Healthy eating is critical to good health. Yet, we seem to make it exceedingly difficult for the average family to eat a healthy diet.

I recently had the opportunity to watch an advance screening of Food Inc.. There is a vignette in the film that has stuck with me. It follows a Latino family of four struggling to make good and affordable food choices. They discuss how their school and work schedules leave little time to prepare meals at home. They compare the cost of buying dinner at the drive-thru (cheap) to buying produce at the grocery store (expensive). And most memorably, they share that the costs of prescriptions to treat the father’s diabetes severely limit their food budget.

There are no easy solutions to this family’s problems. Nor are their problems unique.

A report released by Prevention Institute and Trust for America’s Health included a similar story of a patient struggling to manage his diabetes. He notes that he works long hours and returned at night to an unsafe neighborhood where the only food sources were convenience and liquor stores. The patient’s doctor concludes that this environment not only contributed to his poor health, but was likely to thwart his efforts to manage it.

The need to support good nutrition has taken on added urgency with our increased understanding of the obesity epidemic and its causes. The facts are clear. Without access to affordable, healthy foods and safe, convenient ways to integrate physical activity into their daily lives, people are more likely to suffer from obesity or one of the related chronic diseases driving the lion’s share of US health care costs: diabetes, asthma, and heart disease.

Research indicates primary prevention that begins in our communities averts the onset of disease. That results in cost savings and alleviation of pressure on our over-burdened health care system. As we, as a nation, examine strategies for reforming health care in the U.S., we also need to closely examine how we can reform our communities to create better health.

Some brilliant people from the public health and nonprofit sectors are working together to address this problem head on. However, private efforts are never enough to create the systemic change we need. Ultimately, we need to change both policies and environments. Forward-thinking health funders formed the Convergence Partnership with shared goal of doing just that.

As the health reform debate unfolds, it will be interesting to see whether our legislators take advantage of the expertise within the Convergence Partnership and embrace this opportunity to fundamentally improve our nation’s health.

In the meantime, I’ll be doing my best to support my own family’s health. We’re looking forward to a summer filled with bike rides to our local farmer’s market.

Related posts:

1. National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA) Part of Obama’s Let’s Move initiative to battle childhood obesity
2. Health Reform: Patient Rights, Patient Reponsibilities
3. Health Begins with US
4. A new meaning for super-size
5. Nursing Provides Cost-Effective Solutions for Improving Health Outcomes

This entry was posted on Monday, June 8th, 2009 at 8:50 am and is filed under Consumer Health Care. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.