few Americans (or canadians) eat their vegetables

Even small children know that they need to eat their vegetables, yet most North Americans still do not get the recommended number of servings of fruits and vegetables every day. As a society this is hurting us because there is more demands on our health care system and less productivity in our workplaces. What can be done, and should something be done to "force" people to eat more vegetables and fruits and less processed foods? Listen to the following podcast to hear some expert opinions on this topic.

http://www-s1.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130432584

"Growing" meat for consumption in the laboratory

If raising cattle is proving to be detrimental to the environment, by causing mass deforestation and excess fossil fuel consumption, does it make sense to "grow" meat in a laboratory in order to help feed our rapidly growing population?

Owning a genome

Should a large company be able to own a genome. Some large companies have genetically engineered organisms so that they are beneficial in some way (plants resistant to disease, microorganisms that clean up oil spills, etc.) should they have exclusive rights to these organisms and be able to sell them at a premium to those who need/desire them? What kind of consequences does this type of "ownership" have?

a new view of drug addiction - page 862

There is a genetic link between chemical imbalances and drug dependency, therefore persons with family members that are dependent on drugs will be much more susceptible to drug addiction.

Compulsory AIDS testing - page 774

AIDS testing should be mandatory for all health care workers.

Denied access to health care.

In some instances, Doctors should deny patients access to healthcare if their lifestyle is the cause of the health issue. For example, if a patient has lung cancer caused from years of inhaling toxic carcinogens in cigarette smoke, he/she should not receive treatment unless they quit smoking first.

dieting

Since our bodies require fat, carbohydrates and protein in order to function properly, diets such as the Atkins, which limits your carb intake, the Beverly Hills diet, that limits your protein, low fat diets and other diets that restrict certain food groups should not be used to maintain proper body weight. In fact the only way to maintain proper body weight is to restrict the amount of food consumed.