The burden falls as hard on employers as it does on families and individuals – the average employee contribution to company-provided health insurance increased more than 143 percent from 2000-05, and average out-of-pocket costs for deductibles, co-payments for medications, and co-insurance for physician and hospital visits rose 115 percent during the same period, according to the National Coalition on Health Care.

Obviously, the U.S. needs to drastically reform health care and insurance coverage. Nothing short of a systemwide revolution will ever make affordable health care a reality for the millions of U.S. citizens living at or below the poverty line, or even middle-class working citizens with families.

Until that happens, if it ever will, we need to start taking our health into our own hands. Luckily, genetic predisposition aside, every person can take steps to reduce or eliminate the risk of lifestyle-related diseases such as heart disease and diabetes – two of the nation’s biggest killers.

Heart disease has been the No. 1 cause of death in the U.S. for the last 80 years and is a major cause of disability and health-care expenditures – for example, coronary heart disease is expected to cost an estimated $151.6 billion in direct and indirect costs in 2007, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We, as U.S. citizens, are pumping our bodies full of processed food, saturated fat and meat so fast our waistlines and our personal health suffer.

We all need to overcome cultural boundaries to our good health – Americans have evolved into convenience junkies dependent on cars for transportation and cheap, nutritionally void food for meals. The government may be doing health care coverage wrong, but we’re doing our bodies wrong.

One simple way to improve personal health and increase health consciousness is to reduce or remove meat from your diet. The American Heart Association reported vegetarian diets are usually lower than nonvegetarian diets in total fat, saturated fat and cholesterol, and many studies have shown that vegetarians seem to have a lower risk of obesity, coronary heart disease (which causes heart attacks), high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus and some forms of cancer.

Most sources agree vegetarians can be nutritionally sound if a person plans his or her diet carefully to include essential nutrients, but eating meat doesn’t guarantee a healthy diet by any means.

All Americans, vegetarians or not, should be watching their diets and balancing nutrients.

Another way to improve health and wellness is to learn how to cook. Packaged, ready-to-eat foods are high in saturated fat, trans fats, processed sugars and sodium.

Cooking meals from whole grains, dried beans, whole vegetables and lean meats eliminates the negative aspects of processed food from your diet and connects you to the food you’re eating, a unique connection many Americans have lost in an ever-increasing culture of instant satisfaction and amenities.

Aside from food, we need to make sure to exercise plenty and reduce stress in our lives, to round out a lifestyle of personal wellness. Even if such lifestyle steps might seem cumbersome at first, good health is worth the effort. The benefits to your body, mind and health – a better life in general – will far outweigh any immediate nuisances.

_Liz Kersjes is the State News opinion writer. Reach her at kersjese@msu.edu