What if an apple a day really did keep the doctor away?  Not apple juice or an “all the nutrition of an apple” fruit snack, but a ripe, juicy apple.  Ideally you’d eat more seasonally from the local orchard (but that’s another blog).  Would it really change people’s eating habits?  Of course, it’s not just eating the apple that keeps the doctor away.  You also have get a little exercise and avoid other self-destructive behaviors (e.g., smoking, over-eating, etc), but you get the point.

So with all the talk about health care, why doesn’t someone write this simple prescription: EAT BETTER! Given the link between the food we eat and our personal well-being it seems pretty obvious.  It’s even more apparent when you consider the following: in the 1970’s we spent about 5% of our GDP on Health Care and about 15% on Food; today the numbers are reversed.  Think about it…over the past four decades our addiction to cheap calories has willingly led us down a path to obesity, heart disease and childhood onset of adult diseases.  It makes you wonder if that $1 Value Menu is really a value!

Why do we eat poorly?  Supposedly we’re all too busy to cook, although how then do you explain the celebrity chef phenomenon on Food TV?  Seems we have plenty of time to watch other people cook…just don’t ask us to put down the remote long enough to actually prepare something healthy for ourselves.

I propose a home version of Iron Chef, where family and friends compete to create healthy, fresh meals in under 30 minutes.  Sure, the appliances won’t be as fancy as Kitchen Stadium and you won’t have Alton Brown doing the play-by-play, but the final result will a satisfying and no-doubt healthier alternative to our current meals.  The first theme ingredient can be an apple.