REPOST: Healthy aging for a sustainable workforce

HuffingtonPost.com discusses the significance of wellness programs in creating a productive, sustainable workforce.

Today's employers face many challenges in their efforts to compete with an increasingly global marketplace. For years the cost of health care deservedly grabbed all the headlines as employers struggled to bear the costs of health care. As the American workforce ages in place, employers have become increasingly aware of how chronic illness and poor lifestyle choices impact presenteeism and productivity. Often, it's the more senior members of work teams that play critical roles as the most skilled and seasoned contributors.

Today's wellness programs look to address both of these problems with innovative tools that assist people in choosing healthier lifestyles as well as managing their chronic conditions more successfully.

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There are currently more than 76 million "baby boomers," those born between the years of 1960 and 1964, who are growing older and working longer. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the proportion of workers over the age of 55 will increase steadily to 20 percent by 2020. No matter what the reason -- struggling economy, poor 401K performance, continued financial need -- people today are working longer than ever before, a trend that doesn't appear to be going away any time soon.

Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. But with this trend of working well into and past our 50s come a number of new issues that employers need to be more conscious of and carefully consider, specifically, how to keep a young workforce healthy. So the mission is to effectively manage workforces in a way that is mutually beneficial to both employees and the bottom line. And, the only way to address the potential negative impact of both chronic disease and other health issues on the aging U.S. workforce is to create a sustained culture of health -- one that emphasizes the full spectrum of health and wellness of all workers for the duration of their "working lifetimes," not just when they are older.

Evidence continues to mount demonstrating that health behaviors have the single greatest influence on overall health and ultimately, our lives. Yet, according to multiple sources, nearly 67 percent of American adults are overweight or obese, 60 percent don't exercise regularly, and surprisingly, still more than 20 percent smoke. All of which can lead to serious chronic conditions including heart disease, which is the leading cause of death for Americans every year -- more people than all forms of cancer combined -- and Type 2 diabetes, which is a leading cause of death in both men and women in the U.S. These few facts alone go to show that we need to change unhealthy behaviors to healthy behaviors before chronic conditions set in.

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How do we do that? A total population health approach that incorporates incentives, education in the form of decision aids, and personalized coaching is critical to success. It ensures that the entire workforce -- including the aging population -- is aware of the significance of good health and well-being, provided with access to the information they need to get more involved in their health and health care decisions, and surrounded by engaging, personalized programs and resources that will shape their attitudes in a way that leads to impactful behavior change to maintain healthy aging. A critical step to inspiring this type of long-term behavior change through integrated health and multi-tiered wellness programs is demonstrating the value of participation to employees. By getting involved and staying involved in these programs, employees will not only become healthier but also reap tangible savings for themselves in the form of lower premiums and reduced overall health care costs. The educational resources and interactions with qualified, registered health professionals allows for a more personalized discussion and understanding of risk factors and methods for improvement. Self-assessments and bio screenings provide an invaluable way for people to benchmark where they are today and then to map out a plan and measure progress. Innovative personalized programs can allow individuals to add to or edit their goals, and select challenges that interest them. Gaming and sharing components also encourage continued engagement, ongoing participation, and achievement of goals. Measurement enables the employer to better identify and target individuals that may need support as well as provide employees with motivation to help them achieve and surpass their personal goals.

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As the American workforce continues to age, employers must look to create a true health culture that engages all employees and drives meaningful behavior change in order to fight against spiraling health care costs and the epidemic of poor health. Meaningful, personalized, whole-person engagement ensures that the investment in health and wellness will be maximized for both the companies and people who need it to work. If employers and employees buy in to this, both will be happy and healthy -- and productive -- for years to come.

As a regenerative medicine specialist, Dr. Rachna Mehra helps patients reverse the natural aging process of their bodies through proper nutrition, active lifestyle, and various treatments, such as stem cell therapy and prolotherapy. More articles on the path toward graceful aging can be found on this blog.

