Industry News

The Grocery Cart: Essential in the Fight Against Rising Healthcare Costs

Last year, the journal Health Affairs reported that about 75 percent of the $2.2 trillion spent in the United States on healthcare goes toward treating chronic conditions, such diabetes, heart disease and cancer, much of which is preventable. To battle these diseases and the costs associated with treating them, a small but growing number of employers are placing their bets on the importance of changing their employees’ diets. Calories are not their main concern; their focus is on nutrition. Specifically, they are teaching people about the value of nutrient-dense or unprocessed food and why kale, quinoa, and pinto beans should be picked over hamburgers and fries. And, they plan to reap the financial benefits of those choices.

“Far too much of the Western diet today involves processed and refined foods, and we’re paying the price in our high obesity and chronic disease levels, as well as in rising healthcare costs,” said Carol Wagner, a nutritional consultant for Chicago-area businesses. “When foods are processed, chemicals are used, important nutrients are removed, and sweeteners are added. This tricks your body’s ability to regulate how much you eat and makes you want to eat more. Unprocessed foods do the opposite. In fact, people tend to eat less when they eat unprocessed foods. That’s why it’s a good idea to stay away from foods that have more than five ingredients. Chances are, if your grandmother wouldn’t recognize it as food, or you can’t pronounce the ingredients, the food is processed, and you should steer clear.”

For years, as part of its weight-loss strategies, HealthFitness, a Trustmark company that provides integrated health and fitness management services, has advocated for the value of nutrient-dense foods, said Tanja Madsen, Director of Program Development, Research, Development and Outcomes, HealthFitness.

When discussing how to meet client needs, HealthFitness first determines the specific health risk, such as heart disease or obesity, which a client wants to reduce among its workforce. Then it tailors programs to fight those risks, and one approach involves moving the employee population toward healthier eating, including replacing processed foods with more nutrient-dense foods, Madsen said. For example, HealthFitness uses a “Nutrient-Dense Food Continuum” in its group weight management program to help educate participants on eating foods that are less processed and contain a more nutritious “bang for the buck.” Health coaches also discuss nutrient-dense foods with participants who want to lose weight and eat more healthfully.

In February, The Full Yield, a Danvers, Mass.-based company, announced the launch of the nation’s first fully integrated collaboration between the food and healthcare industries to improve health and reduce healthcare spending. The Full Yield is partnering with Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Roche Bros. Supermarkets for a program to help consumers buy foods that support health and to offer a wellness program to improve and preserve health. Harvard Pilgrim and Roche Bros. are offering the program to their own employees, as are some of Harvard Pilgrim’s clients, such as John Hancock, The City of Boston, Draper Laboratory and Abt Associates.

“As our country grapples with critical issues like the cost of care and access to services, we must remember that 75 percent of employers’ healthcare costs are the result of lifestyle-driven disorders,” said Judith Frampton, RN, Vice President of Medical Management, Harvard Pilgrim. “The evidence is clear: The single most important way we can improve our health is to improve the way we eat.”

A celebrity chef, a hospital and public schools in Cabell County, W. Va., joined forces to tackle the issue as well. Documented on an ABC-TV series, British chef Jamie Oliver worked to change the eating habits of Huntington, considered the most unhealthy city in America based on obesity-related deaths and disease rates, by focusing on school menus, according to ­Oliver’s website.

Some considered the project a failure, but not Brent A. Marstellar, president and CEO of Cabell Huntington Hospital. Marstellar voiced confidence in Oliver’s approach because schools should not be serving “processed foods loaded with sugar, salt, preservatives and other additives,” according to his commentary published in the Herald-Dispatch. Plans called for all Cabell County school cooks to have been trained “to prepare healthy meals from scratch using fresh, whole ingredients” by the end of the 2009-2010 school year, and most processed foods were to be removed from school menus, Marstellar wrote.