Read an article today about why Americans think alcohol has health benefits and it's apparently another "well the French are healthy and they do X so it's healthy to do X."
So here's your periodic reminder that France (and Italy, and Sweden, and Japan, and basically every country you've seen in a "this country is so healthy, what's their secret?" headline) has universal health care.
The secret is access to health care. It's always access to health care.
And of course access to health care goes hand-in-hand with other social safety nets. Turns out people are healthier when they are food and housing secure, have better labor protections, have better support in early childhood and better support as parents of young children, etc.
The thing is that those things rather by definition are not consumer products that can be sold in the US market, so they don't get media campaigns and catchy headlines about how you can buy them for $20.
Right so this thread is getting some "well actually it's the thing you just said," and a metric fuckton of "well actually it's my personal pet cause," so time to mute. Enjoy arguing about bike infrastructure, processed foods, sugar, and breast milk amongst yourselves (it's still access to health care and a strong social safety net but y'all have fun).
Really wish we had an option to close/limit replies; comes in real handy when a post goes viral.
First of all, I'm not sure how well you actually know France.
Secondly, access to health care is a good reason but by far not the only one.
Please stop making such wild claims.
I recently read that this is the origin of the idea that breastfeeding is healthier than formula: people who can afford to stay home and breastfeed can afford other nice things too. I felt really stupid for never having realized that before.
(I'm prepared to feel stupid again if it was you who mentioned that before and I'm explaining it back to you now...)
I don't know if there's a name for this specific cognitive error, where it's easier to attribute an effect to a thing you're consuming than to other stuff that correlates with consuming that thing, but it's a darn good one.
@nuthaven @Annalee used to be the other way around. Rich people got formula, less rich would breastfeed.
It's a tangle of politics. Women* had to fight for the right to breastfeed at all, especially in public, and the right not to, and they only achieved this by proving it was good for the child, in societies that didn't value what's good for the mother. So some literature massively overflates the difference for political reasons, both for or against
* non-women too
"They" always complain about "big" government, but the big came when they decided (under Reagan) it was better to hire and manage private companies to do jobs instead of just hiring people to do them.
That then created layers of bureaucrats to deal with the layers of subcontractors, all under the illusion that "government doesn't create jobs", in spite of how that's exactly what FDR did with the CCC etc, and what the military has been for 200 years.
There are some other factors at work, but the healthcare system is a huge part of the problem.
The other side of the physical health issues is how our infrastructure demands that people use cars to do nearly everything and oftentimes it's dangerous for people to walk and bike places.
It's really no great mystery why average life expectancy in America here has declined 2 consecutive years. The remarkable thing maybe is how there are so many factors involved and trying to figure out what causes what although there can be vicious cycles going on between some of the factors.
I won't be surprised at all if there is going to be a 3rd consecutive year of decline in life expectancy.
And that's disturbing and perhaps indicates America may be in decline towards failure.
From afar, there's no "may" or "perhaps" involved. I worry about my friend who lives there, and I'd consider him privileged. I can't begin to imagine what it's like for underprivileged people in the USA.
And public transit, more walking areas, and generally less refined sugar.
@Annalee Certainly health care plays a big role, but other contributors:
1) lack of a social safety net
2) perpetuated deep resource inequities along racial, gender and socioeconomic lines
3) a culture of stress-induced unhealthy behaviors embedded within an economic system that profits from those behaviors
4) social fragmentation and isolation that keep us from caring about one another's health and well-being
5) guns and other instruments of violence
6) poor physical and chemical environment
@[email protected] I suspect the biggest difference between US/UK and French health habits is the consumption of ultra processed food. The French still cook in the real sense of the word. ie. from scratch. They take pleasure in eating real food.
Access to universal healthcare certainly does them no harm either.
But last time I checked they were comparatively big smokersβ¦https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/smoking-rates-by-country
One expert says most Americans likely don't realize how many additives they're eating that European regulators shun β and it's "almost certainly" making them sick.
@Annalee nutrition studies are suffering from the same biases than social studies.
It all depends on what youβre looking for.
Want to find if alcohol is good for heart and lowers the risks of having a cancer? You will.
Want to find if alcohol is bad for heart and can cause cancer? You can do that too.
After all the way the body processes food is really complex, so an isolated ingredient canβt really be good or bad in itself (if not poisonous)
How an early-'90s newsmagazine show convinced a generation of Americans to start drinking red wine. For the antioxidants! Special thanks to Susanne Stolpe and Alexander H. Sandtorv for helping us fact-check this episode! Support us: Hear bonus epi...
Indeed France has a spectacularly good universal healthcare system - they also have a world renowned treatment facility for cirrhosis of the liver and liver disease in general in one their hospitals in Paris - that says something about what the French lifestyle/alcohol culture does for your health. Having lived and worked in France, I can say from experience that life in France revolves almost entirely around the consumption of alcohol.
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