Health or Healthcare??

DrHardacre

As we start transitioning towards solutions, we need to consider how we got here. Access to healthcare is always a hot topic politically, but is that really the question we should be asking first. We are often quite good at hitting the bulls-eye on the wrong target. It is often quoted that we have the most expensive healthcare with the least results. But is access the main problem holding back results? I want every patient to be able to see a doctor if needed, but will that yield greater national wellness? We should be demanding access to health...which starts at the food, nutrition, and education level. Let's consider the facts: 67% of Americans are overweight or obese with the adolescent demographic growing the fastest...this is a significant shift in a very short time, the last 10-15 years. In fact we have changed the way we eat and the food supply more dramatically in the past 50 years than in the preceding 10,000 years. We are not designed to adapt that fast...if at all, to such a food change. Three categories now make up close to 60% of the American diet...none of which we are genetically set up to handle, because they didn't exist in nature. They are refined sugar, bleached flour, and vegetable oils (namely trans fats and omega 6). With the good intention of feeding the masses, extending shelf life, and increasing profit, we have created highly processed, calorie dense, nutrient deplete food sources which unleashes metabolic havoc on our body. What happens is we crave more, need more, and still go unfed. The estimated average calorie consumption per person has risen roughly 20% since the 1970s. That converts to an appreciable rise in average weight. Here is one example. Currently soft drinks are the number one source of calories as a single item for Americans. They account for 7% of the average person's caloric intake. Up 350% since the 1950s. They single handedly contribute to 2 lbs of weight gain per year for the average American. 90% of the average household food spending goes to processed food. In the 1970s we spent $6 Billion per year on fast food, by 2001 that number was $110 Billion. In the same time period the average portion size has gone up 2-5X. This has also resulted in the statistic that we eat 1 Million animals an hour in the US...again we are not equipped for that level of consumption, nor can suppliers keep up with demand in a "natural" way. Thus the majority of livestock engineering has had to focus on demand rather than nutrition and health. As we move forward we need to keep these kind of statistics in mind, to evoke meaningful and lasting change and health.