Dietitian Explains The Science of Using Food as Medicine

There's nothing that's killing more Americans than the foods that we're eating every day, which sounds so insane, but it's the actual truth. Today we're going to get into the science of using food as medicine. We're going to talk about how food can impact your health and can also impact disease. And then I'm going to give you some takeaways that you can implement into your day to day life so that you can actually implement this idea of using food as medicine. Now let's just start off with the fact that the Journal of the American Medical association has reported that the largest driver of disease are diet related. The CDC comes out with reports every year that show the leading causes of death in the United States. In 2020, there were 7 out of 10 of those leading causes of death that were attributable to diseases that are driven by nutrition and lifestyle. That's pretty amazing that 7 out of 10 of the leading causes of death in the United States are driven by people's food and lifestyle choices. And they're so under recognized. When you think about just going to the doct and the lack of attention that's included in food and lifestyle interventions. There are so many symptoms and conditions that you and many other people struggle with on a day to day basis that you might not even realize are also driven by the foods that you're eating. Like digestive issues, IBS or other conditions, autoimmune conditions, arthritis in pain, irregular menstrual cycles and infertility, migraines, Hashimoto's and hypothyroidism, acid reflux, osteoporosis, this and so many more. And yet there's very little attention to evidence based nutrition and lifestyle changes that can help you to sometimes reverse these conditions but also decrease the symptoms that you're experiencing so that you just feel better on a day to day basis. Like who doesn't want that? Of course everyone wants that. But we can't look at it as an approach that we're just looking for this magic pill or this magic drug that's going to fix everything for us. I unfortunately, and fortunately improving your health is going to come down to the choices that you're making on a day to day basis. Now that makes it harder because it requires consistency. But the fortunate part is that it means that you have a lot of control over how you're feeling on a day to day basis, even if you're not being told about that in your doctor's office. Let's just get a little nerdy on some of the actual economics behind this, because I find it to be absolutely absurd. We spend $4.1 trillion on health care every. I'm not a mathematician, I'm not a financial expert, but what I do know is that $4.1 trillion is a lot of money. And then we have such poor health outcomes, and actually our health outcomes aren't even improving as we're spending more money. It makes you realize how much relying on drugs and surgery, not diet, but drugs and surgery alone, as these medical interventions isn't really helping in the way that you would expect it to. When you look at this 2021 survey that they did that looked at the 11 wealthiest countries, and they assessed the quality of healthcare outcomes compared to the amount of money that these countries were spending on health care, they found that the United States spends the Most of those 11 wealthy countries and ranks worst in healthcare outcomes. So the United States spent 17% of its GDP on healthcare. The second country was Germany, which spent 10%. So. And you know, the GDP is obviously gonna be a lot higher for the United States compared to Germany. And even with all of that money being funneled into our healthcare system of more drugs and more surgery and more of these interventions that are so cutting edge, we're not seeing the health outcomes. We're coming in last of all of these countries. So when we think about just summarizing the food and healthcare situation in the United States, I can't think of a better quote than Wendell Berry's famous quote where he says, people are fed by the food industry, which pays no attention to health, and they are treated by the health industry, which pays no attention to food. If you can think of a better quote to summarize the situation that we're in, then I'd love to hear it. But that's the one that comes to mind every time that I think of just better understanding what's happening. When you look at the food industry, it's crazy how much the food industry has impacted our food norms, our food preferences, our food experiences, our food cravings. Also makes you feel like you have no willpower, because when you're eating a lot of these foods that are being produced by the food industry, they actually hijack your brain and make you more addicted. So as you're eating them, it feels like you just can't stop and that you have no willpower and that you're a failure. And guess what? It's not actually you. It's that these food substances are highly addictive and they're designed by food scientists to be exactly that way because they know that they create a customer for life, they increase the consumption that you have, and also then you're gonna have to be treated more on the back end by the healthcare system. When you think about the fact that the food industry has impacted all these things, they've also impacted this trajectory of poor health outcomes that just continue to mount and to mount and that more and more people normalize. When you look at the funding in the food industry, it's also astonishing. How is that actually allow for the food industry to be influencing these research based outcomes as much as they do influencing, lobbying for their products and influencing health experts and the dietary guidelines that are produced by the government. When I'm talking about dietary guidelines that are produced by the government, I'm talking about the MyPlate. It used to be the food pyramid that's been updated to my plate. And that influences the federal funding that goes into programs like the school lunch and breakfast program, influences the old food stamp program. It used to be called food stamps, it's now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program and many other programs. So literally what's happening is that the food industry in broad daylight is feeding our healthcare crisis. And there's not much recognition behind the fact that that's happening. And then we're relying on the healthcare system on the back end to treat what's being caused by our diet with drugs and surgery. So when you look at actual statistics behind this, I want to just read to you a report that came out or findings from a report that came out. This was from the Rockefeller Foundation's True cost of food report. They found that US consumers, they paid an estimated $1.1 trillion for food in 2019. That didn't include the additional $604 billion that were spent in health care costs that were directly att attributable to diet related diseases. $604 billion