Why makes berries so special? Well simply put — it’s their colour! Being the category of fruit with the highest levels o

I suppose eating 15 different foods every day (or 17 if you’re counting the photo) sounds like a lot to manage. Truthfully — and especially if you’re not accustomed to eating this way — it is.,Further to this, researchers were able to pin-point, that not eating enough fruit — and more specifically, not eating enough berries — was one of the factors with the greatest success in predicting disease (1).,Just as social bonds are basics of life that we must be able to afford, so too are the rest — healthcare, education, media, retirement, and so on. The problem, though, is that Americans cannot afford those anymore, because life’s basics have become luxuries for the richest few. And in that void, people are turning, in desperation, to authoritarianism, magical thinking, extremism, scapegoating, and harder solutions — like opioids. It isn’t a coincidence that all these things are rising while life grows harder, meaner, nastier, and more unlivable.,Remember Tom Coomer? I’d bet he’s a lovely old fellow. I’d love to grab a beer with him and learn about his long life. How much does he have to teach us? But he is too busy working at Walmart, eking out a living. How can we judge a rich society whose elderly live without dignity, meaning, and safety, earning pennies, after lifetimes of hard work, as anything but remorselessly cruel? Hence, American life is something the rest of the world now sees as unimaginable cruelty — but it has a working social contract, and America doesn’t.,We’re going to start by ignoring the fact that grapefruit and pomegranates are not even on the list. Mostly, I just really liked the image, but feel free to add those fruits to your list anyway — they’re incredibly healthy, too!,Now. The interesting part is what happened in the rest of the rich world. While life’s basics in America turned into unaffordable luxuries, elsewhere, the precise opposite happened. These basics grew cheaper and cheaper, until at last, they became goods that were simply freely provided for everyone. Hence, going to see the doctor in the UK, for example, is free, and a prescription costs a fixed amount, just a few pounds — whether it is penicillin or some cutting-edge drug. Meanwhile, healthcare in the US costs thousands more every year — while barely covering much. See the difference? The US and the world are mirror images — life’s basics became cripplingly expensive luxuries in America, but are moving towards being free everywhere else.,Why, then, did America never develop a working social contract? After all, it has never had basics provided for everyone at any point in its history. Here the answers are as sad as they are numerous. Slavery made it impossible for every person to have anything. An ideological devotion to capitalism made it impossible for society to invest in itself. And a society founded upon a strict hierarchy — whites, browns, blacks, each punching down the last — developed no norms or values to push it in the direction of basics of life that were affordable for everyone.,In what is currently the largest conclusive analysis of risk factors for death and disease in all of history, 500 researchers in 50 different countries developed the 2010 Global Burden of Disease Study. They found the leading cause of both death, disability, and disease within the United States was diet.,And so here Americans are. The most basic of life’s basics have become luxuries for the average American, while in the rest of the rich world, more and more advanced basics of life go on getting cheaper and cheaper ever year. That is what a failing social contract means. And because it never developed a working social contract, America had no real choice but to collapse. A society without a social contract is an empty shell, waiting to crack. Its democracy, economy, and polity fail, as people give up on all three, doing whatever they must to afford life’s unaffordable basics somehow, whether it is turning to strongmen a la fascism and authoritarianism, guns, or religion.,The marriage of motion design and UX is relatively new, but its roots are in Disney. Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston were among Walt Disney’s most valued animators and key contributors to classics like Pinnochio, Bambi, and Fantasia. Their 12 Basic Principles of Animation remain influential in motion graphics for film, television, and digital content.,Yet the most basic of bonds that human beings live for are with their partners and kids. But even those are becoming unaffordable in America. That tells us that all of life’s basics are becoming unaffordable for Americans. A marriage or partnership, kids, and a home itself: they come, for most people, before healthcare, education, retirement, and so forth. But if people are beginning to find the most basic of life’s goods unattainable luxuries — then the rest must be even more so. Having a kid costs tens of thousands of dollars, education can put you in debt for life. What the? So when the most primary thing in human life itself — the most fundamental social bonds that people hope for — have become unaffordable, then how can a society endure?,The lesson is this. Americans let the basics of life, decade by decade, turn into luxuries only affordable for the richest few — because they were too busy punching one another down to do what the rest of the rich world did: make those very basics of life ever cheaper and cheaper, until they became necessities provided for everyone. Yesterday’s luxuries becoming tomorrow’s basics, freely provided to all, is what the growth of a society really means — but America, perversely, got this backwards — today’s basics became tomorrow’s luxuries, rendering life itself less and less livable, year by year.,When education, healthcare, media, transport are freely, universally provided to all, that, in turn, makes having a family, home, kids, something that the average European doesn’t think very hard about affording. The average European thinks it’s very strange — and very sad — that Americans cannot even afford to have a family, because they can barely imagine such a life. And that is because they enjoy a working social contract, that makes the very same basics that Americans can barely now afford at all not just cheap, or “accessible”, but free. Do you see how stark the difference is?,The lesson is this. Americans let the basics of life, decade by decade, turn into luxuries only affordable for the richest few — because they were too busy punching one another down to do what the rest of the rich world did: make those very basics of life ever cheaper and cheaper, until they became necessities provided for everyone. Yesterday’s luxuries becoming tomorrow’s basics, freely provided to all, is what the growth of a society really means — but America, perversely, got this backwards — today’s basics became tomorrow’s luxuries, rendering life itself less and less livable, year by year.,The idea with lists such as these isn’t to achieve perfection, nor to even strive for it. Instead, view this article and the science mentioned below as inspiration to incorporate more of these foods into your day-to-day. If you can knock out 5 foods on one day, and a different 5 on the next, then you’re already on your way to success! Please keep in mind that this list is only a suggestion, and ought to be adapted to your needs and personal preferences.