People are increasingly concerned about healthcare these days, yet most overlook daily nutrition, a critical component of health and wellness. Addressing this will not only make huge improvements to people’s health, it will also lower their healthcare costs and reduce enormous strain on both the U.S. healthcare industry and economy at large, increasing the country’s dominance over its geopolitical rivals.
It’s a relatively simple solution. We don’t have to agonize over pills or expensive and complex treatments; we can make huge strides by simply changing our diets. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report from 2023 noted that 55% of people’s diets consist of ultraprocessed foods — calorie dense, low in fiber, high in unhealthy fats, sugars, and salt — with major costs to our health.
These diets are the No. 1 cause of chronic illness, such as heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, which kill more people than anything else. A 2017 Tufts University study found that poor diet itself causes nearly half of U.S. heart disease, stroke, and Type 2 diabetes deaths annually. That’s around 300,000 deaths every year.
Trading a diet of starches, sugars, processed meats, and industrial trans fats for one rich in fruits, vegetables, nuts, meat, fish, and whole grains can save us billions of dollars. In 2023, Tufts found that if hospitals implemented a medically tailored meals program for patients with chronic illnesses, healthcare savings could total as much as $13.6 billion in the first year alone, along with 1.6 million fewer hospitalizations. The same study revealed that produce prescription programs for diabetic patients with food insecurity could save an additional $44 billion in that same year.
Critics will argue that opting for healthier foods will be hard on people’s wallets. However, the federal government can help. Establishing even modest programs to subsidize healthier food and increase the nutrition in packaged foods can both lower costs and reduce the amount of chronic disease in the country.
Tufts’s 2017 study shows that subsidizing the cost of fruits and vegetables by only 10% could save 150,000 lives over 15 years. A program to reduce salt in packaged foods could save between $10 billion and $20 billion in healthcare costs annually, while preventing tens of thousands of cardiovascular deaths.
Though opting for more healthier foods may seem more expensive, compare this to the long-term healthcare costs for those who develop chronic diseases. According to a Utah State University report, obese individuals’ medical costs are $1,500 more per year on average than those of normal weight. And what about the people with multiple chronic diseases? A person who has three or four will spend more than four times the amount annually on healthcare than someone without any.
Better national nutrition would also free up the burden that chronic diseases have on the healthcare industry. A Milken Institute report from 2018 indicated that chronic health conditions burden the U.S. healthcare system by $1 trillion. That’s equal to nearly 6% of the country’s annual gross domestic product. If chronic diseases were significantly reduced, consider how many significant resources could be freed up to be used elsewhere. Perhaps that money can be redirected toward research in rare diseases, genetics, and other advanced fields. At the very least, consider how much relief it would be for the U.S. economy.
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This matters urgently, as China’s biomedical and healthcare industries now rival America’s, built on a willingness to cut costs and corners. With so much riding on American leadership in these fields, ceding ground to China would be a blow to the global health community. It cannot happen. Investing in national nutrition is one of the most straightforward ways to ensure it doesn’t.
A healthier America is a better America. People facing food insecurity and chronic health problems need information about the nutritional front lines of healthcare.
Cara Kingan is director of the Cure Coalition.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
