Asleep at the Wheel

I had an interesting conversation with a lady of about 70 years old at the healthfood store the other day.    She was telling me why pasteurized milk was the way to go, and why pasteurized skim milk, in particular, was the healthiest choice.     She didn’t seem to understand why a woman my age would be interested in buying fresh, unpasteurized whole milk straight from the farm for my family and why I turned up my nose at processed milk from the store, especially organic, ultrapasteurized milk.

I explained to her that perhaps she hadn’t noticed, but “perfectly healthy” adults my age and younger were dropping like flies from lupus, lyme disease, cancer, arthritis, MS, depression, and a host of other illnesses with strange names most of which didn’t even exist when she was a child.   Obesity is at such a high level that the life expectancy of the country is starting to fall for many demographics and locations.   And, many of the children of my generation and younger are so chronically ill with all manner of auto immune disease that it is questionable how many of the next generation will be productive citizens or disabled adults on government assistance for the rest of their lives.

If anyone wants an investment idea, it would be adult autism centers as the parents of autistic children become too old to continue caring for them at home.   There will be MILLIONS of autistic adults within 20 years or so who will need to be living in an assisted facility of some kind, unable to function in society on their own.  I know this from personal experience, as I have a 55 year old brother with (undiagnosed – but obvious) Asperger’s Syndrome who despite being a high functioning autistic with 2 college degrees and a very high, possibly genius IQ, still needs assistance from my parents to handle some very basic tasks of citizenship.

The lady looked genuinely shocked after I explained to her what was happening with the declining health of the post WWII generation and the coming tsunami of sick, disabled adults that awaits us not so very far in the future.  Puzzled by her lack of understanding, I asked her if she was raised on farm fresh milk herself.   “Why yes”, she responded, “I was raised on a farm.”    “There you go, then,”  I said.    “You can thank your upbringing on a farm for the fact that you are alive and well today at age 70.”

Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist