I do like to analyze things, learn details, and step back on the big picture, which makes sense with my current interests in finance, economics, and writing. However, I think my interest in health definitely starts with my mom. She was a nurse practitioner at Duke University Medical Center and spent most of her career in vascular radiology. For those who don't know what that is, the simplest explanation is that it generally involves procedures on organs, arteries, and vessels that are less invasive than surgery. A typical patient might have a blocked artery, have a stent inserted to open the artery so that blood can now be pumped through therein reducing the risk of a heart attack. Many of my mom's patients had clogged arteries as a consequence of an unhealthy lifestyle. My mom was privately frustrated with patients that wanted pills to cure their ailments. It was clear to her that changing their lifestyles would give them a happier, longer life. But most never made that change. She also never understood the lung cancer patients who would roll their wheel chairs outside to smoke cigarettes. Again, a lifestyle change is a lot more difficult than swallowing a pill. And, boy, let me me tell you what, she practiced what she preached. I was the only kid at my school in 1991 with an all-natural peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat bread. When I wanted dessert, she would hand me an orange. Soda was banned from the household except for the occasional special pizza night. And even then, she didn't drink it.
There are other reasons I care about my health. Playing sports made me competitive and strive to be my best. When I competed, I felt the effects of everything that entered my body. When you are competing for hours on a daily basis, the effects of bad food are felt much sooner than the time it takes to gain a few pounds. I also strongly believe in personal responsibility for things that are important to you. Living a long time is important to me. Life is too short as it is. When my mom passed away, it made me realize how valuable a day was, a week, a year. If eating something different gives me another year with my loved ones, it's not such a difficult choice to eat something healthy.
That being said, I don't think constant deprivation is the answer. Many people think this way. "You're overweight? Put down the fork, dummy." I disagree. For one thing, it slows your metabolism to eat less (even if you eat the "right" foods) and when you do finally eat your body will want to store any excess energy because it's not sure when you're going to feed it again. The amazing thing about the human body is how adaptable it is: It finds ways to make sure you get fed in the long term. It prioritizes your vital organs over your extremities. It slows your metabolism when you are expending a lot of energy to make sure you don't burn through your stores too quickly. It can switch between burning carbohydrates and burning fat depending on what you are feeding it. It can safely drain toxins out of what you ingest through your liver. Amazing. I mean seriously, body of mine, thanks for looking out, I know I make some poor decisions sometimes.
I think it's really important to say this before I get into this next bit of why I care about health. I do not think a lot of overweight people chose to be overweight. I think there are far more complicated issues surrounding a healthy weight than "putting down the fork." Some of it is systemic issues with our food system and some of it is wrongheaded information. But I think it's putting the cart before the horse to explain these reasons right now, so please trust me when I say, I am not blaming anyone, we are all in this together.
The societal consequences of poor nutrition are upon us and are only getting worse (facts are courtesy of Dr. Attia, Dr. Robert Lustig, and the CDC):
- 34% of Americans are obese and two-thirds are overweight. This represents more than a 200% increase from 1970.
- A recent study in Obesity estimates that by 2030, 50% of Americans will be obese and 79% will be overweight.
- Since 1980, overweight rates have doubled among children and tripled among adolescents – increasing the number of years they are exposed to the health risks of obesity.
- Pediatric endocrinologists (such as Dr. Lustig) are now seeing obese six-month olds. ("Hey kid! Go run on a treadmill or something!" clearly isn't the solution here.)
- Over 8% of Americans are diabetic, and if you include those undiagnosed, an additional 26% of Americans are pre-diabetic. This represents more than a 400% increase from 1970.
- Every 7 seconds someone in the world dies from a diabetic complication (this is not a typo).
- Diabetes is also the leading cause of stroke, blindness, kidney failure requiring transplantation, all amputations combined, and many other medical problems.
- According to McKinsey & Company, reducing the U.S. obesity rate to 15% (that of 1970) would save approximately $150 billion per year in Medicare spending alone, and close to $500 billion per year in overall U.S. healthcare spending. The U.S. spends over $2.7 trillion per year on healthcare – nearly 19% of our GDP, and more than any other country. Even if no other aspect of our spending increases in the next 20 years, the cost of healthcare alone will bankrupt us as a country. Think about the opportunity cost of this spending, think about what changes might happen in our society if this amount of money was invested in public education.
I think people deserve some answers about how we got here. I think my friends, my neighbors, my family, and myself need some better information and some better food. Unfortunately, we're all busy people with pressing short-term priorities and one person can't possibly solve this. That's why it really just starts with each one of us as individuals, caring a little bit about our health and trying to prevent ourselves from becoming a statistic. I'm not going to tell anyone else what they should do, but, as for myself, I think small, manageable choices done on an individual level can help the macro environment. All for now, gotta go do some laundry.
