Healthcare is Sick. Food is the Cure
In a time of unprecedented demand, Canadian healthcare institutions have never before been faced with the dangerously low levels of staffing currently seen. From doctors and nurses, to specialize positions and porters, job vacancy rates are stunningly high and have been progressively getting worse. This trend does not bode well for the future of healthcare.
It begs the question: how did we get into this grave situation? The answer is that we find ourselves in this situation for a number of reasons. First, let’s identify why we are currently faced with such a staffing shortage in Canadian healthcare.
For one thing, wages have simply not kept up with inflation and our ever-increasing cost of living. This has made the healthcare field a less competitive one when compared to many other industries.
In addition to money, the COVID-19 pandemic caused more harm than the sickness and death it so mercilessly bestowed upon members of our population. It also led to a sudden and dramatic decline in healthcare workers. This is the result of a combination of factors.
One such factor was the fact that many baby boomers, also known as our more chronologically-advanced healthcare workers, who were still in the workforce, decided to retire as the COVID-19 pandemic quickly resulted in an increase in patient volume, workload, and fears of risk to personal health safety in the hospital. Speaking from my own experience as a healthcare leader, in the early stages of the pandemic, way back in the Spring of 2020, the majority of us working in healthcare were scared – some out of their minds. We were uncertain as to if we would become seriously ill or even die from treating COVID patients. Many of my team members were frightened, and for good reason. The daily media reports of death tolls and hospitalization rates, in addition to the influx of patients that we could see, with our own eyes, lining the hallways on stretchers and filling every space available, every nook and cranny, hit us like a ton of bricks. It felt like a bad joke. But it was no joke.
In addition to worrying about our own personal safety, in the face of treating and helping COVID-19 afflicted patients, we were worried about taking home a potentially deadly virus to our families. For, remember, we were all told, and told often, that we could not even feel sick ourselves yet could still, somehow, carry and spread the virus to grandma, and kill her. As a result, some staff members who lived with their grandparents decided to make alternate arrangements for lodging to avoid the potential of harming their elderly family members by means of unsuspectingly bringing home a deadly virus.
Thus, the many uncertainties, the worry for personal health and safety, the concern for the health and safety of family and friends, and the increased workload faced by hospital employees all helped to strongly encourage many workers, especially those who were skirting retirement, to simply up and retire, en masse. This was, in a sense, unexpected. I write “in a sense” because had proper due diligence and planning occurred over the past couple decades or so, at an administrative and government level, it should have been foreseen that, one day, older employees would retire. It was, however, not foreseen that it would happen quite so suddenly and dramatically.
The next wave of staff losses came from staff members who refused the jab. As it so turns out, not everyone is willing to receive a rushed-to-market vaccine that cuts every regulatory corner on its way into our arms. Regardless, government policies were put in place, in Canada and in many other jurisdictions, that required staff to become vaccinated against COVID-19, once the vaccinations were made available. Like it or not, most people are dependent upon their jobs and, willingly or not, stuck out their arms for COVID-19 shots. I was among them. But, not everyone seemed to be living paycheque to paycheque. Some were more frightened of the cure than they were the disease. As a result, there were a number of staff members who refused the vaccine. In my home province of British Columbia, it was reported that approximately 2,500 healthcare workers lost their jobs for refusing the vaccine. In addition, an undetermined number of people simply walked away, retired, or quit before having their hands forced. Add that number, whatever it may be, to the 2,500. Thus, as can be plainly seen, the government-enforced mandate removed a large number of workers from an industry already mightily struggling for staff.
The third wave that negatively impacted staffing levels was the decreased enrolment, and graduation rate, during and following the pandemic from healthcare programs, such as nursing and medical imaging programs. Some school programs were put on hold and temporarily shuttered under government mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic. Other programs had massively lower enrolment levels than in years previous, some to a tune of a 70% lower number of enrolled students. This should, largely, be attributed to the negative news campaign surrounding the pandemic. Imagine being a high school student, at home because of government-enforced school closures, watching the news each day with media coverage tabulating daily death tolls, hospitalization rates, and endless stories highlighting upset hospital staff, fearful of the unknown, and often rightfully complaining of the lack of support and proper personal protective equipment. It is safe to state that this would discourage many teenagers from pursuing healthcare fields upon high school graduation. Thus, during and in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic, there were fewer students being trained and graduating from post secondary healthcare programs, therefore fewer new recruits available to fill positions, recruits we have always relied upon to enter the workforce, each and every year.
