Food Is Medicine: The Cost of Poor Nutrition

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. - Dec. 14, 2023 - PRLog -- Forty-two percent of Americans are obese, and 500,000 deaths occur in the U.S. each year due to poor diets. You can't maintain a healthy heart by eating processed foods, high in fat and sugar, so it's no surprise that 45% of all cardiometabolic deaths are attributed largely to bad eating habits.

Eating poorly is expensive too, not just for an individual or family but for the community and the entire country. Roughly $173 billion a year is spent on health care for obesity alone. On top of that, 117 million people have a disease related to poor nutrition, which costs roughly $1.1 trillion each year. Cardiometabolic diseases alone cost $300 per U.S. resident per year on average, or $50 billion nationally.

Individual costs associated with poor nutrition include: medications, lab tests and frequent doctor and specialist visits. For the insured, that means more copays for blood tests, drugs and doctor visits as well as higher copays to see specialists and to receive blood infusions (for anemics). Health insurance rates will increase too. For the uninsured, the bills can become unsurmountable.

Here's more on poor nutrition and the costs associated with it. https://smartfinancial.com/nutrition-health-insurance