Sick care versus health care

Ponder this: If we do not have our health, what do we have?

Health is really the key to everything. Health gives us the opportunity to be active with our loved ones, our church and our work. It allows us freedom to be productive stewards in the world.

Yet what are we intentionally doing on a daily basis to honor our health? When I say intentionally, I mean more than just thinking about doing something — actually doing something. Taking control and making a lasting positive change in our life. Making those New Year's resolutions count for the long haul and not just a one-hit wonder.

Our country is sick. A 2011 International Business Times article, which said that 68 percent of the US population is overweight, speaks to this. I don't think for one minute that any of us intentionally wants to be sick or overweight. Given that — what will it take for us to wake up and take charge of our health? I look to my own family for clarity.

My grandmother lived to 103, yet my parents both died in their early 80s. My grandmother lived a total of 20 years more than my parents — 20 good years. One would think my parents would have lived as long or longer than my grandmother given advancements in medicine. What changed?

My grandmother grew up in an era of little TV; she ate food from the land and rarely, if ever, ate fast food. She was not on a litany of meds as seems to be the case with so many folks these days.

By comparison, my parents were on Coumadin (blood thinner), blood pressure meds, diabetes meds and lived a very sedentary life in front of the TV. As they got older, they ate increasingly more processed foods and fast food.

Clearly these lifestyle choices did not serve them well. I also think they just didn't know any better. They really never put much thought about what they were putting into their one precious body.

But we know better. With today's technology, we have so much information at our fingertips to help us make smarter choices about the food we eat and smarter choices about the medicine we take.

I was struck by a picture I saw on Facebook that showed a cabinet full of various medications on one side while the other side was filled with fruits and vegetables. The caption over the medicine-filled cabinet read "sick care"; the caption over the fruits and vegetables said "health care."

I often wonder how we have evolved as a culture to rely on so many medications to get by in our everyday lives. Is this the new way to grow older in America? I hope not.

If you think it's too late to make healthy changes, meet raw foods advocate Dave Conrardy.

By juicing fruits and vegetables and eliminating the foods that were killing him, Conrardy lost more than 230 pounds and reversed his cancer, kidney disease, diabetes and acid reflux and got off of all but one of the 19 different prescriptions he was taking. He is proof it can be done.

Conrardy will share his story at 6 p.m. Feb. 11 in the Harvest Room at New Earth Market in Yuba City. Admission is $10.

Kevin Cotter is managing general partner at locally owned New Earth Market in Yuba City.