3 Ways to be Healthier without Spending Much Money
The year 2019 just started and many people are motivated to be healthier. The U.S. spent $3.5 trillion on the healthcare in 2017 [1]. It’s average $10,739 per person [1]. But this number is $3.5 trillion divided by the entire U.S. population. The minors won’t pay healthcare cost. If the cost is shared by those age 19 or above which is roughly estimated to be 248 million at the end of year 2017 [7]. The healthcare cost per person paid by age 19 or above is going to be $14,102.50. The CDC estimates 90% of healthcare cost is originated by the chronic and mental diseases [2]. The chronic diseases are caused by the consequence of your lifestyle and very preventable. Save $14,000 a year and invest those into your 401k. Here are ways to be healthier without spending much money.
Although you can start something new anytime and anywhere, many people perceive the beginning of the year is the best time to have a fresh start. It’s nothing wrong but if you do, why don’t you make it permanent? Rather than starting unsustainable and sporadic, why not starting something that you can embrace for the rest of your life? The health benefit and money saving is significant over the long term.
1. Stop Unsustainable Initiatives
Don’t waste your money on the gym membership. The gym membership typically spikes at this time (begging) of the year. A lot of people will end up not embracing such a habit in a few months. But you will have to keep paying membership fees. That’s an extra financial drain of $35 – $200 a month. Your health has nothing to do with how much you are spending on the gym. You can do something smarter ways to be healthier.
Another unsustainable initiative is a weight loss diet. Why weight loss diet won’t work? Because it is nothing but marketing tout. Do you want to lose weight temporarily? Why not keep your weight off permanently instead. The marketing create a false sense of promise and desired outcome to lure consumers into their product. Why? Because that’s their job!
2. Eat Whole Plant Food
The core of your healthy lifestyle starts with what you ingest. These days, people are not eating food instead, eating food like product. It’s designed by a team of R&D, produced by manufacturing, maintained and controlled by quality, sold by sales and promoted by marketing. You are the one paying their salary, PTO, sick leave, insurance, retirement benefit, and executives’ multi-million dollar bonuses. Those costs are all passed down to consumers (you). The smart ways to be healthier is not to rely on pills, nutritional supplements or processed food claimed as “healthy”. The words like “reduced sugar”, “low calorie”, “fat/sugar free”, “gluten free”, “high in vitamin c”, “10 grams of protein” on the packages are nothing to do your health but to attract your attention.
If you buy whole produce, the proceeds go to the retail, logistics and hard working growers. You can cut down the loop of supply chain and keep your expenditure much lower. Some of you indicate that the taste is not as good as highly processed food. It’s because the human feelings are relative. For instance, if you satiate yourself by 5 grams of sucrose (granulated sugar), you are going to want more quantity to feel same satisfaction. Therefore eventually it becomes 7, 10, 15, 25, 35, 40, 50 grams and so on.
Quantity Will Never Satiate Your Desire
200 years ago, the sugar consumption is about 2 lbs. per person per year [3]. It is now 152 lbs. per person a year [3]. See this staggering escalation? It’s an endless ascending and will never satiate your feeling. The quantity will never satiate your craving and ego. Especially, the food won’t taste as good while the blood glucose level is higher. In contrast, the food tastes really good if you have been embracing whole plant diet for a while. You don’t really need seasoning on your food. The freshly steamed spinach and broccoli taste so good and you are not going to want any other processed food and condiments to supplement
A study [4] published on National Institutes of Health, US National Library of Medicine, whole plant based diet are proven to be effective to reduce chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and many others.
Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., a retired surgeon served at Cleveland Clinic since 1968 and a founder of National Conference on the Elimination of Coronary Artery Disease. He published more than 150 researches. In his research, he treated coronary artery disease in severely ill patients through whole plant based nutrition. Of those 198 participants seriously ill with cardiovascular disease he treated and studied, 99.4% [5] avoided further major cardiac events. Another words, the patients reversed coronary heart disease caused by a deposit of plaque in coronary arteries through whole plant diet.
No drugs will never reverse or completely treat the coronary heart disease. Only thing it does is to mitigate the symptom while being worsen. Eventually, you will need a coronary bypass surgery or stents. But you will suffer a cardiac event again since the root cause of disease, which is an ingestion of processed oils, dairy, and meat, is not addressed.
3. Start Walking
A walking is an essential part of your life and everyone can do it. The presence and ubiquitous of automobile often let us forget the importance of walking. A group of researchers at University of Illinois did study for those with age 59 – 80 who claimed to be “couch potatoes”. The participants performed 40 minutes of walking three times a week and repeated for a few months. Not only the walking slowed down the aging of brain function, but enhanced performance on cognitive tasks [6].
A walking is a all body exercise and costs you nothing. No reason not to do it. If you are motivated, you can increase the intensity of exercise. You can run and mix some strenuous exercise but keep it something that you can continue for a long time. If the exercise becomes too harsh, many people won’t be able to embrace their habits.
Start today, see yourself same time next year. Embrace smart ways to be healthier! It’s worthwhile to save $14,000 a year or $420,000 in 30 years.
References
1. U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
National Health Expenditures 2017 Highlights
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Health and Economic Costs of Chronic Diseases
3. New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services
How Much Sugar Do You Eat? You May Be Surprised!
4. National Institutes of Health
National Library of Medicine
Nutritional Update for Physicians: Plant-Based Diets
5. C.B. Esselstyn, Jr., M.D.
About Dr. Esselstyn
6. University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign
Public Affairs | Illinois
Illinois News Bureau
Attention, couch potatoes! Walking boosts brain connectivity, function
7. U.S. Department of Commerce
U.S. Census Bureau for the United States
U.S. and World Population Clock