in healthcare costs directly tied to diet. Again, this isn't common information that's being reported on the news. Not a lot of people actually know this or the depth of this. And then on the other end, you go into the doctors and you ask for non pharmacological interventions. Or you're like, hey, what can I do with my lifestyle or my diet to actually change this diagnosis or these symptoms? And not always, but very commonly the answer is, oh, nutrition has nothing to do with what you have. You have to take this drug, you'll be dependent on this drug for the rest of your life. That's actually what I was told 17 years ago, when I went into the doctor asking that exact same question, it was like, no, nutrition has nothing to do with this. There's no research to establish that. And what I knew then, even at the age of 16, after I changed my diet thanks to my parents, because I just wanted the pill. And my parents were like, no, we're gonna go the hard and we're gonna actually go against what your doctor's recommending and figure out how your food and lifestyle is contributing to the state of your health. Once I started to get it by feeling so much better and my symptoms improving, I just had this recognition that I'm like, there has to be hundreds of thousands of other people that are just like me, that are going into their doctor's office that are being told that nutrition has nothing to do with their condition, but we know that the opposite is actually true. Being able to recognize the fact that you have more control over the trajectory of your health is such an important message that I hope you better understand through this YouTube channel and from the information and the recipes and the mindset tips that we're going to get into. Before we get into it, I just want to drill into some of the other things that are going on in the science, the actual science of using food as medicine, so that you can better understand it. Because I feel like there's this weird two worlds that exist where we have influencers who are like, everything is toxic in the world and don't eat this clean ingredients, this. And then there's this other group that's the health experts who are saying, like, nutrition has nothing to do with anything. There's this gray area that I want to find myself in to be able to help to support you. That's more evidence based than what you see from some of these influencers and things that are very commonly being reported on the Internet from non health experts that make everything much more confusing and oftentimes times aren't accurate, and then a better in between of how you can actually use food to improve certain conditions. When we talk about the significance of this, I just want to make sure that you understand that this isn't just me making this information up. When it comes to even a report that was published by the Hunter College, New York City Food Policy Center, I just want to read you what they had written in this report because I think that it's really profound. They said that using food for prevention and treatment of disease has a long history and documentation efficacy. In fact, evidence indicates that sustained dietary changes can be as effective as pharmacological interventions in treating certain diseases, especially in the early stages of the disease. In some instances, a long term specific diet may be more effective than medication at mitigating, stabilizing and reversing disease. Additionally, using drug treatments in combination with a healthy tailored diet may be more impactful than using drugs alone. There are a plethora of studies which demonstrate the extensive health benefits of food as medicine and indicate that the focus should not be on diet or medicine alone, but on diet and medicine. Now it's really interesting when you just think about the science or the history, I should say, of using food as medicine dating back as early to 300 BCE even though it's now being talked about more. The science of using food as medicine. It's not a new concept. It's so ancient, even dating back to Hippocrates, the Greek physician who I'm sure you're familiar with, and you may even be familiar with his famous quote where he said, let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food. It's quoted on, you know, in lots of health food stores and lots of swag bags and those kinds of things. So I'm sure you've heard of it. And that dates back to his timeline of 460 BCE. That's when he was born. Now, he wasn't just this quack physician that was talking about diet. He believed that diet was the most profound intervention when it came to disease treatment. But he also was known for being a pioneer in evidence based medicine. So he combined both. He didn't say don't use medicine, but he combined both. The fact that diet is the most profound way to impact disease and health and then also how we can leverage more of this evidence based approach. It wasn't really until the 1900s that the medical system moved very much away from the significance of nutrition and almost in some ways started to belittle nutrition interventions. At least that's what I've observed in working in a hospital and working in academia is this downplay of the importance of nutrition by a lot of researchers and health experts. I think that it's helpful to understand that in the 1900s there was this huge shift. Allopathic medicine. Allopathic medicine is the idea of treating symptoms and diseases with drugs, radiation and surgery. And it only progressed after the Civil War when the germ theory was recognized where the reliance on drugs and surgical interventions really amplified. And as we moved in that direction, we moved away from the significance of some of these nutrition and lifestyle based approaches. So it's not that there isn't evidence behind them. It's not that this isn't rooted in literally ancient science, but it's that we've really been steered away from it. I even think back to 2008 when I did my senior project in high school on the topic of using food as medicine. That was the name of the presentation that I gave for my last project as a high schooler. And at that time there was no medical systems that were talking about this, no government organizations that were talking about this. Even my friends and family members didn't really understand why I was so obsessed with this idea. Besides my parents, who were really the reason that I became obsessed with this idea. But it was not really talked about at all. So we've come a long way, I would say, since 2008 as far as the recognition behind the importance of using food as medicine. And even just since COVID I feel like more people are open minded to the fact that nutrition plays a role in not only improving chronic disease outcomes, but also can improve immune health and support in various epidemics or pandemics. So when we think about the things that have just come out recently, I wanted to share a few of them with you just in case you're