Many of us baby boomers remember the Cold War. We remember being told to hide under our desks during a drill. I did not remember or understand that the US won the war of economic ideas using supermarkets and funding science to prove that capitalism did a much better job keeping the cost of food down and keeping its people fed. A recent podcast by Freakonomics discussed how supermarkets, the first being Pigly Wiggly, were revolutionary in that you could walk around the store and pick out meats, vegetables, and other items at a lower cost, and food was plentiful. Check out the podcast below How the Supermarket Helped America Win the Cold War Years ago, dry goods stores were where we went to shop for food. Now, supermarkets are international and they make it simple to buy food. At one time A and P was the largest food store chain in the USA. They are no longer in business. To increase the production of food, machines were designed to harvest food such as tomatoes and apples. Genetic modification made food more pest resistant and fertilizers helped increase yield. Unfortunately, we are left with fewer varieties and choices and today’s apple is far less flavorful than the many varieties of years ago. Bananas are similar in that a few varieties are sent to us for consumption. The abundance has come at a cost with processed foods, and nutritional food pyramids that were partially designed to increase consumption of foods we overproduced to help protect farmers. Many manufactured processed foods are high in calories but low in nutritional content leading to obesity. High Fructose corn syrup is in everything since it solves the problem of excess corn production but the body does not process it well since it is chemically different than normal fructose found in many fruits. The abundance has led to obesity which we are now treating medically. Compared to Europe and other countries that do less industrial farming and have more varieties of foods, the illnesses caused by poor eating habits in the USA have led to obesity which causes inflammation, joint damage, and diseases such as diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Our exorbitant medical costs are our own doing, as it is less expensive to produce better food and a healthier public. We need to rethink nutrition, and the overproduction of some foods while asking farmers to not grow others. Perhaps, better, organic farming is a better answer and we should explore how other countries do it. Some models are developing for a health-based healthcare system rather than the diseases-based system in the USA which is a mess. Capitalism has proven it can better feed the masses. Perhaps we can fund the farming sector to grow better food and spend it on nutrition rather than medical interventions and their eventual side effects. We are becoming an Ozempic nation however with the health improvements from weight loss but is that healthy?