I should state that, prior to the pandemic, healthcare was already hanging on by a thread. In my department, for instance, a department that consisted of approximately 50 full-time, part-time and casual employees and where all positions were once filled, we still required overtime, on a regular basis, to staff the department. This would be due to such things as sick leaves, vacation time, workplace injuries, sick children at home and so forth. It is my opinion that a department that runs, even to a small extent, on overtime, likely does not have a sufficient staffing level. Therefore, we were not in dire straits, prior to the pandemic, but we were by no means in an excellent position, with regards to hospital-wide staffing levels. This applies not only to British Columbia, not only to Canada, but to numerous countries around the world. We were all living under a false sense of security. And our leaders in healthcare and in government had been turning a blind eye for ages.
Hence, once the healthcare industry felt the full effects of the pandemic, those effects being a sudden and dramatic decrease in hospital staffing levels, economically known as a decrease in “supply”, alongside a sudden increase in sick patients, economically known as “demand,” one would not have been incorrect to state that we had a crisis on our hands. Today, nearly every department in every hospital has unfilled positions – from frontline clinical staff, to physicians, to clerical staff, to cleaning staff and porters, to administrators. In healthcare, everyone depends upon each other, and all positions support one another. For instance, before making a diagnosis, an ER physician often needs a patient to be triaged and seen by a nurse, blood to be drawn and tested, a medical imaging exam, such as an X-ray or CT scan, and a porter to transport the patient to and from each department. Because of the interdependency of roles and departments, if one department is struggling, we are all struggling. Today, the real issue is that all departments are struggling.
Due to the fact that over the past couple of years, the healthcare industry lost a percentage of staff to early or sudden retirement, a percentage of staff due to their refusal to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and, in addition, had fewer students graduating from healthcare training programs and filling the ranks, healthcare institutions have transformed into under-staffed facilities where employees who do still hold down positions and who do still come to work are often overburdened and overstressed. Remember, in most healthcare facilities there are now fewer employees performing the same volume, or even a greater volume, of work than in years past. That has, in general, led to an unhappiness amongst healthcare workers; a generalized dissatisfaction in their jobs. And that is understandable.
The icing on the cake is that demand on hospital services only continues to increase, despite a decrease in staffing levels. This only adds insult to injury.
Now that I have reviewed why supply, aka staffing levels, have decreased, this begs the obvious questions: Why is demand increasing? Well, demand is growing due to multiple factors. For one, the population is aging, meaning we have a higher percentage of people in our population, over the age of 60, then we ever have had before. For obvious reasons, the older we get, the more likely we are to consume healthcare. This statement is backed by numerous studies, statistics and reports. It’s also backed by common sense. Our bodies start to fail at an increasing rate as we age. And it sucks.
In addition to the increasing numbers of elderly in our community, the population, in general, is more demanding of healthcare services than previously in history. For instance, physicians order a greater number of tests, such as CT scans and MRIs, than they have in years past, as they rely on the results more heavily now, than ever before, for diagnosis. In addition, physicians can be financially rewarded for ordering exams and for performing additional procedures. It does not take an overly high IQ to understand that if you financially motivate a group to order and perform more examinations, ranging from diagnostic procedures to surgeries, then more examinations will be ordered and performed.
Additionally, immigration levels are at an all-time high in Canada, as well as in many other nations, resulting in an inherent increase in demand for healthcare services. More people equals increased demand. Again, it’s basic economics.
Other government policies also work to increase demand on healthcare services, such as the government of British Columbia’s decriminalization of drugs and public drug use, in addition to supplying addicts with drugs and drug paraphernalia. Yes, if you do not live here you may find it difficult to believe, but the government of British Columbia will provide hard drugs to drug addicts, free of charge, on the taxpayer’s dime. And all the bad things that you think can happen as a result of this, do happen. These policies have resulted in increased drug overdoses, hospital visits and deaths. It’s a prime example of harming by helping. Call is suicidal empathy, to borrow a phrase from Gad Saad.
With multiple factors working against hospitals and the healthcare industry, now is the time to act. Now is the time to get creative. Now is the time to break away from the status quo machine. Now is the time to make important and impactful changes.
The solution, I can assure you, does not involve more money. This is not a problem that will simply go away by throwing more money at it. That is what has been occurring for ages and things are only getting worse. You can’t put out a dumpster fire by pouring a few more wheelbarrows full of money on it.
