The United States is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, but it’s far from the healthiest. While other high-income nations, like Sweden, France, Germany, Italy, and the UK, have life expectancies over 80 years, the U.S. trails behind at just 76 years. Americans are more likely to suffer from chronic diseases and face higher rates of injury and death compared to people in other developed nations.
A key factor in this disparity is the lack of accessible healthcare. While European countries have universal healthcare systems, the U.S. does not. Even among wealthier Americans, health outcomes are often worse than their European counterparts, showing that this is not just a poverty issue. One aspect of it is the unhealthiness of American food. Most other developed nations have many more laws regulating the power of corporations in government, which helps stop them from blocking crucial health policies that would benefit the people.
Corporations just want to make money, even if it’s at the expense of their consumers. We have seen this with the tobacco industry, which did everything in its power to convince the public their product was safe. This is still happening today with huge food corporations always trying to find ways to influence people into buying their products and lobbying the government to not take action against them, regardless of the damage these products may create. Corporations have more power in the United States than in other countries, through lobbying and less regulations than in Western Europe, which leads to the decisions about what should be banned or discouraged health wise being made by the very people who make money off those things. For example, the EU has banned potassium bromate, an additive that potentially causes cancer since 1990. Meanwhile in the United States, it is still legal due to extensive lobbying from groups like the American Bakers Association, which seeks to protect the additive because of its low cost and efficiency for bakers, even though it’s potentially at the expense of their consumers’ health.
There are many other additives and shady practices that are banned in most European countries which are permissible in the United States, which leads to overall food quality being much better in Europe. Even identical food brands have different ingredients in Europe than in America, because they can’t get away with putting their cheap additives and preservatives in Europe. Red dye 40 is another example. In the EU any food containing it has to contain a warning that it has been linked to attention deficit in children. European countries take these food products much more seriously and protect consumers from potentially dangerous food.
Some examples of what the big food corporations do include marketing their unhealthy products to children, creating a generation of consumers, and purposefully making their food as addictive as possible, to the point that it becomes almost a drug.
The 2024 presidential candidates both have their own ideas to improve the nation’s health. Vice President Kamala Harris has made healthcare access and affordability a major part of her campaign, advocating for expanding healthcare availability to help more Americans. Her approach aligns with the healthcare systems seen in many European nations, where public health is prioritized. Donald Trump, on the other hand, has gained the endorsement of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who introduced the slogan “Make America Healthy Again.” However, during his last term, Trump criticized the FDA and supported reducing government regulation, which raises concerns about accountability when it comes to consumer safety. Though there are a lot of factors that play into public health, it is clear that people are not satisfied with the American system. As voters prepare for the 2024 election, health is as important of an issue as ever. More and more people are supporting Medicare for all programs and reducing corporate power across partisanship, as well as finding solutions to the obesity crisis. If we realize the problem and work to find real solutions, America can become as healthy as it should be.
