Cubans are healthier and live longer than Americans?

DePalma cites Dr. Robert N. Butler, president of the International Longevity Center in New York and a Pulitzer-Prize-winning author on aging, who traveled to Cuba to see firsthand how doctors are trained. Dr. Butler says a principal reason that some health standards in Cuba approach the high American level is that the Cuban system emphasizes early intervention. Clinic visits are free, and the focus is on preventing disease rather than treating it. So the movement in the U.S. toward universal health care should do what Cuba has done -- insist upon true preventive medicine, not health screenings to find more disease to treat.

But provision of health care doesn't make human populations healthier. So what's Cub's secret? Dr. Butler says some of Cuba’s shortcomings may actually improve its health profile. “Because Cubans don’t have up-to-date cars, they tend to have to exercise more by walking,” he said. “And they may not have a surfeit of food, which keeps them from problems like obesity, but they’re not starving, either.” There it is, a limited food supply. Why patients admitted to Cuban hospitals have to bring their own food for their entire stay.

There is little question that limited calorie consumption, especially after full-growth is achieved, breeds healthier and longer-living human populations. Take for example Britain during World War II. Rates of disease and heart attacks fell during the war because of limited food rations. Look back in history. The tribe of Moses leaves Egypt "for the promised land" and ends up wandering in a desert wasteland for decades where they could only find something called manna to eat and they longed for the days in Egypt when they had fish, cucumbers and garlic to eat. Residents of the Japanese Island of Okinawa are considered a long-lived population which is attributed the limited calorie diet there.

It's not likely that human populations in developed countries are going to be able to resist the efforts to food suppliers to get them to eat more food. Most processed foods today are spiked with ingredients that increase hunger and promote overconsumption. The public thinks it's their lack of self control, unaware of the over-eating ingredients laced into their foods. Of course, there is always the shortcut --- the red wine molecule resveratrol that mimics the health benefits of a low-calorie diet without having to deprive oneself of food. But to get the population to consume resveratrol en masse will be a chore, that is unless somebody comes up with resveratrol candy. --Copyright 2007 Bill Sardi, Knowledge of Health, Inc.