Foresighted CEOs Rein in Healthcare Costs with Plant-Based Nutrition Education
Naples, Florida (PRWEB) July 25, 2013 -- “It’s said that ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ and this is certainly true when it comes to America’s corporations paying healthcare costs for their employees,” said Scott Stoll, MD, co-founder of the North American Plant-based Nutrition Healthcare Conference and member of Whole Foods Scientific Medical Advisory Board.
An estimated $6 billion is being spent by U.S. employers on wellness programs. A Towers Watson survey of 512 medium to large American companies showed that the average total health expenditure per employee in 2011 was $10,982. Many of our nation’s largest employers are spending $1 billion a year—that’s over $2.5 million per day—on healthcare costs, and the numbers are continuing to rise.
What’s driving these costs? Dr. Stoll says, “It’s the food we’re eating—the Standard American Diet is wreaking havoc on our bodies, bio-chemistry, brains, and our pocketbooks.”
With healthcare costs spiraling out of control and threatening the ability of America’s Corporations to compete locally and globally, foresighted corporations are turning to plant-based nutrition education as the ‘invention’ to help their employees turn the tide of obesity and chronic disease. Whole Foods Market, the world’s leading natural and organic foods supermarket, is a glowing example of a company that has embraced plant-based nutrition as a wellness initiative.
Whole Foods CEO John Mackey notes that the company’s annual $200 million cost of healthcare has been dropping since 2010. Mackey says, “If a program works, get more of it—this program works!”
“We work with Whole Foods to educate their team members about the disease prevention impact of plant-based nutrition,” said Tom Dunnam, president of Total Health Immersions, a wellness company specializing in corporate wellness retreats. Dunnam adds, “During our seven-day retreats, we work to empower employees with the tools they need to better handle stress, incorporate physical activity into their daily lives, and, most importantly, we drive home the benefits of a plant-based diet for dealing with obesity and chronic, degenerative conditions. The results have been extraordinary.”
Our nation’s municipalities are often among the largest employers in their regions. Take the city of Chicago, for example: The third biggest budget line item is healthcare costs—and it’s been going up at 10% a year. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is encouraging city employees to embrace plant-based nutrition as a means of cost containment, saying “I’m a firm believer in personal responsibility; I want the incentives in there so you do the right thing. I’m not telling you what to do, but you have choices to make and there are consequences both to your health and your healthcare costs.” Mayor Emanuel said that by encouraging healthy eating—encouraging a shift to plant-based diets, the city could cut that $480 million healthcare bill in half.
There is growing awareness about the tremendous benefits of plant-based nutrition by the general public and by corporate executives who are embracing it as a wellness strategy to better the lives of their employees and improve their bottom line. “What’s essential is that physicians, most of whom receive little or no training in the relationship between nutrition and disease prevention, take the initiative to learn about food and the reality that each bite we take is either one step toward health or one step toward disease,” said Dr. Stoll. “The North American Plant-based Nutrition Healthcare Conference is a rare opportunity for physicians and allied health practitioners to learn from many of the nation’s leading experts in the field of nutritional medicine, several of whom are my colleagues on Whole Foods’ Scientific Medical Advisory Board.”
About the North American Plant-based Nutrition Healthcare Conference:
The North American Plant-based Nutrition Healthcare Conference is set for October 24-26, 2013 at the Naples Beach Hotel and Golf Club. With a commitment to intellectual integrity, without bias or influence, the goal of the event is to educate, equip and empower the gatekeepers of dietary-related advice—our nation’s physicians and allied health practitioners—about the nutritional science and preponderance of evidence supporting the efficacy of plant-based nutrition.
This inaugural CME accredited medical conference features an impressive line-up of presenters. The event is driven by a vision of a nation and world in which all physicians and health professionals espouse the foundational pillar of prevention: a whole foods, plant-based dietary protocol. This will lead to a sustainable healthcare system wherein nutritional medicine and its proven ability to prevent, suspend and even reverse chronic, degenerative disease is fully integrated throughout the healthcare spectrum. Visit http://www.pbnhc.com for details.
Susan Benigas, North American Plant-based Nutrition Healthcare Conference, http://www.pbnhc.com, 314-398-7343, [email protected]
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