Mokitas and Taquitos in Health

by Fisher Qua, WHF Director of Health 3.0

 
Mokita: That which everyone knows and no one speaks of. The Papuans of New Guinea judge the health of any community by limiting the number of “mokitas” that exist within it. 

Taquito: A “meat-filled” deep-fried snack available at 7-Elevens nationwide.

For what it’s worth here’s my short list of health care mokitas:

• Health is profitable
• ~10% of our health comes from medicine, 90% comes from behaviors, relationships, the environment and everything else
• People are not relevant in the health care system
• People don’t think about health information, they react to it
• You can’t make people do anything - especially when it comes to changing behaviors 
• The Taquito Paradox: Human behavior isn’t rational. People will do things that are bad for them regardless of how loud or how much we shout at them.
• Ijustcantdoit (personal responsibility only goes so far) - some people just can’t do the things that are healthy for them on their own 
• The U.S. health care system isn’t designed to produce health - it’s designed to make money and save lives
• We cannot prevent death
• It is more profitable to treat sickness than prevent illness
• We don’t really know what it means to be healthy, because everyone’s definition is different
• Health is a commodity & resource
• Health is subjective

While we don’t have a measure for Mokitas in the Healthiest State in the Nation Campaign, we must acknowledge and surface these latent assumptions and truths if we are to be honest about the context of health and health care in this state and the nation as a whole. 

Comments

[Energy Supplements]

Yes,we need to know more healthy foods. Mokitas and Taquitos in Health. I never heard of that before.

[brad]

You make some interesting points.. particularly about the 90% of our health coming from behaviours.. for the 10% I make sure that I take vitamins everyday...
-Brad
http://www.vitaminsforenergyhq.com