According to Statistics Canada, nearly 30% of income tax revenue is spent on healthcare. That is a staggeringly high number. And as demand for healthcare continues to grow, unless dramatic changes are implemented to the current system, healthcare will continue to take an oversized portion of the pie.
Perhaps, instead of blindly and perpetually dumping more money on the healthcare dumpster fire, we can attempt to find a different solution. If something isn’t working and hasn’t been working for quite some time, is the way to fix it by simply doing more of the same thing? The government seems to think so. Many healthcare administrators seem to think so. But I don’t think so.
The number one thing we could do to remedy our sick healthcare institutions would be to change our focus from treatment to prevention. And that’s it. That one change would save countless sums of money. More importantly, it would save a tremendous number of lives. It would dramatically reduce the burden on our healthcare institutions. It would improve public and population health. People would feel better, look better, have more energy, have less sickness, and add more healthy years to their lives. No matter which way you look at it, it’s a win.
Food is the medicine needed to fix our healthcare problems. The thing is, it is unlikely to hear any political leaders or healthcare administrators talking about this subject in Canada. That is because I do not believe most are even aware of the impact that food has on health and healthcare, primarily because we are not taught about this in traditional medical, nursing and health science schools. Food is simply not a topic brought up, discussed, studied or even mentioned.
Pills are mentioned. Drugs are mentioned. Surgeries are mentioned. Food is not. So, my thesis here is that in order to change our healthcare system, suddenly and dramatically for the better, and to save it from itself, we need to change our focus away from treatment in the form of medications, procedures and surgeries, and towards prevention, in the form of food.
Essentially, there is a toxic food system that is keeping our people sick and our hospitals full of patients. If we could change the system and have the general population eating a more nutritious diet, if we could educate and enlighten people by illustrating that the foods we eat are making us sick and are directly related to our health, we could change the world. That is not an understatement. If we could successfully relay the message that ending up in the hospital, or with chronic health conditions and on lifelong medications, could, by and large, be mitigated by simply changing the way we eat, we could make monumental achievements towards improving health and, as a result, saving healthcare institutions.
If the population were happier and healthier, which can easily be achieved with the proper food, we would see a dramatic decrease in the demand placed upon the healthcare industry. Hospitals would no longer be bursting at the seams. Taxes could be lowered. And we would all feel better, have more energy, have less aches and pains and be on less medication.
I know it sounds like some type of utopian fantasy I’m promoting, but it’s real. The number one way to become a patient in the hospital is by having metabolic dysfunction. When one has metabolic dysfunction, the body’s systems, such as immunity, do not work properly. You get sicker easier and more often. You take longer to recover from injuries and accidents. Metabolic dysfunction leads to cancer, organ failures, heart failures – essentially systemic body failures.
I feel here that I should quickly explain what is meant by metabolic dysfunction, which can also be called metabolic syndrome or metabolic disorder. A metabolic dysfunction is one that negatively alters the body's processing and distribution of what are known as macronutrients. These include fats, carbohydrates and proteins. Having metabolic syndrome dramatically increases one’s risk of suffering things you do not want to suffer - namely heart disease, cancer, diabetes and stroke. Sounds bad, right? It is.
Those are also the things most likely to hospitalize people. So, metabolic syndrome comes at a great expense to our health, and a great expense to the healthcare industry. And here is the thing, the number one way to prevent or remediate metabolic disorder is by eating a healthy and nutritious diet.
Now, the term “healthy diet” can be confusing. If you find it confusing, I can assure you that you are not alone. It is confusing by design. But here is the quick and dirty when it comes to food: if it grows on a tree or a bush, if it comes from the soil, if it comes from the sea, or if it comes from an animal, and especially if it was not sprayed with poisonous chemicals, it’s probably healthy. Think meat, seafood, dairy products, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and whole grains. Basically, if it’s food that would have been recognized in the 1800s as being food, it’s probably better for you than most other so-called foods.
Depending upon which study you reference (I found many in the NIH), anywhere from about 1 in 3 adults in the USA, up to over 50%, suffer from metabolic syndrome. These people need chronic, expensive medications, frequent doctors’ visits, hospitalizations and medical treatments. Many are on renal dialysis. That’s not good for them or for hospitals or for taxpayers. And keep in mind that metabolic syndrome is likely or at least nearly 100% preventable. And for reference, Type 2 diabetes is a result of metabolic syndrome, meaning the overwhelming majority of Type 2 diabetes can either be reversed or prevented by eating nutritious food. If one were to think of Type 2 diabetes in a different way, calling it what it truly is, a carbohydrate, aka, sugar intolerance, then the solution seems clear: eat far fewer foods packed with added sugars and refined carbohydrates and odds are you will never develop Type 2 diabetes.
