The Health of our Nation
Dr. DeeDee Wampfler, DC
Our nation spends more than any other industrialized nation on “healthcare” every year, yet we have more chronic disease than most as we are ranked 79th in the world in our healthcare outcomes. I think we are used to being told that we are the best at everything so we fail to realize how unhealthy of a nation we really are. Also, since chronic disease creeps up on us slowly over time, we don’t realize how sick we really are. The sad state of health in our country has been getting more publicity recently and people are now realizing how unhealthy our nation really is.
By now, we should all be aware that our “healthcare” spending, which is in the trillions of dollars, is not making us healthy. Our “healthcare” system, is an allopathic system, which focuses on disease care, or basically medications and surgery. Obviously, that is needed sometimes, but disease is not caused by a lack of medication. It is a lack of health so in order for us to become a “healthy” nation, we need to focus on health and not disease, which require a holistic approach.
Health is obviously a multifactorial condition and we aren’t going to cover everything, so we’ll just focus on the basics that I think everyone knows is that: good nutritious food, exercise, and outdoor activities are good for you, but how many of us are focused on eating right and making sure we are staying active? Everywhere you go, people are on the run and they grab whatever food is easy and quick. I often talk to people who say they eat healthy, but yet, they haven’t eaten a real vegetable in over a month.
When people talk about eating healthy, people often just think they have to eat carrot and celery sticks along with their sandwich or just switch to eating wheat bread instead of white bread. This is how far our country has come in a lack of understanding of what healthy food is. We’ve been misled when it comes to health and healthy eating. The food pyramid, which is rich in grains and processed foods actually can lead to chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease.
Green leafy vegetables are key foods to restoring health and should constitute the largest volume of what you eat. Greens like mixed salad greens, swiss chard, kale, bok choy, arugula, mustard and collard greens along with broccoli, brussel sprouts and others need to be regulars on our plates in order to heal and repair. Lean meats like grass-fed beef, venison, pasture raised chicken, salmon and such should be some of our first sources. We should enjoy apples regularly along with berries and fresh pineapple. Healthy oils like coconut oil and olive oil and even real butter need to be used over other unhealthy products like margarine, and hydrogenated oils.
If this is overwhelming to you, start with one vegetable a week and look up how to enjoy it. Make different varieties of it so that you and your family can get a better sense of enjoyment in this new food. Your taste needs to be adjusted to your new way of eating and will take time and it won’t be so overwhelming trying to incorporate so many new foods all at once. Meal prep this new food for the week so that when you are on the go, you have healthy food readily available and refuse to go through the drive in or the quick packaged foods. If you want better health for your family, you’re going to have to do something differently.