Diabesity – A Reversible Epidemic

What life threatening, life sapping, energy robbing condition affects one in every two Americans (that is, every other person) including 80 percent of those overweight and up to 40 percent of normal weight people?  What condition is responsible for more deaths from heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes and dementia than anything else?  What condition also causes acne, infertility, sexual dysfunction and depression?

What condition accounts for more then 70 percent of our $2.4 trillion annual health care bill and will account for most of the $47 trillion we will spend globally over the next 20 years to deal with chronic disease?  What is responsible for nearly twice as many deaths every year as infectious disease, even in the developing world?

And what condition is not even diagnosed in over 90 percent of those who suffer from it?

What condition are doctors not trained or reimbursed to diagnose, treat or prevent, yet makes up the majority of health care visits and costs?

And what condition is nearly 100 percent preventable, treatable and reversible?

Diabesity.

It is the single biggest health challenge facing us individually, as a nation and as a global community.

Diabesity is the continuum of metabolic disturbances from mild blood sugar and insulin imbalances to pre-diabetes to full blown type 2 diabetes.  It occurs in about 40 percent of people of normal weight – these are the skinny fat people who look thin but are metabolically fat and have all the same risk factors for disease and death as those who are overweight.  And it occurs in 80 percent of overweight people.

Since it affects every other American, watch this video to see if you have it.

The solution is not coming from our healthcare system or doctors, not from our government, or from most corporations.  There are too many people vested in maintaining the status quo or worse: profiting from making us fat and sick.  We need a solution.

That is why I wrote, “The Blood Sugar Solution.”  It has a bold central goal: to address and begin to reverse a global epidemic. It is a personal guide and plan, as well as a program for helping people get healthy together, based on functional medicine, and it is a blueprint for us to take back our health as a society.

Obesity, pre-diabetes and diabetes or what I call diabesity, which now affects one in two Americans, arises out of existing social, economic and political conditions. In fact, obesity and diabetes are social diseases and need a social cure and collective action on many levels to reverse the tide.

Over 10 years, these conditions will cost America over $3.5 trillion in direct costs, not including lost productivity and the costs in quality of life.  From 1983 to 2008, worldwide diabetes rates increased seven-fold from 35 million to 240 million. In just 3 years from 2008 to 2011, the roll call for diabetes increased another 110 million.

Children less than 10 years old now get type 2 (or adult onset) diabetes, and have strokes and heart attacks by age 15 or 20.  One in three children born today will have diabetes unless we do something differently.

I wrote “The Blood Sugar Solution“ to tackle this problem head on.

It is a personal plan that breaks through myths about obesity and diabetes that keep us sick and fat. And lays out the seven key steps to preventing, treating and reversing diabesity by dealing with the underlying causes. It is an eight-week plan that takes you through step by step how to reboot your metabolism, lose weight, reverse type 2 diabetes.

It is a plan for us to be more successful by working together to get healthy.  We do twice as well and lose twice as much weight when we get support from others in community. We are better together.

We recently did a “beta test” of this program with about 150 people. Their results were astounding:

• The group lost a total of 1,536 pounds in just eight weeks. That’s an average weight loss of over ten pounds per person!
• More than half the group lost more than ten pounds. Some lost as much as 28 pounds.
• Average waist size decreased by 1.5 inches, and some people lost so much of their waist that they had to go out and buy new clothes. One woman lost eight inches from her waist. Imagine, eight inches in eight weeks. No medication can help you do that.

But “The Blood Sugar Solution” is about far more than weight loss; it’s about taking back your health and your life. People who completed the program reported an average reduction of 14 points on their systolic blood pressure, their fatigue evaporated and they had more energy than they had felt in years, their joint and muscle pain vanished; the program improved their mood and sleep, eliminated their brain fog, and a provided a deep sense of well-being. The Blood Sugar Solution gave these people a new lease on life.

The Blood Sugar Solution is a plan for each of us to take back our health as a society. Our health has been hijacked from us, taken from us slowly, quietly, over the past century. Our current food, social, family, school, work, faith-based, and community environments, health care institutions, and government policies make it hard for us to make healthy choices. We are presented with choices that foster bad habits. But together, getting and staying healthy is possible given the right information, tools, support and collective action to take back our health.

