[ad_1]
I applaud the efforts of Laitram to help their employees improve their health through subsidized healthy foods, nutrition coaching and on-site health services, as recently reported in the newspaper. Early results show bottom-line savings on health care expenses and immeasurable improvements to their employee’s quality of life.
As a general surgery resident in New Orleans in my final year of training, I have seen firsthand the fallout from the typical American diet on Louisianans. I’ve drained giant abscesses, cut off toes and legs, taken out gallbladders, fixed hernias and removed obesity-associated cancers.
These interventions can alleviate short-term suffering, but with the diet untouched, it is only a matter of time before another problem surfaces. When I operate on someone with a poor diet, it can feel like I am removing just part of a cancer, leaving some behind that will haunt them in the future.
That is why Laitram’s initiative to assist their employees eat better is so important. By improving our nutrition, we can avert a great deal of suffering — and expense. The current American diet, rich in added sugar and processed ingredients, is so harmful to our bodies that for every dollar we spend on food, we spend another dollar to manage the resulting disease, according to a Rockefeller Foundation report.
The diseases of poor nutrition — type 2 diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and obesity — are not a fact of life. As Laitram has shown, if you can change your diet for the better, your health can improve, too. Good food is indeed good medicine.
I hope that other companies in Louisiana will take notice of the benefits of helping their employees avoid the toxic foods that are so prevalent in our communities. Too, I hope our hospital systems can help lead the way by doing more to educate the public about the perils of unhealthy foods, and support patients suffering the effects of a poor diet toward a future with fewer medications and surgeries.
W. PETER SAWYER
general surgery resident
New Orleans
[ad_2]
Source link
