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Michael Roizen, M.D.

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Why Health Coaching Will Create American Jobs

Posted: 12/10/10 04:37 PM ET

Every now and I then I give up playfulness and edginess to be serious -- God forbid.

Yes, I relish coaching individuals (and through email large numbers) to health. But I'd like to tell you why more people need to enjoy that orgasmic experience of helping others get healthy. We need more of such coaching to save our jobs -- yes, your job and your freedom, especially if you work in a service industry or education.

America's job discompetitveness is caused by our 9 percent greater per employee cost for health care with Germany, and our 12 percent greater cost for health care with Japan and developed China and India. Our differential for medical care costs in the United States reached a point in 1991 -- a point of 6 percent and 9 percent -- and so we became non-competitive for manufacturing and we lost our manufacturing base. We will lose our service and educational base by 2017 when these differentials reach 12 percent and 16 percent.

We are two and three times as expensive as Europe and developed Asia because we have twice and three times the chronic disease, and all but 2 percent of the differential due to four factors (genetics is only responsible for 2 percent of the differential). Medical cost differentials are part of the United States' non-competiveness for jobs (and it's more than salary differentials with Europe and middle class Brazil, Japan, India, and China).

Seventy percent, (78 percent in some data sets) of our medical costs and all of our job differential plus some (we can be less expensive -- our medical care is actually more efficient) is due to four factors we can control:
1) tobacco use,
2) physical inactivity,
3) food choices and
4) lack of stress management.

Some 1.3 trillion of our expenses are reducible to zero if we as individuals take charge of those four aforementioned factors. And we have reached a turning point -- that was reached back in 1991 for manufacturing -- for jobs in our service industries and education. But we can retake these jobs and our competitiveness -- it starts one person and one medical coach at a time. You know I like to leave you with action steps and here's what I have for you ... to retake jobs for America:

So today, you already know how to avoid tobacco (and yes joint smoking is four times as bad as tobacco smoking -- so eat brownies if you are going down that route), and to meditate -- so walk 10,000 steps today and avoid the foods that are not "Let's-make-a-deal foods" -- I call them the five food felons:

1. and 2. Simple sugars and syrups. This includes brown sugar, dextrose, corn sweetener, fructose (as in high-fructose corn syrup), glucose, corn syrup, honey, invert sugar, maltose, lactose, malt syrup, molasses, evaporated cane sugar, raw sugar, and sucrose. Keep a little table sugar, honey and maple syrup handy, because you'll use some for recipes.

3. Saturated fat. This includes most four-legged animal fat, milk fat, butter or lard, and tropical oils, such as palm and coconut.

4. Trans Fat. This includes partially hydrogenated fats, vegetable oil blends that are hydrogenated, and many margarines and cooking blends. (If you must, use cholesterol-fighting sterol spreads such as Promise and Benecol.)

5. Enriched flours and all flours other than 100 percent whole grain or 100 percent whole wheat. This includes enriched white or non-100 percent whole flours, semolina, durum wheat, and any of the acronyms for flour that is not 100 percent whole wheat -- they should not be in your kitchen, your mouth or your body, if you care about jobs in America.

Yes, YOU control whether America has service and education jobs or not, freedoms or not, and it's much easier than influencing a House Leader or President that's been in a smoke-filled room. It's YOUR lifestyle choices. So save a job by snuffing out tobacco, physical inactivity, the five food felons, large plates, and unmanaged stress. And yes, it is that important.

 
 
 

