In late October, I attended a conference focused on policy and research related to the concept of “Food as Medicine.” While I doubt this idea is something that is foreign to anyone reading this column, the idea of purposefully eating the right things which in turn helps prevent illness and improve upon an individual’s quality of life makes a lot of sense. Given the population we serve, the ideas related to both providing education and implementing practices that result in a better quality of life are outcomes we want to pursue.
The opening keynote speaker for the conference was Governor Matt Meyer from the State of Delaware. He shared several points, but focused on the fact that illness is preventable through diet and lifestyle. He noted that economic losses related to poor diets exceeded $1.1 Trillion dollars. Noting that individuals found to be considered obese had grown by 100% in the past 30 years, his goal from a State perspective was to lead a scalable initiative in the State to make Food as Medicine a real solution that would be accessible to everyone regardless of income.
While Governor Meyer did a nice job of presenting his case for why he was supporting this initiative, others over the next couple of days presented case studies where the people who participated in their studies achieved some incredible results related to improved physical health and healthcare cost avoidance. My take was that money has been made available for these studies and while the results were positive, getting the idea of healthier diets into consistent practice is more challenging.
Changing human behavior related to someone’s diet is at the forefront of this challenge. However, providing funding for healthier food and overall diet, particularly for those with lower incomes, was also a challenge noted at the conference. The tie-in to Little Friends with this is that most of the adults we serve are individuals with low or no income.
Moving forward, the idea of providing healthier food and diets that results in better physical health, and an improved quality of life makes so much sense. Efforts are underway at Little Friends with support from North Central College programming and student support to develop diets for the individuals we serve in our residential program. Bringing this initiative into practice is our objective and while admittedly there remains some work to be done, the rewards when implemented will benefit those we serve.
Big picture, we are continuing our work to improve upon the services we provide by expanding our focus on whole person care. Doing the things that will improve upon the quality of life for those we serve and our employees is something we remain committed to.
