Dear Congressional Representative,
Concerning the latest efforts to save our failing health-care system, there are several attitudes and practices that MUST be changed if you are truly desirous of legislating decent health services to the public at a reasonable price as well as minimizing costs to the government. The present proposals are insufficient at best and only maintain the status quo: more and more unhealthy Americans putting more and more demands on the health care system, with minor tweaking to fit political agendas. Here are the steps necessary to accomplish a truly beneficial change to our health-care system:

* You must recognize that the greatest medical costs to Americans and to the existing health-care system are from treatments for the big four chronic diseases: heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity.

* You must change the goal of all medical practices from treating symptoms of disease to that of preventing disease, especially the chronic diseases, as the President specified in his talk to the AMA some weeks ago.

* You must understand that the major contributor to the development of these 4 dreaded and disabling diseases is our excessive consumption of meat and dairy products, a fact well-supported by independent medical researchers.

* You must educate yourselves and your constituents about the great health benefits of plant-based eating.

* You must end the financial support of the meat and dairy industries, along with support of the farmers who grow the food for these industries and, instead, support the farmers in growing and harvesting of plant foods to be directly eaten by consumers.

* You must be prepared to resist the pressures of the medical communities, pharmaceutical companies, the meat and dairy conglomerates, the fast-food and restaurant businesses. They will fight like hell but will all adapt to the changes when a hamburger reaches its natural price of around $10, a small steak around $20 while a veggie burger might go for $2, a Portobello sandwich for $3 and a hummus wrap for about $4.

* A healthy society with minimal heart disease, obesity, cancer and diabetes can only be attained by changing our eating patterns. You must find a way to accomplish this. A by-product of this major lifestyle change for Americans will be the spending of billions instead of hundreds of billions of dollars.

* If you find these ideas radical, think how radical it is to have half our population dying unnecessarily from preventable heart attacks or strokes, most of the remaining half dying from one of the dozen or so forms of cancer. Think how radical it is for a large segment of our population suffering with diabetes and about 1 in 3 obese. We’ve been looking for a ‘cure’ for cancer and the other diseases for up to 40 years, but the cure can be on our dinner plates within weeks.

* You can consult with many professional experts currently studying and reporting on the health benefits of plant-based eating, including: John McDougall, M.D., Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D., Michael Greger, M.D., T. Colin Campbell, M.D., Neal Barnard, M.D., Dean Ornish, M.D., Michael Klaper, M.D., Paulette Chandler, M.D., Milton Mills, M.D., Kerrie Saunders, Ph.D., Joel Fuhrman, M.D., Brenda Davis, R.D., George Eisman, R.D., Jeff Novick, R.D.

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