Navigating the Terrain of Disease: Getting to the Root of the Problem

To effectively treat diabesity we must shift our focus away from the symptoms or risk factors of the disease and begin taking a hard look at the causes. All of our attention is on treatments that lower blood sugar (diabetes drugs and insulin), lower high blood pressure (anti-hypertensive drugs), improve cholesterol (statins) and thin the blood (aspirin). But we never ever ask the most important question:

Why is your blood sugar, blood pressure, or blood cholesterol too high and why is your blood too sticky and likely to clot?

Put another way: What are the root causes of diabesity?

Answering that question must be the focus of our diagnosis and treatment of the disease if we are going to solve this global epidemic.

The good news is that the answer is shockingly simple.

The Real Causes of Diabesity

The entire spectrum of diabesity including all of its complications—diabetes, elevated blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol—are simply downstream symptoms that result from problems with diet, lifestyle, and environmental toxins interacting with our unique genetic susceptibilities.

Those are the real causes of diabesity.

And the reason these dietary and lifestyle factors lead to diabesity is because they create a condition known as “insulin resistance.” Contrary to what most people think, type 2 diabetes is a disease of too much (not too little) insulin. Insulin is the real driver of problems with diabesity.

When your diet is full of empty calories and an abundance of quickly absorbed sugars, liquid calories,^[i] and carbohydrates (like bread, pasta, rice and potatoes), your cells slowly become resistant to the effects of insulin and need more and more to do the same job of keeping your blood sugar even. Thus, you develop insulin resistance. A high insulin level is the first sign of a problem. The higher your insulin levels are, the worse your insulin resistance. Your body starts to age and deteriorate. In fact, insulin resistance is the single most important phenomenon that leads to rapid and premature aging and all its resultant diseases, including heart disease, stroke, dementia and cancer.^[ii],[iii]

As your insulin levels increase it leads to an appetite that is out of control, increasing weight gain around the belly, more inflammation and oxidative stress and myriad downstream effects including high blood pressure; high cholesterol; low HDL, high triglycerides;^[iv] weight gain around the middle; thickening of the blood; and increased risk of cancer, Alzheimer’s and depression. These are all a result of insulin resistance and too much insulin. Elevated blood sugar is not the source of the problem.

And because insulin resistance (and diabesity) are a direct outcome of diet and lifestyle, the condition is 100 percent reversible in the vast majority of cases. Most people just need to eliminate the things that are sending their biology out of balance and include what’s needed to help the body rebalance itself. For most, the interventions required are extremely simply and extraordinarily effective.

8 Steps to Reversing Diabesity

In my new book, ”The Blood Sugar Solution,” I outline a comprehensive 8-week plan for overcoming diabesity in all its forms. Here is a sneak preview of the steps outlined in the book:

1. Get the right tests. Most doctors focus on fasting blood sugar. This is actually a poor indicator of diabesity. The best test to tease out the condition is an insulin response test where insulin levels are measured fasting and then 1 and 2 hours after a glucose drink. Demand this test from your doctor.
2. Get smart about nutrition. Despite the media hype and the seeming confusion amongst doctors, the basics of nutrition are extremely simple. Eliminate sugar and processed carbohydrates, include whole real foods like lean protein (for non-vegans: chicken or fish), veggies, nuts, seeds, beans and whole grains.
3. Get the right supplements. There has recently been a frenzy of negative reports about supplements. Most of them are unfounded. Supplements are an essential part of treating diabesity. A good multivitamin, vitamin D, fish oil* and special blood sugar balancing nutrients like alpha lipoic acid, chromium polynicotinate, biotin, cinnamon, green tea catechins and PGX (a super fiber) should also be included.
4. Get relaxed. Stress is a major unrecognized contributor to insulin resistance and blood sugar imbalance. Push your pause button every day with deep breathing, visualization, yoga and other relaxation techniques.
5. Get moving. Aside from changing your diet, exercise is probably the single best medication for diabesity. Walk for at least 30 minutes every day. For some, 30-60 minutes of more vigorous aerobic exercise 4-6 times a week may be necessary.
6. Get clean and green. Environmental toxins also contribute to diabesity. Filter your water, look for green cleaning products and avoid plastics when you can.
7. Get personal. While the steps above will address 80 percent of the problems with diabesity, some may need to take additional steps to optimize key areas of their biology. Remember, the medicine of the future is personal medicine. Seek out your own biological imbalances and look for ways to address them.
8. Get connected. Research is beginning to show that we get better more effectively when we get together. Invite your friends, families and neighbors to change their diets and lifestyle along with you. Together we can all take back our health.

