I will take a look at the Zone. We need to do something around here. It is getting ugly....Here I grow all this good food and don't eat enough of it....pffff.

Yes cy, we have choices, but I'm thinking about children too. Between parents being so busy making a living that there's no time to cook and children's tastes being what they are, it seems like we're fighting a losing battle. But the government shouldn't be making it worse.

And I've seen your favorable views on The Zone before, mrsD...I'll look into it!

I imagine all the farmers around here would be all bent out of shape if they lost their subsidies, kind of like the unemployment thing. Many would go under. I know a lot of these families and I don't think they are prepared to go organic yet. It is not that easy. With hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in corn production, they can't just trade in their corn combines. They simply sell their product to whomever buys it. Corn in itself isn't bad, but we have an overload of it.

Our food industry from farm, thru distribution needs to be looked at. If people would buy local and support small farmers like myself, it would help.

Withdrawing the current corn subsidies would only result in Cargill buying even MORE family farms out.

I think consumers DO have power....just don't buy the junk.

Taxing junk food is one option, but before that gets done, cities need to do something about the inner city food issues....there are no grocery stores, little access to wholesome food. Before we hit the nation's poorest with a tax, we need to give them access to 'real food'.

I raised two groups of kids about a half generation apart....my birth kids were given breast milk and then organic or wholesome food. My second batch did not have the ability to have access to these things and they have no taste for wholesome food. The first batch are very into wholesome food. The second batch, a few of them are total junk food junkies....and so are their kids.

I asked my Dr. about Zetia too, Bob, and he said it doesn't work for my situation, so....I tried.

My Mom's Mom lived to be 91 and there was no talk about her cholesterol levels so guess she wasn't tested but she didn't have any heart related problems. Her thing was osteoarthritis everywhere, so she took aspirin around the clock. Which leads me to have a theory that the aspirin kept her "pipes" cleaned out!

But she also lead an active life until the last 5-6 years and ate healthy. She was a housewife but in her day that meant keeping a full vegetable garden with canning everything you didn't eat. Also helping with butchering and taking care of meat from an animal brought in, they didn't have anything at their house, altho' the neighbors had chickens....making jellies (delicious), applebutter and making your grandaughter a jelly junkie for the rest of her life! ha Cleaning everything every week whether it needed it or not! My Mom and I lived with her while my Dad was in Europe in WWII and for 3 yrs after that while Dad built their house. So I participated in all the housework, garden and yardwork and enjoyed all of it, had quite a good education. But I taught myself how to can later from the cookbook "The Joy of Cooking". Guess I'd better quit writing this book....I loved my grandmother....

Her father died at age 70 of a heart attack and my Mom's other grandfather also the same thing. But at that time, that was a longish time for someone to live I think. What I'm saying is that we have a lot of genealogy of my Mom's realtives and they tend to be longer lived. It wouldn't just be that she hasn't had a statin or one of the prominent reasons altho' it could help, she is on a longer life span we think. She had 3 children, starting at 25 and ending with the last at 40. She has always looked younger than she is, her hair is only 1/2 grey now....she looks older now, but....when she puts on her makeup, she still looks pretty good!

PS I found that the Weight Watchers Plan (i did the one before the points one) was very good.
And yes, my Dr. says something if my triglycerides go too high!

You make some very good points, cy. When I think of crops and HFCS these days, I think of ADM and Cargill, like you say. But you're right, there are still small family farms that would be hurt too. I dunno, what if they started offering a subsidy for some better things, and then phased the corn one out over a long period of time to give people a chance to adjust? But maybe that would have unanticipated consequences too...

See? this is why they never put me in charge of things!

Yes, yes, and yes about buying local! As for inner city areas, you're right again, we have some here where there are ZERO supermarkets. I'd think that by the time you get transportation (lousy public system here--many people take jittneys), it's a lot cheaped to eat at MickyD's.

Sounds like your grammy was a heck of woman, dany! All of my grandaparents died before I ever really got to know them...dads parent's both passed away before I was born. They came over on the boat...sure wish I could have had the chance to hear their stories and maybe even learn a little Czech!