FOOD VS MEDICINE – Should Diet Changes Come Before Prescriptions?



FOOD VS MEDICINE

Should diet changes come before prescriptions?

Everything is wrong:

  • 70% of Americans are on prescription drugs
  • 69% Percent of adults are overweight or obese
  • 31% of adults have high blood pressure
  • 33.5% of adults have high LDL or “bad” cholesterol

Everything being wrong is expensive:

  • Costs of obesity-related illness: $190.2 billion/yr
  • 21% of annual medical spending in the United States
  • Price tag for childhood obesity: $19,000 per kid
  • If current trends continue obesity spending will quadruple to $344 billion by 2018
  • Costs of High blood pressure: $47.5 billion/yr
  • Reducing sodium intake from 3,400mg to 2,300mg per day may reduce cases of high blood pressure by 11 million and save 18 billion/yr
  • Costs of cholesterol medications: $18.7 billion/yr
  • High cholesterol is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and specifically for coronary heart disease (CHD).
  • Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S

Healthcare costs are high because pills are expensive:

  •  The United States spends far more per capita on medicines than other developed countries
  •  Drugs account for 10 percent of the country’s $2.7 trillion annual health bill
  • Should simple diet changes comes before prescriptions?
  • A vegetarian diet can reduce blood pressure by about half the drop expected from medication
  • Eating vegetarian is cheaper than buying pills
  •  Plus you get the beneficial side effects of:
  •  Lower cholesterol
  •  Weight loss

The DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) eating plan to lower blood pressure by up to 10 points:

■ Keep fat intake under 27% of total calories
■ Eat many servings of fruits and vegetables
■ Choose whole instead of processed grains
■ Include low-fat or nonfat dairy products
■ Should you eat meat, choose small portions of poultry or fish as your primary source of protein
■ Make nuts a source of protein

 

Source(s):

www.BestMasterofScienceinNursing.com

http://www.healthfreedoms.org/food-vs-medicine-should-diet-changes-come-before-prescriptions-2/