According to the Mayo Clinic, “A lifelong commitment to a healthy lifestyle may prevent the conditions that cause metabolic syndrome.” They go on to state that, “A healthy lifestyle includes: Getting at least 30 minutes of physical activity most days. Eating plenty of vegetables, fruits, lean protein and whole grains.” And that’s it.
Food and food alone can have a bigger positive impact on our health and our healthcare institutions than anything else. Period. No amount of money, and no number of bureaucrats, doctors or health administrators can have near the impact on the healthcare industry that can be achieved by simply eating better food.
Our diet, what we eat, has the single greatest impact on personal health and healthcare services – both in the negative and in the positive, depending upon what that diet is made up of.
There are a great number of adverse health conditions that can be prevented, improved, reversed or eliminated by doing little more than improving one’s diet. It should come as no surprise that ultra-processed foods, fast food, and sugary drinks play an impactful role in deteriorating health and driving people into sickness, into hospital and to early deaths. A poor diet even negatively affects mental health, leading to increases in rates of depression, for instance.
To clarify terminology, ultra-processed food refer to any food and food like products made with highly processed ingredients, such as refined grains (think white flour that’s had all the nutrition removed), refined sugar, vegetable oils (such as canola and sunflower oils), and a laundry list of chemicals that do such things as add vibrant colour, flavour, promote addictiveness or increase shelf-life. It’s the foods found lining the isles of the grocery stores – the foods that come in boxes. It’s what we get at fast food restaurants. It’s many of the items labelled as fast, easy and convenient.
The problem is that convenient food will inconveniently lead to metabolic dysfunction, over time, which leads to diabetes and so forth. Therefore, if you are trying to improve your health, it’s a good idea to eat as few of those foods as possible. If you read the list of ingredients on the package of food you’re considering consuming and half the ingredients read like the list of a science experiment from your high school chemistry class, it means that your food is a science experiment. It is always best to eat real food, not science experiments.
If you grab a steak, the ingredient is beef. If you grab some blueberries, the ingredient is blueberries. You know what those things are, therefore, they are likely good foods for you to eat – foods that will improve your health and bulletproof your immune system, substantially increasing your odds of staying out of the hospital and living a longer, healthier and more enjoyable life.
So, what if our health authorities and government health agencies changed their approach to healthcare and, instead of the focus lying strictly on treating the symptom, the focus shifted to treating the cause? Instead of giving a patient lifelong medications and arduous and expensive procedures to treat morbidities, such as diabetes, why not treat the diabetes itself and attempt to reverse it, make it disappear, or prevent it altogether by using food as medicine? What if the focus of healthcare was shifted from treatment of symptoms to acts of prevention? What a glorious approach that would be. A society without abundant levels of chronic disease would be a utopia of sorts. Until a couple generations ago, we had such a society.
Prevention is the key to avoiding hospitalization. Prevention is the key to feeling good. Prevention is the key to having energy. Prevention is the key to a clear and healthy mind. Food is prevention.
There is no denying the impact that diet can have on health. That statement should be of little controversy and widely agreed upon. What you put in your mouth directly affects your health, either for the better or for the worse, depending upon what it is. The real problem, then, is twofold: how to get the message out in a way that resonates with the masses and how to encourage dietary changes in the population.
Food has become increasingly expensive due to rapidly rising inflation. The causes of that are a topic for another day, but the fact that food is remarkably more expensive today than it was even a year ago is a big concern, certainly if we want to encourage people to eat whole, healthy foods. Notably, when it comes to healthy foods such as meat, fruits and vegetables, prices have skyrocketed. Therefore, asking people to consume more expensive foods hardly seems a fair ask to make of those who are financially struggling.
But, what if there were something we could do? What if there were ways to make healthy food more affordable? What if there were methods to encourage people to make better food choices – choices that didn’t push them closer to bankruptcy?
I believe there is a strong argument to be made for the government subsidization of healthy food. It should be looked at as a preventative measure to keep people healthy and out of hospital. It has been well proven that every dollar spent in health prevention pays off, many times over, in healthcare savings down the road. The point is, health prevention is not only a good investment, it’s a great investment both morally and financially. That’s a win/win.