I hope that my book “The Blood Sugar Solution” will be the beginning of a larger transformation – for individuals, communities and for society.  In the book I outline all of the social, economic, biological, and medical underpinnings of this health epidemic and provide an 8-week, step-by-step system that will allow you to dig deep into your own biology and heal even the most severe cases of diabesity.

Get a book, get two and give one to someone you love – you might be saving their life. When you purchase the book from this link you will automatically receive access to the following special bonuses:

• Special Report—Diabetes and Alzheimer’s: The Truth About “Type 3 Diabetes” and How You Can Avoid It.
• More Delicious Recipes: 15 Additional Ways to Make The Blood Sugar Solution as Tasty as It’s Healthy!
• Dr. Hyman’s UltraWellness Nutrition Coaching – FREE for 30 days!
• Hour 1 of The Blood Sugar Solution Workshop DVD

For more on diabesity, visit www.drhyman.com

*Vegan alternatives include: Omega Zen or V-pure.

References:

Cheese and the Obesity Epidemic

The epidemic of obesity has grown dramatically in recent years, most notably in children, one-third of whom have been swept up by weight problems and are at risk for heart disease, diabetes, and certain forms of cancer, among other problems.Unfortunately, the battle against obesity is getting a lot harder. First of all, people trying to lose weight have been lied to. They have been told that the problem is a lack of exercise, when, in fact, studies clearly show that weight gain in the United States over the past 30 years is almost entirely due to changing eating habits, not a lack of physical activity.They have been lied to about food, with quick-fix, low-carb advocates pointing a finger of blame at bread and fruit, when carbohydrates actually have only four calories per gram, unlike fats, which have nine. That’s why people in Asian countries stayed thin and healthy until Western fast-food chains brought in meat, cheese, and other junk foods that displaced traditional rice-based meals.

They have been lied to by some well-meaning, but not-yet-well-informed fat-acceptance advocates who, while helpfully rallying against discrimination, have also sought to minimize obesity’s dangers with phrases like “obese but healthy.” You can also be “a smoker, but healthy,” but that simply means the complications have not yet arrived.

But most of all, they have been lied to by the meat and dairy industries, which aim to convince us that we need cheese, meat, and other unhealthful foods. The federal government, traditionally beholden to industry, has joined in the duplicity, not only by subsidizing the very foods that cause weight gain and by dumping them into our children’s school lunch programs, but by issuing dietary guidelines that have been too timid to chuck unhealthful foods out.

As a result of this lack of forthrightness, obesity has settled in for the long term, and many people have simply become resigned to it for themselves and their children. The consequences will be devastating: Experts estimate that one in three children born in 2000 will go on to develop diabetes—a disease strongly linked to excess weight.

The obesity epidemic is not caused by inactivity, bread, rice, gluttony, weak will, or a bad childhood. It is caused by a tsunami of unhealthful foods, and one of the worst, perhaps surprisingly, is cheese. Typical cheeses are about 70 percent fat, and every last fat gram packs nine calories that no one needs. Most of that fat is saturated (“bad”) fat—the kind that increases cholesterol levels and puts us at risk for diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and other diseases. A 2-ounce cheese serving also packs 350 milligrams of sodium and, ounce for ounce, as much cholesterol as a heart-stopping steak.

In 1909, the average American consumed only 3.8 pounds of cheese in a year’s time. Today, that number is pushing 34 pounds. That’s an increase of 30 pounds per person this year, next year, and again the year after that, thanks to the combined promotional efforts of government and industry. Of those extra 30 pounds of cheese we are stuffing into our mouths every year, it would only take one or two to stick in order to explain the entire weight problem in America. Of course, there are other co-conspirators in the obesity epidemic, too, notably the rise in meat and sugar consumption.

