When clients come in for nutritional counseling, one of the comments I hear most often is that if “I could just lose this extra weight, I’d be healthy again.” Although this is a very important step in our “journey”, it is most certainly not the only step. Let’s look at some sobering statistics that remind us that being overweight or obese is not the only problem we have here in the U.S . Nearly 70 percent of adults in the U.S. take at least one prescription drug for a chronic or other medical condition. At the top of the list are antibiotics, antidepressants and narcotic painkillers. Although one in 5 deaths is linked to obesity, diabetes has increased over 300 percent in the past 15 years. This translates to the sad fact that almost one-third of Americans have either prediabetes or diabetes, which predisposes them to a whole host of other serious and chronic diseases. More than half a million Americans also die from Alzheimer’s disease every year, making it the third leading cause of death in the U.S., directly behind heart disease and cancer. The scariest fact is that all of these conditions have been linked to poor lifestyle choices, the Standard American Diet (S.A.D.) and lack of physical movement. Contrary to what we see on T.V. drug advertisements, our bodies are by nature designed to heal and repair themselves and to prevent the onset of disease through built-in feedback systems. However, in order for our bodies to function properly, they need to be supported and properly nourished. Drugs do not support nor nourish our bodies innate healing capabilities.
The Journey That Never Ends… Your Health
