It’s a cold! It’s the flu! No, it’s a super bug!

Recently, I happened to catch the airing of Dr. Oz on February 27, 2015, where Dr. Oz and Dr. Sanjay Gupta spoke about the “superbug” outbreak (click here for more information).  Essentially, the problem is attributed to the overuse and misuse of antibiotics and that they tend to lurk in hospitals and communal places.  Another piece points out that the rise of antibiotic resistance is also due to “the use of antibiotics on factory farms, in order to bring animals to slaughter faster or to make up for crowded conditions on feed lots.”  So I dare ask: How did this come to be?

To me, the answer is quite simple.  The overuse and misuse of antibiotics stems directly from our society’s pervasive ambition to fix every ill instantaneously with a pill.  Furthermore, our insatiable need for instant food has served to cultivate food producers’ greed such that producers realize they can quickly profit by feeding this need using every possible shortcut and saving at their disposal.

The result is that the food we eat, and require to survive, is making us sick.  Adding insult to injury, the medical industry, in turn, profits from our sickness.  What a vicious circle!  So what are we to conclude?  To me it is clear: Blame it on fast foods!

- B. J. T. Pepin