Food Deserts

Few have heard of them, but millions are affected by them right here in America, one of the most powerful nation's in the world. Food Deserts. The name is self explanatory to a certain extent. Let us first consider the food aspect of the term. Food is any nutritious substance that we consume or drink in order to maintain life and growth. That may have seemed a bit unwarranted, but let's not underestimate the importance of food in our lives. Secondly, let's look at the term desert. While there are many different definitions of the word, in this context the word desert describes a barren and uninhabited, desolate area. When placed together, the term means the heart of some America's most prevalent health issues such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

The Mari Gallagher Research and Consulting Group defines a food desert as a geographical location that lacks access to healthy foods necessary to sustain a heart healthy life and proper nutritious diet. Contrary to what the phrase may imply, a food desert is not an area that does not have food at all. Conversely, there usually is an abundance of food available to the inhabitants of these nutritiously arid regions. The food, however, that is available is high in sugar, salt and fat and ultimately create a recipe for disaster in regards to the health of those residents therein. Simply put, millions of Americans have better access to fast food chains than they do to supermarkets that provide fresh produce and other grocery items needed to maintain a healthy diet.

Food deserts exist, most prominently, in areas of low income and regions with a high concentration of minorities, according to a study conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. While there is no standardized distance in from which residents should live from a supermarket in relation to their homes. A region's classification as a food desert depends on the community's reliance on public

transportation, their access to transportation in general and factors such as locale.

Does the Hippocratic Oath Mean Anything Anymore

The Hippocratic Oath is a pledge medical professionals take promising to practice medicine ethically. Historically, the oath is traced back to the forerunner of modern medicine, Hippocrates. Originally written in Greek, the oath became comparable to a rite of passage for doctors and other medical pracitioners alike. The most modern translation of the medically moral pledge is:

"I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.

I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.

I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.

I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given to me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.

I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.

I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.

If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help."

I venture to ask, "What do these words even mean anymore?" This question is so pressing because when a person cannot afford health care in one of the most powerful countries in the world, these words seem to get lost in translation somehow. The percentage of Americans who do not currently have health care climbed to 49.9 million, an increase from 2009, according to the US Census Bureau's latest report.

With an unstable economy and job security being anything but secure with 26 states reporting an increase in jobless Americans and another 30 states seeing a decrease in payroll  employees, ailing Americans are more inclined to forego treatment due to cost rather than to take a $20, 000 trip to the emergency room. The fact that people are find themselves avoiding medical care because they just can't afford seems to negate all that the Hippocratic Oath was created to uphold. There is no integrity in medicine these days--- it's all business. When the less affluent need care the primary concern is not how can we assist this patient, rather, it is who is your insurance carrier. In my honest opinion based upon research and my own life experiences, Uncle Sam wants money, not cures.