A Wake-Up Call

PCRM erected billboards in New York State depicting a heavy-set man and woman and pointing out, clearly and simply, that cheese contributes to obesity. Judging by the press response, it was a message that was badly needed. Many reporters had no idea that cheese was so high in fat and calories.

We knew that the dairy industry would object. But the fact is, dairy farmers and their families need this message, too. After all, they run the same risks as their customers.

Some overweight people may object, too. Just as cancer organizations have used images of tobacco-damaged lungs and anti-drunk-driving organizations have shown grim accident scenes, graphic visual reminders are painful for the victims of these conditions.

Certainly, there is no value in blaming overweight people for a condition that results from a mixture of industry marketing, government promotions, addictive qualities of foods, genetic vulnerabilities, medication effects on appetite, and, in the end, overeating. Instead, it is essential to zero in on the problem foods, expose them, and do what we can to get them off our collective plates. The PCRM billboards are a mirror, showing obesity as it really is, linking it appropriately to cheese, and making it clear that there is a problem here.

The worst thing that doctors or the public can do is to slow down the fight against obesity and against the foods that contribute to it. Prying a generation away from tobacco was tough, and prying people away from obesogenic foods today will be far more challenging. People struggling with weight problems deserve understanding and support, and we do them no favors if we hide the problem, sugar-coat it, or fail to address its causes. We have to face the dangers of obesity directly, make it clear that certain foods are serious problems, and do all we can to support the changes that are essential for good health.

For more information on how to optimize your health, visit NealBarnard.org

Photo credit: Bart Heird

Being Fat in America

We can, as a society, be astoundingly cruel to people who are obese. They might be creative, caring and hopeful people, but we don’t see that. Far too often, we see only their weight.

What does it say about us that we act as though you can take the measure of a person by the size bathing suit they wear?

Maybe this partially explains why obese people are flocking to a restaurant outside Phoenix, Arizona, whose name, and I am not making this up, is the Heart Attack Grill. The restaurant, which seats 100, is often packed. It offers what owner Jon Basso calls, “an environment of acceptance to overweight customers who are typically demonized by society.”

But at this restaurant, it’s a little more than acceptance. The Heart Attack Grill literally celebrates obesity. Customers who are over 350 pounds eat for free. A scale is strategically placed at the center of the restaurant, so other diners can watch the weigh-ins. When customers exceed 350 pounds, says the restaurant’s owner, “Everybody applauds and cheers for them. A big smile comes over their face, and for once they are finally accepted. They are not picked on here.”

It’s all made to seem sexy, too. Waitresses, all of them young and slender, are dressed as scantily clad nurses, wearing high heels, thigh-high stockings, and skimpy outfits revealing lots of cleavage.

It sounds like fun.

Except when it isn’t.

Several months ago, the 575-pound spokesman for the Heart Attack Grill, a 29-year-old man named Blair River, died. It wasn’t a heart attack, it was pneumonia. He had been the public face of the restaurant and the star of its advertising. He was also the single father for a five-year-old girl.

At nearly 600 pounds. Blair River ate all his meals free at the restaurant.

Heart Attack Grill owner Jon Basso did not deny the link between the young man’s excessive weight and his tragically premature death. “I hired him to promote my food,” said Basso, “[but his] life was cut short because he carried extra weight.” Ironically, the restaurant’s motto is “Food Worth Dying For.”

Of course, no one is forcing anyone to eat at the Heart Attack Grill or to stuff themselves full of unhealthy food. It’s a free country, in theory anyway, and we’re free to eat ourselves to death if we want to do so.

Some would say that the Heart Attack Grill steps over a line, to the point of enabling dangerous food addictions. There is certainly nothing remotely resembling healthy on the menu. Customers can purchase cigarettes, but only the non-filtered type. On the wall are prominent displays advertising menu items such as “Quadruple Bypass Burgers” that carry 8,000 calories, and “Flatliner Fries” that are deep-fried in pure lard. Perhaps joking, owner Basso says, “We’re in the front lines of the battle against anorexia.”

