Teach Food not Trig!

Here is my problem with American schools, and as a matter of fact with all schools that I know.  They force trigonometry on students but high school kids graduate without having the slightest idea about what is in the stuff they put into their mouths.  How many of these students will ever use trig in their life? Perhaps 20% or fewer, and that is in Silicon Valley, those kids who will design video games or something like that.  But all 100% will use food for their health or to cause disease. 

Most graduates have no idea what protein is, or carbs and whether certain fats are good or all are bad.  They think that "no cholesterol" is good, because that is what their parents are looking to buy in the supermarket.  They often have no idea that for soft drinks, the designation "no cholesterol" is meaningless, or because if there was any cholesterol in soda it would have been soup and not soda.

I was just watching some pictures on Facebook about a young woman's birthday party. Guess what, most participants looked like they have already developed metabolic syndrome, a condition that predisposes people to diabetes and heart disease.  Those kids look like they are in their twenties and by forty they will likely develop adult onset diabetes. 

Here is how medical terms have changed, thanks to "progress in our food industry".  Thirty years ago adult onset diabetes developed in people in their sixties, seventies and eighties.  Today that age is down to thirties and forties.  Food industry finds new ways of luring the naive consumer into sugary, sweet, poor quality (but never spoiling fats) that clog the liver with fat, cause insulin resistance, and bring out metabolic problems.  Now that might be too technical: it is the trig of eatiology. Hey, I just came up with a new word. Dibs on the patent!

Damn trig, let us teach our children basics of eatiology. 


- Dr. M