You are What You Eat

“You are what you eat.” It’s amazing how many times you’ve heard this. From your mom when you were young while she was force-feeding you spinach, or in my case, anything green; from your nutritionist/doctor/personal trainer (hahaha… personal trainer, I wish); And finally, from that mean girl in high school, who said it in that tone while you were eating the glazed donut she refused because she was “cutting carbs” before beach week, not so subtlety suggesting you should do the same. Well, as annoying as it is to admit, all of these people were speaking the truth that our health care system has been ignoring for-eva.

What you eat has an enormous impact on whether you will be happy and healthy or sad and sick. Food isn’t just something that fills up (and sometimes out) our tummies. Choosing a specific dietary plan can cure chronic diseases and help prevent illness in our future. Doctors need to teach us how to live healthy, free of prescription drugs and costly medical bills. They need to make sure that annoyingly true phrase haunting our conscience after every late-night Taco Bell binge is more than just an afterthought…

“An overwhelming 94 percent of the doctors surveyed believe that nutrition plays a major role in prevention, and 95 percent say nutrition plays a major role in chronic disease management and treatment. On average, they estimate that two in three of their adult patients who have chronic disease would benefit from nutrition services. If the costs were reimbursed by a third-party payer, almost all of the physicians (94 percent) say they would refer more of their patients with chronic ailments for nutrition services than they do now.”

Basically, doctors know that nutrition can be more powerful than drugs in treating and preventing chronic diseases. What diseases? Heart disease, cancer and diabetes for starters, which just so happen to be the number 1, 2 and 6 killers in the U.S. These diseases are not only the numero uno killers in the U.S., but are also the drug companies major money makers. And as doctors said, they would tell their patients about nutritional therapies that would help, in many cases, as well as drugs, and would PREVENT these deaths in the first place, but, “More than 80 percent of physicians surveyed said lack of reimbursement is either a major reason or the single biggest reason that providing nutrition services is not routine.”

As the WUTANG Clan put it ever so eloquently, “Cash Rules Everything Around Me, C.R.E.A.M. get the money, dolla dolla bill ya’ll.” The doctors thus write you a prescription when they should be writing you a meal plan.

However, 96 percent of primary care physicians believe that the Nation’s health care system should place more emphasis on nutrition to treat and manage chronic disease. As Congress sits high up on the hill, debating health care reform issues, the benefits of nutritional therapy should not be ignored.

The quotes from this fabulous blog post were found... here.

Think about it & get back to me!

-HHH out.