But Blair River’s death is no joke. And it would be a mistake to make light of the medical consequences of obesity. The Centers for Disease Control tells us that obese people have a substantially higher risk not only for heart attacks, but also for diabetes, most cancers, and many other types of cardiovascular disease.

Heart Attack Grill owner Basso doesn’t plan any changes on account of the young man’s death. Scantily-clad waitresses will still regularly exhort customers to eat all they can. He’s making money, and thinks the restaurant is great fun.

But is it funny that we have become the most obese society in the history of the world? Two-thirds of the residents of the United States are now either overweight or obese. So many children are developing the most common type of diabetes that medical authorities have had to change the name of the disease. What was formerly called “adult-onset diabetes” is now called “type 2 diabetes.” It accounts for 90 percent of the diabetes in the country, and the incidence in children is skyrocketing.

It’s easy to point our fingers and pass judgment. We can blame fast food companies that aggressively market unhealthy foods to children, we can blame people who overeat for their lack of will power, and we can blame parents for feeding their kids poorly. We can blame harmful ingredients such as trans-fats and high-fructose corn syrup, and we can blame the pressures of modern life that turn people into addicts of one kind or another.

We can play the blame game ad infinitum, but who does that help? Does it help those with weight problems that leave them vulnerable to disease and prone to feelings of shame?

What if we were instead to learn from those people who have taken the arduous, difficult, and ultimately joyful journey from obesity to health?

I have had the wonderfully good fortune recently to become friends with a young woman named Natala Constantine and her husband Matt. They’ve been married for seven-and-a-half years. At their wedding, Natala was morbidly obese.

She knew something about the abuse endured by obese people in our society. By then, she had lost track of the number of times she had been humiliated in public, called ugly names by strangers, and been physically hurt by people who felt entitled to treat her as less than human because of her weight.

People constantly told Natala she was lucky Matt had fallen in love with her, and that he must be amazing to be able to look past her weight.

A week after the wedding, she was diagnosed with severe diabetes. Her blood had become so acidic that her organs were shutting down, and doctors seriously doubted whether she would survive. She was 25-years-old.

Five years later, Natala was taking up to 13 different medications and as much as 200 units of insulin a day. She ate what many people would call a healthy diet — lots of animal protein, and almost no carbohydrates. She had been told that a diet high in animal protein was the only way she could control her diabetes, but it wasn’t working. She was working out at a gym for two to three hours a day, but at 5’2? tall, she weighed close to 400 pounds.

When Natala developed an infection in her right calf, doctors told her that part of her lower right leg might need to be amputated. But then a friend, who Natala described to me as “a vegan and into yoga,” suggested that she consider a natural approach to her diabetes, and that she start to think of food as medicine. “I wanted to smash her,” Natala admits. “How dare she suggest something so simple! Didn’t she know that I had been to the best doctors, that I was on the best diet, that I was working out?”

But Natala did take her friend’s advice to heart, and decided to go on what she calls a “100-percent healthy plant-strong diet.”

“For the first three weeks,” she says, “I felt as though I was ridding myself of much more than animal products. Food had a hold on me that I could not even conceptualize prior to those three weeks. I would sit in my car and cry outside of sub shops, just wanting a tuna melt.”

It was very rough, but Natala stayed with it and the results were nothing short of miraculous. In 30 days, she was off all insulin.

The physicians she was seeing for her diabetes took a look at her numbers, were amazed, and wanted to know how she did it. “I told them I had adopted a completely plant-based diet. They didn’t seem surprised at all, and told me that plant-based diets were helping to reverse diabetes. When I asked why they had not suggested it, they told me because it isn’t practical.”

Aghast, she asked her doctor, “Do you think it’s practical to be 30 years old and lose a leg?”

She walked out of that doctor’s office and never went back. “Everything changed from that moment,” she recalls. “I slowly decreased all the other diabetes medicines I was on. I lowered my blood cholesterol without drugs. I lowered my blood pressure without drugs. I corrected my hormonal problems without drugs. Many diabetics go blind, but I reversed the nerve damage in my eyes. And that infection in my leg? It completely healed. The arthritis in my feet? It went away.”

Today, Natala Constantine has lost almost 200 pounds, is medicine-free, and continues to make great strides toward her ideal weight. Her diabetes is in complete remission. I’ve met her and I can attest that she is one of the happiest and most radiant people you could hope to meet. A concert violinist, she exudes joy.

