Is nutrition the next big thing?

The other day, a staff member here at the school asked me a question that totally lit me up.

“Are we like Apple in the seventies?” she asked.

What a great question!

That got me thinking about the big game changers…companies like Apple, people like Gandhi, and movements like yoga.

And I asked myself, “Is nutrition the next big thing?”

In search of an answer, I thought about the common threads between all the game changers.

And I realized that they have two basic ingredients.

Game Changer Ingredient #1:

         Recognizing a massive unmet need.

Game Changer Ingredient #2:

         Satisfying that need with a practical solution that works so well that it spreads to millions of people.

The more I look at it, the more I can see it:

Nutrition--especially health and wellness coaching--is right on track to be as big, and maybe bigger, than the other game changers.

How can that be?

Let’s start with ingredient #1: the unmet need. In this case the problem is massive.

A third of Americans are obese, and the world is catching up. Mexico just beat the USA for the top spot: most obese country. (Not because the USA got less obese, but because Mexico got more obese.)

One sixth of the US economy (almost 3 trillion bucks) is spent on health care, and that goes up each year. How’s that workin’ out for ya?

Life expectancy for new generations is getting shorter instead of longer. Huh?

Okay, you’re beginning to see the point. Houston, we have a problem.

Sadly, no matter how much cash we throw at this problem, people keep getting sicker.

You can see that it’s impossible to keep going in this direction, or we’ll wind up spending all of our money on sickness while everyone gets sick.

This is a MASSIVE problem, up there with the most serious global problems we’ve ever encountered.

Do we have our ingredient #1 for a game change? Check.

Onto ingredient #2…what about a practical solution to the problem?

When I started Integrative Nutrition over twenty years ago, it was clear to me that our “health care system” is more of a “sick care system”.

Back then nobody ever heard of a health coach. Yoga and organic foods weren’t anywhere close to today’s mainstream status.

I used to tell people I do yoga and they’d ask, “What’s yoga?” Today 20 million Americans practice yoga.

People used to look at me funny when I told them I eat organic foods. Today Whole Foods Market’s stock is up 600% since the start of the “great recession.”

Now, more than ever, it’s clear to me (and others) that the only way out of our health care mess is to keep people from falling into the “sick care system”.

The #1 way to do that is health coaching.

It’s obvious to those of us who see it. When people learn to eat well, take care of themselves, and lead a life that is more fulfilling and lower in stress, they stay out of the “sick care system”.

When people eat well and live well, they get better instead of sicker. Now that’s what I call a “health care system.”

If you’re here, with me, reading this, then I am pretty positive that you agree with me on this.

Health coaching is not only effective, but it’s remarkably inexpensive compared with medications and operations.

More and more people are figuring this out.

That’s why insurance companies, corporations, and governments are increasingly getting on board with health coaching.

And it’s why IIN grew from a small nutrition school with 20 students to the world’s largest.

Do we have our ingredient #2 for a game change? Yup.

So is nutrition (and health coaching) the next big thing?

Let’s see what Dr. Oz thinks in this video: