This article I read recently struck me as a good example on how much our mind can really affect our health. This might be a good way of attempting to increase people's awareness on health issues. Our mental prejudices are quite formidable obstacles on our way to good health, and perhaps evidence such as presented in this article might go some ways to convince people that this is so. Although dealing with the issue of "price", the ideas stemming from this article I think can also be applied to other preconceptions that people may have about raw foods, health and medicine. I find that the power of our thoughts can, and usually is, severely underestimated. Once people are aware of this then change can occur, so ti is quite important to raise awareness as much as possible.

Quote

Price makes the pain go down, study says

MIT researchers say people given placebos reported that the supposedly more expensive pills were also more effective.

By Denise Gellene, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 5, 2008

How do you spell relief?

P-A-Y . . . M-O-R-E.

In a study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., researchers found that people given identical pills got greater pain relief from the one they were told cost $2.50 than from one supposedly costing 10 cents.

"We all know that we expect more from products with high prices and good names, and we wanted to see if these things could change how we react to pain medication," said MIT behavioral economist Dan Ariely, who led the research. "The answer seems to be yes."

Ariely said the findings might help explain why many people report that generic drugs are less effective than their branded equivalents, and why a substantial number of patients prefer costly pain relievers such as Celebrex to cheap alternatives like aspirin.

Previous studies have shown that price has a powerful impact on the psychology of consumers.

Researchers at Caltech reported in January that expensive wine was experienced as being more pleasant-tasting than identical wine that supposedly cost less.

In an earlier experiment, Ariely found that people given inexpensive energy drinks felt more tired and worked out less than those who received identical energy drinks that cost more.

The rest here [www.latimes.com]

Any other examples or suggestions on how to raise awareness when it comes to health and raw foods would be appreciated.

Cheers,
J

Sure. I'm not surprised when people are not at all interested in eating healthy. The basic concept is just TOO simple (eating consistently greater portions of fresh, unprocessed fruits and vegetables over the course of a lifetime). It just HAS to be more complicated - doesn't it?! Doesn't it have to cost a lot of money?

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/05/2008 03:44PM by davidzanemason.

I work with two exceptionally bright women who eat hideously. The concept of eating right just does not compute with them. They both talk but they never actually *do*.

I just helped in a concession stand for a baseball game earlier today. The people were all choosing hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries, ice cream, pizzas. They looked like it, too. Eating right in our society does not compute.

It's like 1 out of 20 gets it sort of right or something like that.

I like to try and put a positive spin on it. Who did you learn about raw food from? How many people's lives has that person changed? Definitely yours. How many people's lives have you changed just by example? Probably more than you know.
I was on the verge of becoming a vegetarian when my husband sent me a website that one of our coworkers had made. The more I read the more amazed I was at how simple it seemed to be. I almost wanted to kick myself for not realizing that this was the key to my health years ago. I became a vegetarian and then a vegan in very short order and have been slowly upping my percentage of raw food ever since.
Two days ago I had my nieces and nephews over. They are 4, 4, 7, and 8. We ate oranges and played in the backyard. My brother called to tell me to ask the kids what they wanted for dinner, Mc Donald's or pizza. 3 of the kids enthusiastically shouted that they wanted chicken nuggets from McDonalds. My 7 year old nephew frowned and said "I don't like to eat meat, when I think about killing animals it makes me sad and I want to cry. I dont think I want to eat meat anymore." Whereas my 4 year old niece shouted "I LOVE meat!" So ok it wasn't a total win, but this is a boy I've seen happily chow down on 100 happy meals in the past. I gave him a couple more oranges to eat and we stopped by the store and got him hummus and pita bread to have for dinner instead. You know you're doing good when you can get a junk food crazy kid to eat oranges and hummus instead of McDonalds.
So in a few months of being a vegan I've convinced one person not to eat meat. When he's at my house he eats 100% fruits and vegetables with the occasional exception of some pita bread and hummus, which is my big weakness. I changed one person's life a little bit. Who knows how many lives he might change?