And her husband, Matt? While Natala was dealing with diabetes, he was not only obese but also suffered from severe food allergies. Eating a few tomatoes would send him to the emergency room. His food allergies dominated his life. And now? His improvement, on a 100-percent healthy plant-strong diet, is almost as miraculous as his wife’s. A concert pianist, he has lost 90 pounds, is now a healthy weight, and his food allergies are entirely behind him.

It’s quite a world we live in it, isn’t it? On the one hand, we have the Heart Attack Grill, whose 570-pound spokesman died at the age of 29. On the other, we have people like Natala and Matt Constantine, who have taken a different path.

We live in a society that tends to cruelly stigmatize the obese. The Heart Attack Grill represents one form of response. It can feel empowering to turn shame into defiance. When society points its finger at you, blaming you and denying its own illness, there is a natural urge to send a message back to society with your middle finger.

But is there a healthier alternative? What about turning shame into a commitment to greater wellbeing and happiness? What about refusing to internalize society’s negative messages, and instead building a healthy life of joy, confidence, and beauty?

Cutting back on heavily sweetened beverages like sodas and juice-like drinks is a good place to start. Eating less processed foods and more whole foods is another good step. Getting exercise helps a lot. And the more of your nutrients you can get from plant sources, the better.

Eat a healthy plant-strong diet, and your body will thank you for the rest of your life.

For more tools, resources and inspiration, visit http://www.johnrobbins.info/.

This article was originally published at HuffingtonPost.com.

Photo credit: Trina Alexander

Poor Eating Habits: A Century in the Making

What is making Americans gain weight? Which foods are responsible for the obesity epidemic? Is it soda? Fast food?

In the May 2010 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, I published a detailed analysis of how diets have changed over the past century, based on government records going back to 1909. The results were surprising—even sobering—and I thought I would share them with you. Here’s what we found:

Compared to a century ago, an average American now eats 75 pounds more meat every year. Although red meat made a big charge early in the last century, the recent increase has all been related to chicken. Convinced that chicken is somehow health food, Americans now eat more than one million chickens per hour. Perhaps surprisingly, its fat content is not much different from beef (about 29% for lean beef, 23% for skinless chicken breast, compared to less than 10% for typical vegetables, fruits and beans.)

Cheese intake back in 1909 amounted to less than four pounds per person per year. Americans had not yet discovered cheese pizza or cheeseburgers, or the fact that schoolchildren will happily munch on cheese day after day. Today, cheese intake is over 30 pounds per person per year. Unfortunately, typical cheeses are about 70% fat, as a percentage of calories, and most of that is saturated fat—the kind that raises cholesterol.

And along with our meat and cheese, we’re munching on French fries, which accounts for a 50-pound rise in oil consumption per person per year compared to a century ago. And we’re polishing our fries off with frozen desserts, particularly ice cream. The average American eats 20 pounds more ice cream per year than a century ago.

So, what’s behind these huge increases? Much of this change reflects the advent of fast-food and pizza restaurants, for which meat, cheese and fryer grease are staples. Also, government subsidies make meat, dairy products and sugar cheaper and more available than they would be otherwise, and government meal programs ensure that children consume these less-than-healthful foods in schools on a daily basis.

But what about sodas? They are commonly blamed for childhood obesity. It’s certainly true that soda intake is way up. But, among children, this rise has been partly compensated for by a drop in milk intake. Nonfat milk has about the same calorie intake as soda, and whole milk is denser in calories than soda. So, calorie-wise, it appears to be nearly a wash.

Bottom line: Americans were moderate meat-eaters a century ago, and are vigorous carnivores today. Cheese intake has exploded, and greasy, sugary foods are more prevalent than ever.

If we turn the clock back a bit, we might see the difference on the scale.

The Role of Colleges in Student Health

Last fall, Lincoln University made headlines when its administrators instituted a class called “Fitness for Life,”which covered everything from nutrition and exercise to sleep and stress management. The course was to provide basic health education and equip Lincoln’s students with the tools they needed to implement a healthy lifestyle in college and beyond. Making such a class available is certainly commendable. Making such a class mandatory for students with a body mass index over 30 raised questions and a few eyebrows.

