Our Health Policy Matters

I never ate yogurt, avocadoes, or tofu until I was in my twenties.  When I first went to the dentist as an eight year old, I had twelve cavities.  And the Connecticut River smelled like raw sewage when I was a kid – because it was filled with raw sewage. This is Public Health Week; the theme is “return on investment.”  The good news – spending on public health  (as a percentage of all health spending) has doubled in the last fifty years.  The bad news, this is still less than 3 percent of our national health budget. Despite that meager investment, the return has been big.  Here are my top ten public health initiatives ever – or at least in my lifetime. 10. From Twinkies to Tofu.  Nutrition education has come a long way in the last fifty years. Twinkies, snowballs, chocolate cupcakes, and sugary cereals “fortified” with vitamins were staples of my youth.  We knew so little about nutrition in those days.  I never ate yogurt....

I never ate yogurt, avocadoes, or tofu until I was in my twenties.  When I first went to the dentist as an eight year old, I had twelve cavities.  And the Connecticut River smelled like raw sewage when I was a kid – because it was filled with raw sewage. This is Public Health Week; the theme is “return on investment.”  The good news – spending on public health  (as a percentage of all health spending) has doubled in the last fifty years.  The bad news, this is still less than 3 percent of our national health budget. Despite that meager investment, the return has been big.  Here are my top ten public health initiatives ever – or at least in my lifetime. 10. From Twinkies to Tofu.  Nutrition education has come a long way in the last fifty years. Twinkies, snowballs, chocolate cupcakes, and sugary cereals “fortified” with vitamins were staples of my youth.  We knew so little about nutrition in those days.  I never ate yogurt....