Kristina Schenck's Interactive Media

Here’s a nice feel-good story from the NY Times about a new health kick in Oklahoma City, of all places.

According to the article, city officials are promoting healthy lifestyles and especially healthy eating with funds from the Affordable Care Act. In the story, Michael Bailey, a health official who works from the county, drives around Oklahoma City talking to people and convincing them to stop eating pork rinds and chocolate doughnuts.

And ok, trying to prevent people from eating unhealthy foods isn’t exactly the same thing as convincing them to eat more sustainably. But it’s a step in the right direction. Processed foods like pork rinds and chocolate donuts are bad for your health and for the environment. Not only will the fats clog up your arteries until you get triple-bypass surgery–like the woman in the story–but it’s also empty calories. The nutritious value of a pork rind is about the same as a piece of styrafoam. So that’s Mr. Bailey’s argument. Eat healthier, live longer and you’ll feel better, too.

Me, on the other hand, I like the idea of eating local foods that are grown or raised in a sustainable manner. You have less of an impact on the environment because your food doesn’t have to travel as far to get to you, and your food doesn’t contain hoards of nasty chemicals that hide in your fat cells. Unfortunately, local produce and food that fits my definition of sustainable usually costs a lot of money. Which people in the NY Times story cites as being the main barrier to healthy living. If they had more money, they would have more freedom with the foods they buy and wouldn’t have to live ‘hand-to-mouth’ as the article called it.

So, I think there’s two things that need to be addressed here. Michael Bailey is doing a great job spreading awareness about healthy living. That’s the first step.

The next step is to try to get people to buy less food that is highly processed or comes from factory farms, and we can do that by making sustainable foods cheaper. If only the Affordable Care Act could kick some funds in that direction and subsidize local farmers who have sustainable farming practices.