LodonSANO
Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food. Hippocrates (460 BC)
Economic doomsday?
A recent report by the World Economic Forum and the Harvard School of Public Health states that between now and 2030, the aggregate global cost of treating the five most common, non-infectious diseases (NCD’s) -- cancer, diabetes, heart disease, lung disease, and mental health disorders -- will top $47 trillion.
To put this astronomical number into perspective, consider the fact that the current US national debt is just under $15 trillion -- this means that at the current rate of growth, global healthcare costs associated with treating just these five diseases will exceed the US national debt by more than 300 percent in less than 20 years.
In its conclusion the report states:
“ First, in economic terms, NCDs matter significantly. At the national level, treatment expenses can be high and the loss of labor due to chronic disease can make a substantial dent in a country’s productive capacity. Ongoing improvements in economic well-being can be seriously impeded by widespread chronic disease.
Second, the human and economic burdens of NCDs can both be contained by devoting resources directly or indirectlyto prevention, screening, treatment and care. In other words, health spending is not predominantly consumption. A large portion of health spending is appropriately viewed as investment – one that yields a handsome rate of return.”
The choice seems to be quite clear, Pay upfront by investing in a healthy lifestyle or pay later for prescription drugs and with suffering.
A copy of the report can be downloaded hereThe title of a 2007 article in the journal Nutrition Reviews says it all: Food, Not Nutrients, Is The Fundamental Unit In Nutrition.
We need to shift our focus away from “nutrients” and towards “food” in order to understand the effects nutrition has on health. Why? Because whole foods are so much more complex than nutritional science can understand.
Focusing too narrowly on nutrients has obscured the true value of eating Real Food.