Public Health and Nutrition

“Teachings those with Chronic Health Problems to Eat Better”

I have always been interested in how diet change can help a person with their diagnosed illness. Does it really work or does it not is the question? Perhaps if people were willing to change their diets, if given the instructions or lessons on how to proceed, the need for more medicine or trips to the doctor would be minimal. It seems that nutrition as been put on the back burner and doctors are pushing more drugs. Maybe the lobbying of the drug companies have something to do with it, or maybe it’s the convenience of taking something in a pill form, instead of taking the time to show patients how they can eat better to reduce something like inflammation. This is where I would like to focus my efforts in informing patients with health problems how they could be eating better. What we are eating now is very different from that of our ancestors. Heck, it is even way different from what I ate as a child, of course I did grow up in a farming community and steroids were not as easily used. Food production and manufacturing techniques, coupled with changing lifestyles and increasing access to processed foods, mean that our intake of fresh, nutritious, local produce is much lower, at the same time as our intake of fat, sugar, and additives is much higher. A healthy diet may sometimes be more expensive, depending on what part of the country you live in. Because there are some of us who cannot use their garden all year round, which would be nice. Fish, fruit and vegetables can be particularly pricey, if they are not in season or are shipped in from other areas. With the right teachings, a patient could learn to cook or eat great meals, in any season. It is also important to eat at least three meals each day. Missing meals, especially breakfast, leads to low blood sugar and this causes low mood, irritability and fatigue. According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, close to 100 million Americans are overweight or obese. Being obese or overweight substantially increases the risk of morbidity from several conditions, including