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04:39 PM on 01/07/2011
"No one diet works for everyone" People are so confused from reading so many articles about diet, i used to be one of them. Sugar is a no no !!!
The concept of bio-individuality is that each person has her or his own food and lifestyle needs. So, when the experts say, “dairy is good for you” or “fat is unhealthy,” it doesn’t apply to everyone. One person’s food is another person’s poison, and that’s why fad diets tend to fail in the long run.
Good support of your loved ones, friends, exercise, spirituality, work that you love will help you to be happy & healthy again.
I used to be one of them too. In a few mon.im gonna be Certified Holistic Health Counselor through IIN ( Integrative Instittute of Nutrition) the best school.
"The concept of bio-individuality is that each person has her or his own food and lifestyle needs. So, when the experts say, “dairy is good for you” or “fat is unhealthy,” it doesn’t apply to everyone. One person’s food is another person’s poison, and that’s why fad diets tend to fail in the long run."
IIN is a school that changes many lives :)
All the Best from MartaCunderova
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Gregory Ashby
the health maestro
03:24 PM on 01/05/2011
Great article, After being in Natural Foods/Products Industry for over 20yrs. I too am doing my studies for
Certification as Holistic Health Counselor/Coach through IIN ( Integrative Nutrition).
Although I have doing this for over 20yrs this a great great program. The best out there.
06:12 PM on 12/15/2010
I am so glad to see an article discussing our nations health and it's negative impact on the economy. However reading these comments reminds me of the one negative of health coaches - the conflicting information they often provide. I am a Registered Dietitian (which took 6 years of school) and a health coach (which took a week to get certified in). Most of my clients are exhausted and confused with all the contradicting nutrition information that they chose to do nothing at all. The purpose of a health coach is to help the client meet their own wellness goals by encouraging self-motivation and finding them resources. They are not to act as a health care provider nor are they to encourage clients to follow their idea of a perfect diet. There is conflicting data if you examine the research on each of these nutrition topics, but we do know for sure that any of these foods can be included in a healthy diet IN MODERATION. If a client loves white bread, red meat, sugar or whatever it is you think is "The Worst Food EVER," focus on how they can enjoy that food in MODERATION! Remember, eating is supposed to be pleasurable. Encourage people to find pleasure in preparing nutritious and adventurous meals to enjoy with family or on their own!
05:04 PM on 12/15/2010
Dr. Roizen - thank you for shedding light on how important it can be to spread knowledge of how to live a healthier lifestyle. I'm also a Health Coach so I appreciate your attention to the topic. I don't, however, agree with all of the health recommendations, such as having table sugar on hand (one of the most sickness-causing foods) or cutting out coconut oil (the best oil to cook with at high temperatures, and a healthy fat)!

Eat real food.
10:31 AM on 12/14/2010
Dr. Roizen, Thanks so much for bringing health coaching to light in your article. As a certified Health Coach, from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (which has now been training health coaches for 20 years), I totally agree that health coaching and my focus on integrative nutrition is key to help people reach their own personal health, nutrition, and life goals.
Thanks again,
Melanie Albert, www.ExperienceNutritionGroup.com
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DrSuRu
Eco-gastronomist
05:38 PM on 12/13/2010
Health coaching is not yet a realistic option. It is an out of pocket expense, not covered by health insurance. Thanks to an economy that is in the crapper, the only people profiting from "health coaching" are the schools who offer training in health coaching. 99% of graduates from these school never make a consistent living doing health coaching, health counseling, whatever you want to call it.

That being said, Dr. Roizen could benefit from a one year program in health coaching. His Food IQ is abysmally low if he thinks that saturated fat is the problem! Medical schools teach ZERO about food and its connection to health, Dr. Roizen is not alone in is lack of understanding.
04:18 PM on 12/13/2010
When will the saturated fat bashing end? Humans have prized and gone to great lengths to consume animal fats since the dawn of our species. Cancer, obesity, diabetes and heart disease are modern diseases of civilization and extremely new to us, pretty much as new as the recommendation to lower our cholesterol, avoid animal fat and eat fake crap like Promise margarine and soy burgers. Hm. Makes you wonder...
01:39 PM on 12/13/2010
I agree with other comments that saturated fat does nothing to risk of heart disease. Saturates
raise good cholesterol (more than any other macronutrient) counteracting the increase in
bad cholesterol. Focusing on saturates is a waste of time and resources, and draws
attention away from the real dietary issues.

total:hdl ratio, figure 1
Mensink, P et al., J Clin Nutr 2003;77:1146–55
http://www.ajcn.org/content/77/5/1146.full?ijkey=846a72387ebc0d82545acd5442a0c3a9e9fc3566
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purenergy
07:32 AM on 12/13/2010
"joint smoking is four times as bad as tobacco smoking"

Show me the study. I'll never believe it without one.
04:52 PM on 12/12/2010
Fantastic article! America does pay more for health care than most other countries, but we also bring sickness on ourselves through diet and lifestyle than other countries. The fast food restaurant is an American thing. Most other countries in the world eat a balanced diet by cooking at home. They couldn't imagine drive-through burgers.

So much of the debate on health care focuses on the wrong thing. Everyone wants health insurance for nothing that pays for everything. Insurance companies do make a profit, but they are not the problem with high health care costs in this country. Medicare pays hospitals and doctors less than private health insurance, but Medicare's costs are rising out of control too.

There are problems with our system. But the solutions may not be as obvious as 'blaming insurance companies'. A healthier society will be more productive. But we have to get our kids to exercise early in life. . . even if it is just stretching for a half hour a day during PE.

