Shaping the Future of Healthcare

[Guest guest]

Shaping the Future of Healthcare: Nutrition and Health Conference

 

News From The Conference

A Call to Action

More than 450 medical professionals issue a call-to-action to reverse the

obesity epidemic at an unprecedented nutrition and health conference.

Integrative health expert and world-renowned author Dr. Andrew Weil calls

nutrition education of health professionals ‘nonexistent’ to ‘substandard.’

A Call to Action

By the First Annual Conference on Nutrition & Health

Sponsored By

The University of Arizona Program in Integrative Medicine

 

1) We believe the North American population is in great nutritional peril.

People are consuming increasing amounts of low-quality foods. There is an

obesity epidemic and in its wake the rising incidence of type 2 diabetes in

younger children. More and more consumers are following extreme and fad diets

that may pose long-term health risks. The food served in schools, hospitals and

senior facilities promotes obesity, chronic inflammation, and accelerated

development of age-related diseases. We are also concerned about food safety,

given the practices of factory farming, conventional agriculture and the genetic

modification of foods. And we are dismayed to watch the successful exportation

of our unhealthy foods and eating habits throughout the world.

 

2) The current state of nutrition education for health professionals is

non-existent to substandard. This is particularly true in the training of

physicians. The scientific literature is exploding with information about

optimum diets its health effects, both good and bad, of particular foods, food

components, and dietary supplements, but this information doesn’t finds its way

into the clinician training.

 

3) Some consequences of nutritional illiteracy among physicians are:

 

• Physicians are unable to counsel patients about optimum diet or make use of

dietary change as a primary therapeutic intervention, or help patients be

informed consumers of dietary supplements.

 

• The medical profession is unable to act as a social and political force to

counteract the commercial pressures that have led to the ubiquity of fast food

restaurants, soft drinks and low-quality vending machines in public schools and

hospitals.

 

• The food served in hospitals and medical centers in North America – served

both to patients and staff – is full of high glycemic-load carbohydrates,

unhealthy fats, and less desirable proteins. It includes processed and refined

foods that are contraindicated for the prevention of heart disease, cancer, and

many other chronic diseases. It must be high priority that our medical centers

serve healthy food.

 

• More than 20 percent of U.S. hospitals now have fast-food restaurants on their

premises. This is unacceptable. How can the medical profession encourage people

to make better dietary choices if it cannot itself exemplify healthy eating

habits?

 

4) The nation is in the grip of low-carb mania, the latest dietary craze. It’s

important for people to understand that an optimum diet includes a balance of

carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Carbohydrates are not bad foods. Fats are not

bad foods. It’s important for people to understand that there are good and bad

carbohydrate foods, good and bad fats, and better and worse protein choices.

 

5) If there is any food category that’s bad, it’s highly refined and processed

foods. Modern food technology tends to reduce the nutritional benefits of

natural food sources and increase their health risks, as exemplified by the

refining and processing of vegetable oils and the processing of whole grains

into unhealthy snack foods.

 

6) We recommend that people decrease consumption of the following foods: Foods

of animal origin (other than fish), refined and processed foods, fast food, high

glycemic-load carbohydrates, and polyunsaturated vegetable oils. We recommend

that they eliminate margarine, vegetable shortening, and products made with

partially hydrogenated oils.

 

 

7) We recommend that people increase consumption of the following foods: Fruits

and vegetables, vegetable protein sources, low glycemic-load carbohydrates (e.g.

beans, whole grains, sweet potatoes, winter squashes), monounsaturated vegetable

oils, nuts and seeds, and omega-3 fatty acid sources (e.g. oily fish or fish

oils, walnuts, flax seeds and hemp seeds).

 

8) We recommend counseling consumers that dietary supplements are not

substitutes for the whole foods that contain them. They may be useful as

insurance against gaps in the diet and as natural therapeutic agents to help

prevent or treat specific diseases. Pharmacists, physicians and other health

professionals must be educated about their appropriate uses, benefits, and

dangers.

 

 

9) We strongly support organic agriculture and better production, distribution,

and marketing of organic product to make it available and affordable to more

people.

 

10) We call on industry to demonstrate leadership in improving the eating habits

of North Americans instead of defending their current practices as ‘giving

people what they want.’ We want to see a new generation of fast-food restaurants

with healthy offerings, modification of snack and convenience foods to conform

to current nutritional guidelines, and portion downsizing. Typical portions

served in restaurants or packaged for individual sale are two to three times the

standard serving size. Giant-sized soft drinks sold in convenience stores cost

less per ounce than small ones. We applaud companies who have begun to do this,

for example, by removing sources of trans fats from processed foods. We

encourage the public to patronize food companies that follow the principles set

forth here.

 

11) We believe the obesity epidemic in North America must be addressed by

attention to physical activity as well as to eating patterns. Physical activity

has gone down in our population, with many people exercising less than 30

minutes per week.

 

12) We must work to develop strong programs in nutrition education for

physicians and other professionals, including pharmacists, who should be

reliable experts on the benefits and dangers of dietary supplements. We must

also work to educate consumers about nutrition and healthy eating and get this

information into K-12 curriculums for our children.

 

13) We emphatically state our belief that healthy food can be delicious,

convenient and affordable.

 

About the Program of Integrative Medicine (PIM)

PIM, founded by Dr. Weil in 1994 at the University of Arizona, was established

to train physicians to be Integrative Medicine practitioners. The program’s

over-riding mission is to foster the transformation of healthcare through

innovative educational programs, rigorous scientific studies, and exceptional

clinical care that integrates biomedicine, the complexity of human beings and

the healing power of nature. The program features a fully operational clinic and

fellowship training program.

 

About Andrew Weil, MD

Andrew Weil, MD, is a clinical professor of internal medicine and the founder

and director of the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona

in Tucson. A world-renowned leader in the field of Integrative Medicine, Dr.

Weil is also the best-selling author of several nutrition and health books and a

frequent guest of “Larry King Live” and “Oprah.” Through www.drweil.com, Dr.

Weil provides valuable information and insight into incorporating integrative

and conventional medicine practices in one’s life in order to optimize the

body’s natural healing mechanisms.

 

http://www.drweil.com/app/cda/drw_cda.html-command=Page-pt=General-pageId=179

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The complete " Whole Body " Health line consists of the " AIM GARDEN TRIO "

Ask About Health Professional Support Series: AIM Barleygreen

 

" Wisdom of the Past, Food of the Future "

 

http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/AIM.html

 

PLEASE READ THIS IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER

We have made every effort to ensure that the information included in these pages

is accurate. However, we make no guarantees nor can we assume any responsibility

for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, product, or

process discussed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Small Business $15K Web Design Giveaway - Enter today