The fact that such a story made national headlines is a good sign because it shows that the question of how to deal with our growing obesity epidemic and generally deteriorating health features prominently in the consciousness of many Americans. But what role, if any, should colleges play in educating students about health and longevity?

Last year, colleges and universities spent some $4 billion providing food to students. Imagine what that kind of purchasing power could be used for if colleges began to see their duty to educate students as extending past textbooks and classrooms and into basic skill sets, like how to eat and exercise for longevity. It’s no secret that optimal mental functioning is grounded in receiving all the essential nutrients, and adequate exercise is needed to ensure proper blood flow and muscle function. So why, then, have colleges not added nutrition and exercise classes to the core curriculum?

College students are uniquely suited to adapt and adopt new healthy lifestyle habits. They are open to both change and challenge as they adjust to life on campus. Moreover, their learning takes place both inside and outside the classroom, from teachers, fellow students, the Internet and personal experience. This is a prime environment in which to engage students to consider the habits they form today as investment in their future health. More importantly, if colleges and students begin to demand access to healthful foods by placing emphasis on quality and variety, rather than solely on quantity and convenience, they might be able to send a shockwave through our food system that would result in a much healthier balance for everyone.

If you are in college, or know someone who is, you can start by getting your college or university administration to spend their cafeteria money wisely. Combining purchasing power with their educational mission and community impact, campuses could serve as a hotbed of innovation and a leader in the move towards a healthier America. So many important social changes—women’s suffrage, civil rights, peace movements—were catalyzed by a few, passionate young people. If we use our voices correctly, we can help create a food supply of healthy, high-quality, nutrient-dense food that is affordable for everyone.

As proof that major food suppliers will respond to consumer demand, look to the cases of PepsiCo and Kraft Foods. Both companies announced they would be replacing high fructose corn syrup in their respective products of Gatorade and Wheat Thins with sugar. Though it costs more money to use sugar, the switch was made in response to consumer preference. And the removal of trans fats from many restaurant menus and processed food items was due solely to public outcry about the possible health hazards of this ingredient.

As a consumer group, our role must be to continue to show large-scale producers that investing in affordable, widely accessible health food options will be profitable. As we provide the demand, producers will follow through with a supply that meets our needs. Colleges, in particular, have an important role because they provide a succinct, focused support sector that can provide a model which the rest of our society can emulate.

Here are four ways every college and university could improve the experience, education, and health of its students:

Farm-to-School: College campuses should focus on seasonality, prioritizing those foods that can be sourced locally or from organic/fair-trade institutions. Limiting purchases of industrially produced and non-local food items decreases cost (because it cuts out shipping and preserving aids), decreases students’ exposure to harmful pesticides and fertilizers, and, especially in the case of locally-produced food, offers fresher, nutrient-dense options. An excellent way to cut costs and improve both student health and local economy is to implement Farm-to-School partnerships, where local producers provide produce and fresh goods, giving students a chance to eat a healthy variety of foods indigenous to their locale.

Sustainability: Part of creating a more healthful society entails making sure we are meeting our needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. Colleges should implement campus-wide recycling and composting systems to generate awareness of the waste created and to contribute as little as possible to the waste stream.

Academic Engagement: As they work to encourage students to prioritize healthy living, colleges must offer more academic opportunities for students to observe the relationship between food, health, environment and the global economy. Then students can come to understand intellectually the role they play in creating a sustainable society as conscious consumers and perhaps as the next generation of sustainable suppliers.

Physical Engagement: Crucial to the learning process is for students to feel a sense of ownership over the material and their health. The best way I know for this to take place is to make hands-on learning opportunities available to engage students in the growing process from seed to plate. This could include anything from creating on-campus gardens (such as the ambitious Cornell Sustainable Campus initiative) to work-study opportunities on local farms.

Ultimately, the hope is that students will graduate with a sense of stewardship over the land so that they continue to be conscious consumers after graduation. If colleges seize the ripe opportunity presented to them, they can have a significant impact not only in growing the ranks of a healthier generation, but also in selecting and grooming the leaders of tomorrow’s food marketplace.