Little to nothing in Obamacare or the Republican replacement effort gets at the issue of reducing health care costs by stopping its true cause, the substantial increase in chronic disease. Type 2 diabetes has grown from 2.2 million to 29 million in America since 1974 when I started to practice.
Hip and knee replacements largely for arthritis from 64,000 to over 1 million; dementia costs from under $10 billion in 1974 to $216 billion in direct federal costs in 2014. You get the picture. Chronic disease is increasing seven-fold faster than our population.
Our genes haven’t changed. Our habits and culture have. We need a World War II effort to save America. Everyone knew in WWII all had to pitch in to survive. That is how serious the influx of chronic disease is. And like in WWII, we think a culture change and a new set of rules promoted by the government are needed.
In 2005, when I arrived in Cleveland and looked at the data, it was obvious that we needed to offer healthier food to America. Without it, America’s medical costs would increase and put the country in jeopardy. It became obvious to me that we needed mass produced food that was healthy.
So I went to the head of one of the three biggest food processors in America and suggested America needed his company to start making food that loves your body as their mainstream foods. These food processors and this one in particular stock the shelves of the biggest grocery stores and provide the ready to use foods for fast and quick serve establishments and restaurants. His response: “Mike, I can’t do it, it’s just a fad. America doesn’t want healthy options. I have to provide what America wants.”
I pleaded and showed him the data. It was obvious by 2005 that America’s weight was going up more than 1 pound per year per person and health going down, enough to bankrupt the country from the cost of care for diabetes, cancer, heart disease, dementia, arthritis and kidney disease that obesity promotes. We were living through the delayed costs from tobacco and despite big tobacco’s best promotional efforts, tobacco-use rates were clearly on the way down from 45 percent of the population in about 1960 to under 25 percent in 2005, and still declining. It is now at about 15 percent.
But if the food choice change took the more than 50 years now required to change tobacco use, our country would be bankrupt. I wondered if we could legislate that healthy food had to be available. And research looking at the safety and effectiveness of government food regulations has shown that responsible rules and regulations can pay off big dividends, not only when it comes to saving lives and preventing the suffering of millions of you, but also by saving big bucks and making our health care system run more smoothly and efficiently.
Let’s start with a look at how food policies could and do affect those suffering from heart disease. In a recent study from the University of Liverpool School of Public Health, researchers estimated that in the United States a 10-percent tax on sugar-sweetened beverages could prevent 31,000 deaths from cardiovascular disease every year. But there’s no reason to stop with policies that impact sugary drinks.
A 30-percent fruit and vegetable subsidy targeting only food stamp recipients was estimated to avert 35,100 cardiovascular deaths and erase economic disparities in health outcomes; a mass media campaign to change dietary habits might avert 25,800 cardiovascular deaths. Instituting all the above could change the health of the nation and the wealth of the country. Plus, the scheduled 2018 ban on trans fats that clog arteries, boost inflammation and promote heart disease could immediately produce more than $60 billion in annual health care savings.
Every three years, I’ve gone back to the CEO of that food company and asked him to “go healthy.”
In the meantime, his sales have only grown. His answers always have been the same: “Mike it’s just a fad. America doesn’t want healthy options.”
But when I visited this year, I saw many healthy foods in the test kitchen, and beginning to roll off the production line. I asked him what was up. His response: “Mike, we’re going with it. Healthy food is now a trend. America wants it.”
Source: http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/features/health/finally-healthy-eating-trend-catches-up/article_1b17dcd6-67e2-11e7-941d-afea31373ba5.html
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