“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” a phrase taken directly from the Declaration of Independence, indicates the basic values identified by the founders of our nation. Of the three, life is the most fundamental as without it, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are meaningless. Health, of course, is the underpinning of life and therefore, it is puzzling that there is so little general demand for an explicit public emphasis on nourishing health as a personal and social resource. Indeed, despite spending enough on “health care” to threaten our economy, our country is rife with chronic disease, is facing a growing epidemic of obesity and ill health, has.