What if, instead of pre-packaged, highly processed foods being among the cheapest items in the grocery store, healthy foods were among the more affordable items? What would that do to the decision-making of consumers and how would that impact personal health and, as a result, the healthcare industry? I believe it would drive people to make better food choices, which would result in better health, which would result in lower demand on healthcare services. Because in reality, despite our best intentions, at the end of the day, we often make decisions with our wallets. The more affordable item often wins out. If blueberries and broccoli were, all of a sudden, more affordable than unhealthy so-called convenience food, the healthy items may start winning the battle at the checkout counter. And those processed items are, by and large, only cheaper due to government subsidies. Therefore, change where the subsidies are allocated. Subsidize better foods to encourage farmers to produce more of them.
Further, what if there were an increased tax imposed on items with high sugar contents, such as pop and so-called energy drinks, and that tax revenue was used, solely, to subsidize healthy, unprocessed foods? That could be one option to explore.
Additionally, what if public announcements were made in an effort to change the public’s behaviour, with regards to food and nutrition? It seemed to work when it came to cigarette consumption. What if there were commercials on television and YouTube, articles in newspapers, and press conferences with health officials and political leaders promoting the important role that a healthy diet can play on one’s health? I believe that could be done.
I do not believe the idea to be as far fetched as it sounds. Sure, I can be a hopeless optimist with a never ending drive to make the world a better place, but there is, surely, something we could do. At its core, my argument is not a difficult one to comprehend. More fruits and veggies, less pre-packaged food. More eggs, meat and beans, less fast food burgers and fries. More water, less pop and sugary drinks.
We must make dramatic changes to our healthcare system, that part is clear. We cannot continue down the path we are on. It is unsustainable. That is not an exaggeration. As a society, we are poisoning ourselves and then relying on the healthcare industry to keep us going. It’s absurd. We’re killing ourselves and our healthcare systems.
When demand continues to increase at exponential rates, but supply remains stagnant, or even diminishes, as is the current case in healthcare, serious issues will only become increasingly severe, impactful, and lethal. Patient wait times will continue to rise. Cancers will not be diagnosed until later, more untreatable stages. This is currently happening.
Changing our mindset to look at food as medicine would make a tremendous impact to both the individual health of our population, and to the growing burden placed on our healthcare institutions. Our healthcare workers deserve better. Our patients deserve better. Our taxpayers deserve better. We all deserve better.
Eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables, replacing refined grains with whole grains, consuming healthy sources of protein such as meat, eggs and legumes, replacing vegetable (seed) oils with plant oils such as olive and avocado oils, and reducing or eliminating sugary drinks from our diets are all changes that can make a substantially impactful improvement to human health. A diet high in good, nutritious foods can, without doubt, reduce morbidity and mortality, thus can greatly increase your chances of staying healthy and out of the hospital. As a result, we can save our over-burdened and failing healthcare systems.
When in doubt as to what to eat, shop the periphery of the grocery store. That is where you will find fruits, veggies, seafoods, meats, eggs and dairy products. If you have the luxury afforded to you, shop at farmer’s markets or join a local CSA to support a nearby regenerative farm. Avoid foods that come pre-packaged in boxes – primarily the bulk of the items available in the interior isles of the grocery store.
Next, the biggest favour you can do for yourself is to prepare the majority of your meals at home. If you eat mostly home cooked meals, the chances of developing metabolic syndrome, and then further chronic health conditions, will be slim. And to take your health one step further to the next level, sprinkle in some exercise. Do whatever you can handle and if you currently don’t exercise, then ease into something. Go for a walk after dinner. Ride a bike. Lift some weights. Do some stretching. Join a sports association. Anything that gets your body moving is good. A healthy diet will get you the majority of the way to good health. Exercise is the cherry on top. It’s the icing on the cake of health.
As I have argued, the problem with healthcare is not that we need more staff and bigger budgets, it’s that we need fewer patients. In essence, we are manufacturing patients. We must pivot from treatment of symptoms to prevention of disease. We must zoom out and strive for a holistic approach to human health. We must treat the body as one system and not as a multitude of distinct, isolated systems.
More than anything else, what we eat has the most profound impact on our health. Changing one’s diet can significantly help to prevent, improve, or reverse many adverse health conditions and diseases. All conditions related to metabolic dysfunction can be, by and large, solved by no other intervention than simply consuming a healthy diet. Food is more powerful than most people give it credit for. Food, indeed, may be the best medicine of all.