Get Well Soon

13 Jul 2011 – Caren Holzman

The Lancet recently published a major international study revealing that 347 million adults worldwide suffered from diabetes in 2008 – a number that has doubled since 1980 and exceeds that shown in previous studies. As it was a scientific study, it doesn’t address the staggering economic implications of this number in terms of lost productivity and exorbitant healthcare costs for treatment and support. However, a study also published in June in Value in Health contends that nearly one in five people with diabetes are regularly unable to attend a full day at work due to disruption caused by episodes of dangerously low blood sugar. And one in every ten healthcare dollars in the US is spent on diabetes and its complications.

The effects of this trend are no longer just being felt in the US and other northern countries either. Over 138 million of the sufferers in the Lancet study live in China and India, and with obesity in children up 25% in a decade in China, one can only assume that the number of adult diabetics will increase exponentially in the future.

It’s not hard to understand what’s happening here. As globalization continues to thrust forward, and as nations of the Global South become more economically empowered, more and more people are adopting the lifestyles and consumption habits that drive higher rates of obesity and diabetes. And if you track the explosive growth in international sales of fast food, sugary snacks and soft drinks in the last few years, you know the problem’s going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better.

Naturally, many are looking to the healthcare sector to drive more prevention and cost-effective treatment of diabetes. Then again, it may prove difficult for many healthcare providers to preach prevention and fight diabetes when the potential profitability from treatment and cures could be so lucrative. We have seen leading pharma companies, like NovoNordisk, engaged in prevention and early detection, but it is challenging to find examples of where healthcare companies have really addressed the issue of healthy diet head on.

Many are looking to the food and agriculture sector to drive change as well. We recently reported on the need for the sector to explore a new vision and play a central role in transforming the global food system, and we highlight the fact that “overconsumption” is a growing problem. There are some isolated efforts to address the issue, like Pepsi’s aim to cut sugar, fat and sodium in its snack foods by 25% in the next ten years, but nothing yet that truly matches the scale and urgency of the problem. Furthermore, Pepsi is now getting hammered by investors who fear the initiative will lead to lower profits, which is likely to give pause to others in the sector who might otherwise do more.

Again though, one thing is certain: the trend lines for overconsumption and diabetes continue to worsen. That means companies in the healthcare and food sectors will face mounting pressure and risks to brand value as long as they are perceived to be on the wrong side of this issue. In this sense, the food and healthcare sectors have a tremendous shared interest in solving these problems. Perhaps it’s time for them to explore more ways to work together to do so.

Indeed, the “appetite for change” should not be only sector deep, but cross-industry as well. I have no doubt of the power of two sectors aligning in a common cause and the difference that could make. Let us all look forward to the birth a new mega-sector that combines the positive contribution that food and healthcare can make to a healthy society – the mega-sector of wellness.