Morgan letter: St. Luke’s

The geese, the squirrels and St. Luke’s are taking over Boise. Everywhere there’s a St. Luke’s sign – malls, beautiful old homes, unattractive brick buildings. Those signs didn’t hurt too much till St. Luke’s received permission to sever my main artery, Jefferson St. Now I’m upset. Except ... it came to me: St. Luke’s is not responsible. As Pogo said, “I have met the enemy and it is us.” If we weren’t so sickly, these ever-expanding hospitals with their vast parking lots wouldn’t need to encroach everywhere. The Standard American Diet (SAD) puts an immense number of us unnecessarily in hospitals. Our eating habits, nonexercise and fear-inducing thoughts are exacerbating cancer, heart disease, diabetes and obesity. SAD spikes our blood sugar, overworks our digestive system and leaves us depressed and lethargic. Advances in neuroscience evidence that nutritional deficits negatively impact healthy brain functioning and promote physical and mental disorders. Medical spending attributed to obesity in 2016 was nearly $150 billion — more than four times the federal budget for foreign aid. This gargantuan issue is too huge for this letter. St. Luke’s will expand because we supply them with unhealthy patients. Let’s change the SAD to a healthy diet and help St. Luke’s downsize.

This story was originally published August 31, 2017 at 11:16 PM with the headline "Morgan letter: St. Luke’s."