“What struck me was that, time after time, much of
what I was seeing was preventable. This is the great tragedy of the health of
our nation right now.” -- Dr. Vivek Murthy, the new U.S. Surgeon General,
speaking about his experiences as a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital
in Boston
The fact is, physicians in the U.S. are paid to treat
your diseases, not prevent them. According
to Dr. David Agus, a regular contributor to CBS, the U.S. health care system is
“not incentivized to prevent disease.” Instead,
the system pays doctors to treat your diabetes or your cancer.
It has always been ironic to me that we call it a “health
care system” when in fact we have a “disease care system.”
Think about diabetes.
What if doctors prescribed fresh vegetables, fruits and whole grains
instead of insulin? What if they said, “Take
this prescription for real food and go to your local farmacy?” Instead they say, “Take this prescription for
drugs and go to your local pharmacy?” What
if people received education about how the added sugars, fats, and sodium in
processed foods are contributing to a nation of obese Americans? What if we all said to our doctors, “I will
pay you to keep me OUT of the hospital.”
Another fact to consider: type 2 diabetes is controllable, reversible,
and best of all, preventable. It is also
an incredibly expensive disease, for the individual diagnosed with diabetes,
for their family, for their employer and for our country. In 2012, the estimated economic burden of
diabetes in the U.S. was $245 Billion (yes, billion). This is a 41% increase from the $174 Billion spent
in 2007. A 41% increase in 5 years. Did your salary increase 41% in 5 years? I didn’t think so.
There are an estimated 86 million Americans with
prediabetes, 9 out of 10 of whom don’t know they have prediabetes. Prediabetes means your blood sugar levels are
higher than normal, and if you do nothing to change your eating habits, your weight
if you are overweight or obese, fitness routines, stress levels, or amount of
good sleep, then you will most likely progress to a diabetes diagnosis. People with diabetes have 2-3 times higher
health care costs than people without diabetes.
The pipeline is loaded so that physicians and hospitals will make a
killing (no pun intended) off of your diseases.
Improving health literacy is an essential component of
learning how NOT to get diabetes. We do
a lot of work in the Growing Healthy Kids project to educate people about controlling
and reserving diabetes, but more importantly, about preventing diabetes. A
favorite part of my work is when someone attending an education or healthy
cooking program says, “Now I get it! I
can do this!”
Most foods in grocery stores have nutrition
facts labels. We can choose to read the labels
and then decide if we want to buy something, once we learn how to identify the added sugars, fats, sodium, food dyes, preservatives, and artificial sweeteners. Most Americans eat too much sugar and too
many refined grains (all bad carbohydrates) and not enough vegetables and whole
grains (the good carbs). No wonder America's children are overweight, obese, and sick.
Preventing disease is a priority for my family. Is it a priority for your family? Do you know how to improve your family’s
health literacy? Please email your questions about diabetes and
other preventable diseases to growinghealthykidsnow@gmail.com.
Don’t forget to listen to “Pop Up Health with Nancy
Heinrich” on www.iheartradio.com, my
weekly interview with Chef Michael Glatz!
In gratitude,
Nancy Heinrich
Founder, Growing Healthy Kids, Inc.