Thank you for this article. Great information that all Americans need.
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Keith DeBoer
Meditation Teacher
01:05 PM on 12/13/2010
Great comments! Prevention is the key and it starts with diet and exercise.
01:12 PM on 12/12/2010
Agree completely except on the saturated fat! Fat is not the enemy, refined carbohydrates are. We need fat to feel satiated so having good fat, some saturated fat and very limited refined carbohydrates will go a lot further towards reducing our heath care problem than just pushing people away from fat.
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mgray34
They did it!! They ate all the blueberry pie!!
12:08 PM on 12/12/2010
Great article! I will be sharing this, and hope to meet you, Dr. Mike, at the Vemma conference in Vegas next February!
03:44 AM on 12/12/2010
Thanks for this article! I am a certified health coach and appreciate the clarity of your statistics and comments. Health Coaching is on the rise for individuals, groups, families, communities, insurance companies, mid-size corporations and, heck, we are truly lovely people. A 'diet' has about a 9% chance of success. Working with your health coach, your chances of sustainable success jumps to 75% or higher of meeting and retaining said goals. Not bad!
From Tatiana Abend, BodyVision Health Coaching
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Sharon Hanson
Skeptical of the *pseudo-skeptics*
05:15 PM on 12/11/2010
Oh this is soooo funny. Conventional medicine poisons us and is the cause of chronic disease in many cases in my opinion and now they are going to make money cleaning up their mess and coaching. Great joke except it's not funny.

A new and emerging disease that has the potential to impact millions upon millions is the use of gadolinium based contrasting agents for MRIs, MRAs and CT scans sometimes. It's called Gadolinium Associated Systemic Fiborsis. Look up NSF. You do not need to be renally impaired to get it and you don't have to have the skin condition for everything in your body to turn fibrotic. And in case you don't remember gadolinium is a neurotoxin. They're finding it in the reproductive organs of women of child bearing years and the brain tumors of non-renal impaired cancer patients.
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eLucida
Liberate Fitzwalkerstan, defeat A.L.E.C.
11:30 AM on 12/11/2010
Coaching that perpetuates unhealthy myths will certainly lead to more employment in health services.

Eating low-fat foods and "Healthy Whole Grains" led to the current Diabesity epidemic.
__________________________

Points 1, 2 and 4 are valuable: limit sugars, syrups and trans-fats.
__________________________

Point 3 is wrong.
There is NO evidence that saturated fat is linked to incidence of heart disease.

Siri-Tarino et al. 2010. Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease
Am. J. Clin Nutr. http://www.ajcn.org/content/early/2010/01/13/ajcn.2009.27725.abstract
__________________________

Point 5 is misleading. Grains, even "100 percent whole wheat" are UNhealthy and should be limited.

Wheat and rye contain anti-nutrients and natural toxins associated with celiac and other auto-immune disease. Any "whole-grain" is a high glycemic index food.
08:28 PM on 12/11/2010
If eating low-fat foods and whole grains would lead to obesity and diabetes, how come we don't see these diseases (and heart disease, cancer, etc) in countries that base their calories on these foods in Asia, Africa and South America? Also, there are plenty of peer reviewed studies that are NOT founded by the dairy industry like the one you linked us to, that clearly proof that fat intake is indeed related to an increase in heart disease. Think about it this way, if meat and dairy (which are high in fat) would have EVER cured or reversed someones heart attack, don't you think every child in America would learn about it in school? Contrary, Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstynhas a history of reversing peoples heart disease with a truly low fat diet of whole grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables.
Most studies are also flawed because they just look at one nutrient. But its not just what we don't eat (like fat for example in this study - even though I don't even believe it was very low) but what we eat instead. People might have opted for low fat processed foods, or meats they believed to be low fat, but did they include fresh veggies & fruits which we need for health? Since the study didn't look at this we"ll never know and the result is inconclusive; a result dairy industry likes!
And, for the record whole grains like barley, oats, quinoa, rice, pasta have a low GI. Look it
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eLucida
Liberate Fitzwalkerstan, defeat A.L.E.C.
09:59 PM on 12/11/2010
Rice and Pasta have low GIs ?!?

Sorry, but that shows a total lack of preparation in this topic area.

Start by reading Gary Taubes' "Good Calories, Bad Calories" or his "Why We Get Fat" due out in a couple weeks.
12:05 AM on 12/12/2010
Caldwell Esselstyn's "research" is little more than anecdotal evidence.

I do agree that most studies are wrong, but not for the reason you cited. Perhaps you'll find this article interesting.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/11/lies-damned-lies-and-medical-science/8269/