Civilization And Mental Health Research Paper

Words: 683
Pages: 3

Civilization was a huge leap for humans. However, it was a leap into an oblivion. In agreement, civilization is loosely defined to be a “self-reinforcing societal pattern of depletion of the land, accumulation of wealth, conquest, repression, central control, and insulation and disconnection from life, with all of these habits allied to mental, cultural, and physical artifacts” by Ran Prieur, a blog writer. For example, farming tools are needed to gather crops (i.e. physical artifacts) and by selling them you are “accumulating wealth” which can lead to a non-egalitarian society. It became so convincing to just think that it is perfect and tranquil with all of the advancements. An article on the Discovery online magazine stated, “Recent discoveries …show more content…
The start of non-communicable diseases created an epidemic that has only evolved with civilization. Mental health has also become a problem within many people around us. The main kind of non-communicable diseases (NCD) include cancers, lung and heart diseases and diabetes. Diamond informs us that there are many foods in supermarkets that have a high sugar content. Children grew accustomed to these foods and that resulted to diabetes and other diseases. He also states that the NCD epidemic is spreading and growing larger (428-431). The World Health Organization states that these kind of diseases kill more than 36 million people each year which is 63% of the deaths. Obesity happens mostly when one consumes more than exerting energy. A majority of the population today would rather do something inactive like work or leisure activities than exercising. With the lack of activeness and not burning off calories from the foods consumed, the risk of high blood pressure and diabetes become more susceptible. The environment and society does not help alleviate this, but actually helps promote a practice of unhealthy living. Food portions are encourage people to eat more or if not eaten, just thrown away as waste. The food industry also creates unhealthy nutritions with heaping amounts of sugar, salt or fat. Their main focus is to make the food pleasing to the taste and have a successful income. When walking inside a supermarket, it is difficult to find something fresh and healthy to eat with all of the packaging around to lure you away. Not to mention how it could lead to different types of cancer. The International Agency for the Research of Cancer (IARC) classified that preservatives in foods are carcinogenic. Many packaged foods have preservatives in them to keep it fresh and flavorful. There are also MSG’s, natural sweeteners, refined white sugar, and deep fried or microwaveable foods (Seattle