We can continue to spin our wheels arguing how to finance a broken health care system. But it would be better to fix it. Feeding it the right food would be a good start. I could not argue this point better than the article below.
Reference
Nutrition education fit for modern health systems
J. Lancet December 07, 2019;394:2071
“Despite the prevalence of nutritional issues, such as undernutrition, overnutrition, and nutritional needs in chronic diseases, and despite recent shifts by health systems towards preventive health care, nutrition education for doctors still trails behind the needs of patients.
Medical schools around the world should consider how high-quality nutrition education can be more fully embraced. In many regions, like southeast Asia and the Pacific, death and disability-adjusted life-years are increasingly caused by overnutrition, yet child and maternal undernutrition are all still leading risk factors. Globally, almost half of all deaths in children under the age of 5 years result from malnutrition and approximately 2 billion people have micronutrient deficiencies. Even in higher-income countries, a so-called double burden of obesity and undernourishment affects both populations and individuals. For instance, patients could be simultaneously overweight and iron deficient, and undernourished infants are more likely to develop chronic diseases in adulthood.
Medical schools have been urged to equip doctors with (narrow) nutritional expertise to better treat conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Although important, such expertise must go beyond the management of high prevalence chronic diseases. Health workers should appreciate the many factors that shape food choices, including sociocultural determinants, such as a food industry that spends almost US$14 billion annually on marketing nutritionally deplete products, and the wider implications of food choices for planetary health. Concerns from medical schools about crowded curricula can be met by integrating modern nutrition teaching into existing case-based learning. Medical schools are also rightly concerned that nutrition education might encourage doctors to venture outside their scope of practice or competency. However, quality nutrition education should not only equip doctors to better advise patients on nutrition, it should also promote a keener awareness of when to refer to, or to seek input from, more knowledgeable health professionals. Physicians must be able to meaningfully contribute to interdisciplinary teams that tackle nutritional concerns. Thus, team-based tertiary education and workforce learning might be crucial for physicians to play a central role in delivering effective nutrition interventions at both the individual level and population level.
The existing role of physicians in merely influencing nutritional choices for patients underplays their responsibility in establishing integrated people-centered (and population-centered) health services that empower patients, families, and communities to deliver lifelong care adapted to local priorities. Obesity and undernutrition are wicked problems requiring “enlightened change agents” to ensure health equity. Medical education should produce professionals who can lead the planning and management of health systems to both prevent and treat nutritional issues.”
