Patience, patients

I had a conversation a few days ago with a person who prides himself on taking care of his health.

He takes ibuprofen every day, to deal with or avoid muscle aches and pains. I suggested massage as an alternative. "I've never thought of it." And "it's too expensive."

Typical American approach: let's treat the symptoms and not the cause. Let's take a pill to fix the problem. It's true there are far worse drugs to take. There is, however, a limit to the number of ibuprofen one can take before permanent liver damage occurs. And I wonder how much of his discomfort could be changed by nutrition.

He went on to tell me that he eats a healthy diet. Chicken and vegetables. When I recommend kale chips, his response is 'I don't eat chips.'

The 'chips' part of kale chips is simply because they're baked. Apparently he couldn't get his head around the fact kale chips are home made, need a minimal amount of olive oil with which to prevent the chips from burning. They're an excellent, tasty way to get green leafy vegetables into your digestive system while enjoying a treat at the same time.

I didn't even broach the subject of his allegedly healthy diet. On the surface, it seems healthy. White meat, veg.

Is the chicken store-bought? If so, when you eat it - or beef, or pork, or turkey, not only are you supporting factory farms you're also bombarding your immune system with copious amounts of antibiotics, and your endocrine system copious amounts of steroid hormones.

Roughly half of the antibiotics used in the U.S. is fed to livestock to keep them healthy. Steroids pollute feeds -- in an effort to get livestock fatter more quickly.

In addition, factory farms feed their livestock corn. Chickens, cattle, pigs did not evolve eating corn. Corn was introduced to speed the growth and fattening of our livestock. It's also a (the?) major reason for cholesterol problems in store-bought eggs and beef.

Let's go back to that anti-biotic thing. Bacteria are increasing in their resistance to antibiotics, because of our over use of them. Antibiotic soaps, wipes, cleaners, and antibiotics in animal feed are breeding 'Super Bugs' -- bacteria which can live through megadoses of the most powerful antibiotics on the market.

Doubt me? Google 'antibiotic resistant bacteria.'