop for health care depending on the results they get; rather, it is perceived that all health care is more or less the same, and that the costlier the health care, the better would be the health care provided.

The need of the hour is for medical reform to not be the creation of self-created feeling of need, but rather it should be based on informed decisions and acted on when the time is right. There is little doubting the fact that each medical care reform proposal will be backed by many case studies and demonstrable facts, and when such facts as well as proposals are filtered, it should enable one to determine whether such medical reforms will increase, or reduce the value of health care that the patient receives, and thus should form the basis for accepting or rejecting such medical care reforms.