not bought into this idea and you still think that Food is Medicine is a fringe wellness concept. Because there's a lot of organizations that are very reputable that are now getting behind this topic. Just in 2022, the Rockefeller foundation committed $4.6 million in grants for equitable and community directed approaches to prevent, manage and treat diet related illnesses in the United States. Separately, the Rockefeller foundation and the American Heart association stated that they plan to mobilize $250 million to build a national Food is Medicine research initiative, which is so cool. And then In September of 2022, the White House hosted a hunger, nutrition and health conference. This was the first hunger, nutrition and health conference in more than 50 years, which I think is crazy that it's taken 50 years to host this conference. The exciting part is that it's the first time that the White House has created a larger initiative where they're prioritizing reducing diet related diseases with a number of partners that they have in the private and the public sector where there is more than $8 billion that will fund various campaigns with the idea of helping to reduce food insecurity and to increase the accessibility to nutritious foods. I think that these things are so exciting, but it also makes me cringe a little bit on the inside just thinking about where all these people have been the last 50 years as chronic diseases and autoimmune conditions and digestive issues have absolutely skyrocketed. Like, where was the American Heart Association 50 years ago? Where was the American Diabetes association, the White House, the fda, the Department of Health and Human Services? And talking about how the foods that you're eating are driving the diseases that we're seeing most commonly killing Americans. We can be cynical and say that these things are a problem, which I actually believe in. But let's shift it to a more empowering state. If you're waiting for the government to tell you that the foods that you're eating are contributing, contributing to an increased risk of death, then you're waiting too long. Like my takeaway from the fact that this is now coming out in 2022, after these rates have been skyrocketing for as long as they have. It's like you have to be your own health advocate. You have to incorporate food as medicine before someone, before your doctor gives you approval to do it or tells you that there's finally research to support, that there's importance around it. Like, had I waited until my doctor recognized that nutrition is related to my disease, it would be 17 years later and I would have been suffering unnecessarily with so many uncontrollable symptoms that I was dealing with 17 years ago that I would probably not be here today with you. I definitely wouldn't have the company that I do, and I definitely wouldn't be impacting the lives that I do. So if this is something that you're waiting on to get permission for, don't wait any longer. Maybe the permission. Let me give you permission to take control of your health, to use food as medicine, and to radically shift the way that you're thinking about medical management so that you decrease your dependence on the healthcare system by advocating for your own health and prioritizing consistency in your nutrition and lifestyle changes and choices on a daily basis. Now, that doesn't mean that you won't need the medical system, but definitely decreasing dependence is a very good. I want to just share a few takeaways in case you're like, yes, I'm fired up. This is something that I definitely need in my own life. I'm going to share just a few takeaways of where you can start. The first takeaway is that there isn't a human that exists on this planet that is exempt from the consequences of an inflammatory high glycemic diet. So if you care about your life, if you care about your human and energetic potential and maximizing that. If you care about being able to be there for your family and your friends and your loved ones in your fullest, most present state, if you care about doing big things with your life and going after your dreams and having the energy and the cognitive function to do that, you cannot eat whatever you want. You have to be able to prioritize these anti inflammatory foods that are nutrient dense, that help to fuel every single cell in your body and help to improve the biochemical reactions that help to improve your efficiency and overall functionality. So when I talk about these nutrient dense, biochemical rich foods, I'm talking about things like vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, beans, lentils, healthy oils, high quality fish and high quality animal proteins as a great place to start. Now the second takeaway that I have for you is if you're eating a lot of ultra processed foods in your diet, foods that are like coming out of a package that have 50 million ingredients that you can't pronounce, that you can't recognize, then you really want to decrease your consumption of that and shift to more of these whole food based products. And that's because there is substantial research to show that ultra processed food consumption is directly tied to an increased risk of early death, cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease and several other conditions that continue to come out. Now it's funny to me that we've allowed ultra processed foods to take up up 60% of the food supply in the United States. And the first research study that came out showing that there's any health issues with it was in 2018. So it's like we spend so much time focusing on the fact that there needs to be these perfect studies for all of these interventions. And yet we've allowed 60% of our food supply over the last several decades to be ultra processed foods without any research behind the safety or the benefits of them. Let me tell you, there are no benefits. These foods are void of any nutrients that help to actually improve the way that you function and they are directly tied to higher levels of inflammation. There was a study that came out in 2019 from the Journal of the American Medical association and they found that for every 10% increase in ultra processed food consumption, there was a 14% increased risk of early death. 10% is not actually a lot of food, a significant increase when it comes to your day to day food choices that could put you on the span or the trajectory of a 14% risk of early death. So if you're eating those foods, I would recommend trying to shift away from them. And really focusing more on what I talked about first, which is those nutrient dense bioactive foods. I hope that you found this helpful. We're gonna get into so much more. I'm super excited to share everything that we have planned out to just help you better understand not only the science, but how you can make this more doable in your life. So if you're interested in that, I hope you continue tuning in and I will see you soon.