Choosing a beverage can be a complicated decision.  In this economy, every decision is complicated!  You need to squeeze every benefit you can from every penny you spend.  This got me thinking about what is in my fridge to drink.  Really it was based on a comment that was made earlier in the week about not having enough milk on hand.  I countered the complaint with “milk is too expensive!”.

I am a firm believer that food = fuel, and that health care starts in my own kitchen and in what we put in our mouths.

Unfortunately, as firmly as I believe that, I am like everyone else who succumbs to packaged foods and fast meals, and I have for years.

Something got me thinking about that this morning.  I was trying to figure out WHY I was always giving in…and I realized that it was just EASY. Too easy, in fact.

Growing up as a kid, my parents worked every day and Saturday was our ‘chores day’.  We ate out occasionally – and by that I mean once or twice a month.  There was no McDonalds in my home town (circa 1960- 1973).  The only “fast food” were a few burger joints in the 15 mile radius that actually cooked REAL meat on a grill. Stopping at a place like that was a major treat – usually reserved for a summer night, after one of my little brother’s “away” baseball games.  Otherwise, we only went out for a “fancy” dinner on Easter Sunday.  I didn’t know how lucky I really had it back then.

That is what got me thinking this morning.  I have fallen prey to buying a couple 2-litre bottles of soda when I shop (usually amounting to 4 a week) as an alternate beverage to the standard glass of water in our house.  It seemed cheaper than, say, an extra gallon of milk.

Today, I decided  to really VERIFY that was true.  So, while making a speedy run to the store this morning, I first checked out the prices of other things I tend to buy for my family to drink other than the water I push continously with each meal.

The soda aisle:  my experiment today proves that this aisle can, single-handedly, rob us blind – both financially over time, and nutritionally.

What I discovered this morning at my favorite store was:

2 litre bottles of soda today were priced at $1.79 (brand named).

Milk was priced at $3.19 a gallon.

I don’t know about your family, but if I am going to buy soda, I want the name brand.  If I want Coke, then “cola” will not do. $1.79 for a 2-litre bottle seems like highway robbery to me for a bottle of water and sugar mixed with chemicals.

One 2-litre bottle of soda = approximately 2 quarts.

Thus, two 2-litre bottles of soda = a little over a gallon.

$1.79 per 2-litre of soda x 2 bottles = $3.58

I gallon of milk = $3.19

Value for my dollar:  Sugar and water with zero nutrients  vs. calcium and protien and lots of nutrients?    NO CONTEST!

From now on, if we crave a soda, we will have to go buy one from the $1 menu and enjoy it like fine champagne. My house will no longer include soda and my  family is getting milk, water, real fruit juice (I squeeze myself) or ice tea (I brew myself)  for their choice.  Yeah, it takes work on my part, but then so does scheduling dental and doctors visits and driving to them!

Hey Pete – YOU WIN!

Next up:  COMPLETE elimination of “packaged foods” from my house.  THIS should be interesting – and it seems a daunting task, so check back with me the next 6 successive Fridays!

The latest look at the public option comes from the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan economic analysts for lawmakers. It found that the scaled back government plan in the House bill wouldn’t overtake private health insurance. To the contrary, it might help the insurers a little.

A summary of the “Public Option” in the healthcare “reform” bill:

1. The Democratic health care bills would extend coverage to the uninsured by providing government help with premiums and prohibiting insurers from excluding people in poor health or charging them more. But to keep from piling more on the federal deficit, most of the uninsured will have to wait until 2013 for help. Even then, many will have to pay a significant share of their own health care costs.

2. The budget office estimated that about 6 million people would sign up for the public option in 2019, when the House bill is fully phased in. That represents about 2 percent of a total of 282 million Americans under age 65. (Older people are covered through Medicare.)

3. The overwhelming majority of the population would remain in private health insurance plans sponsored by employers. Others, mainly low-income people, would be covered through an expanded Medicaid program. [What this means in plain english is that our friends in Congress pushed all the costs of a "Public Option" down to the State level so that the States individually would have to provide for it**]

4. To be fair, most people would not have access to the new public plan. Under the House bill, it would be offered through new insurance exchanges open only to those who buy coverage on their own or work for small companies. Yet even within that pool of 30 million people, only 1-in-5 would take the public option.

Who’s likely to sign up?

The budget office said “a less healthy pool of enrollees” would probably be attracted to the public option, drawn by the prospect of looser rules on access to specialists and medical services.

As a result, premiums in the public plan would be higher than the average for private plans

. That could nudge healthy middle-class workers and their families to sign up for private plans.

It’s unclear whether there are enough votes in the Senate for a public plan.

**The version that Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has offered would let states opt out, probably leaving a smaller plan than the House would want

My Comment: WOW! All that work for a sham!
Our government continues to fail to represent us. When they are afraid for their jobs, they simply MISLEAD us. AWESOME!

Source: House bill: http://tinyurl.com/lftnuj

THIS IS JUST SICK…..yet no one says a word, no one acts, another day goes by in America….what the hell is going on with Americans?  Are we THAT beaten down now?  Seems so….

“The health care sector has spent $263 million this year lobbying Congress for changes to reform plans, a government watchdog group estimates.

“This is one of the biggest lobbying pushes that we’ve seen on a single issue in U.S. history,” said Dave Levinthal, communications director for the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

There are more than 3,000 people registered to lobby about health care, almost six lobbyists for every member of Congress.

Many of the lobbyists are former members of Congress and staffers from both sides of the aisle.

“It’s like a sports team. If you want to put together a good team, then you’re going to have to hire some pretty big-dollar players,” Levinthal said.”

Source: CNN:  http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/24/health.care.lobbying/index.html

In a perfect world, Congress must join the civilized world and expand Medicare For All Americans.

A single, nonprofit source must run a universal health care system that covers everyone.

Medical bills are now the #1 cause of bankruptcies and evictions in this country. Medicare For All will end this misery.

The bill to make this happen is called H.R. 3200.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty, HEALTHCARE, and justice for all!

You must call AND write your members of Congress and demand its passage, no compromises allowed!!!!!