REPOST: What’s In a Bug? Lots of Healthy Nutrients

Eating insects is usually seen only as a gastronomic daredevilry. Outside the Western world, insects are regularly eaten, and recent studies show that eating bugs is tantamount to eating tiny concentrated packages of nutrients. Time.com’s Alexandra Sifferlin lists down the nutritional contents of insect varieties, which can be viewed in full here:

Image source: Time.com

There’s a new movement to introduce bugs to our buffets, and none other than the United Nations is leading the charge to eat more insects. The organization argues that more bug consumption could be critical for fighting food insecurity.

Earlier this summer, the U.N. released a report entitled “Edible Insects,” in which the group estimated that current food production would have to double in order to feed the nine billion people expected to populate the world by 2050. With land already stretched thin and densely occupied, and with many water resources overfished, feeding that population may become increasingly difficult.

New food resources are clearly needed. And the U.N. is pushing western populations, including Americans, to try eating bugs. In other regions of the world, like Thailand, insects are part of the daily diet; those living in Africa, Asia and Latin America regularly consume insects since many meat sources are not widely available and insects are a high source of protein.

These edible insects, which include critters like crickets and beetles, serve as tiny packets of amino acids, vitamins, carbohydrates and unsaturated fatty acids. And perhaps more importantly, they are a sustainable source of sustenance that doesn’t require extensive energy to reproduce. “There are other substances in insects that are good for human health; for example, antibacterial proteins and peptides, enzymes and hormones,” the authors of the report write.

But exactly how nutritious are insects? If the tiny critters are going to take off in the U.S., they had better pack a nutritious punch that helps people to overcome the ick factor of crunching on wings, antennae and other body parts.

So in the interest of eating for a sustainable future, read on for the five edible insects with the most nutritional benefits (nutritional values measured per 100 grams).

Crickets

Image source: Time.com

Crickets are popular on menus in Thailand and other Asian countries and their calcium content makes them one of the more common insects eaten (or at least tried) in the West.

“Protein is a big part of their value nutritionally, but they also tend to be calorie- and lipid-rich and they are generally good sources of vitamins and minerals,” says May Berenbaum, the head of the Department of Entomology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “There are ecological and economic benefits, too. [In general] some insects can be raised on foods that aren’t consumed by humans and rearing insects tends to produce far fewer greenhouse gas emissions.”

Protein: 12.9 grams

Fat: 5.5 grams fat

Carbohydrates: 5.1 grams

While crickets contain some fat, some of that fat is of the healthier, unsaturated kind, and roasting the insects can keep the fat that you consume to a minimum. If you’re curious about how crickets compare to a similar sized serving of steak:

Steak, sirloin (100 grams) Protein: 30.55 grams

Fat: 5.79 grams

Carbohydrates: 0

Grasshoppers

Image source: Time.com

They’re similar to crickets, but grasshoppers have a shorter antenna and are more active during the day. Most commonly found and consumed in areas with grasslands, the writers of the U.N. report maintain that the critters are simple to cook, and especially tasty when roasted and seasoned with onion, garlic, chili or soy sauce. Their nutritional content makes them a hearty snack or addition to most meals.

And if the idea of finding, cleaning, and handling grasshoppers makes you nervous, designer Mansour Ourasanah has created a product called Lepsis, a trendy food dehydrator type of device that grows and dispatches grasshoppers for your plate and was featured in the July issue of Wired “Insects were a great source of protein, so on days when we didn’t have enough to eat at home, scavenging for grasshoppers and crickets was a strategy we could always rely on, and nature never failed to deliver,” Ourasanah, who is originally from the African nation of Togo, told Wired. Watch the video of his grasshopper-eating tips here.

Protein: 20.6 grams

Fat: 6.1 grams

Carbohydrates: 3.9 grams

The protein content in grasshoppers comes pretty close to that of a similar-sized serving of chicken breast, but with a bit more fat.

Chicken breast, roasted (100 grams) Protein: 31.02 grams

Fat: 3.57 grams

Carbohydrates: 0

The full article tackles three more nutritious edible insects.

Dr. Rachna Mehra believes that a healthy lifestyle is the key to wellness. Keeping count of nutrient intake is crucial to a proper assessment of one’s health. Visit this Facebook page for more health and wellness trends.