Dietitians can save Turkey millions

HANİFE KANAT Dietician Süheyla Subaşı Uçar made statements by saying that dietitians can bring about 10 more Bosphorus Bridges to Turkey by giving the citizens the habit of proper nutrition and an active life. Uçar started his speech by emphasizing that diet is wrong and how a healthy life will affect the life of the individual, especially the social life; “As a society, when we say diet – dietitian, we think of the words diet – auditor. Whoever you ask, she claims that she is on a diet when she doesn’t eat, when she is hungry or when she cuts out the bread. It’s not a diet, it’s a diet. For this reason, the process that begins consists of short-term and temporary enthusiasm. In fact, the word diet literally means “to eat”. Mankind begins to eat in the womb and ends when life ends. Therefore, “diet = eating” cannot be a passing fad, as it will exist from the beginning to the end of our lives. In order for this to be permanent, it must consist of healthy eating habits suitable for your lifestyle that you will happily do throughout your life.” she said. Uçar stated that Turkey is the 1st in Europe in obesity and obesity triggers metabolic diseases; “In general, everyone in the society thinks that they know about diet or, let me put it, a healthy diet, but the situation is exactly the opposite. According to WHO (World Health Organization) data, as Turkey, we are in the 1st place in Europe in terms of obesity. According to Turkey Nutrition and Health Survey (TBSA) – 2019 data, Metabolic Syndrome is seen in one out of every three people in Turkey. Metabolic Syndrome is a metabolic disorder caused by heart attack risk factors such as diabetes, belly fat, disorder in blood fat levels and high blood pressure. As a result of lifestyle changes, its incidence is increasing in our country as well as in the rest of the world. In Turkey, 1/3 of the population over the age of 20 has metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome, which is seen in people with overweight and high waist circumference, increases the risk of heart attack or stroke by 3 times and the risk of death by 2 times. The importance of the disease can be better understood when considering the increase in the risk of heart attack or stroke that a person has metabolic syndrome. According to the definition made by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) in 2005, for the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome, at least two of the four criteria that I will specify together with abdominal fat must be present. 1. high fasting blood sugar (≥100 mg/dl) or type 2 diabetes, 2. high blood pressure (≥130/85 mmHg) or use of blood pressure regulators, 3. HDL-cholesterol level ‹40 mg/dl in men , women being ‹50 mg/dl, 4. Triglyceride elevation (≥150 mg/dl) . For example, if a person has fat in the abdomen, that is, if the waist circumference is 90 cm if it is a woman and more than 100 cm if it is a man; At the same time, if there is a disorder in sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol or triglyceride levels, this person has metabolic syndrome.” made the statement. THE LOAD OF METABOLIC DISEASES ON THE COUNTRY’S ECONOMY IS HIGHER ON GNP. Uçar continued his statements by mentioning the burden of metabolic diseases on the country’s economy; “Every individual with metabolic syndrome is a future candidate for a chronic diabetes patient, heart patient, and blood pressure patient. Today, if one out of every 3 people in Turkey is not treated only by gaining the right nutrition and living habits, they will unfortunately become citizens with serious chronic diseases 5-10 years from now. Let me summarize the cost of this situation to Turkey as their own health deteriorated. I leave aside the job loss due to loss of quality of life due to chronic diseases and body weight gain, the annual cost of each diabetes patient who has metabolic syndrome and is not treated is only 20 thousand TL to the state, the cost of a blood pressure patient is a thousand TL, and the cost of a cholesterol patient is 1,500. TL. One third of every individual (19 million 824 thousand 867 people) over the age of 20 (59 million 474 thousand 601 people) in Turkey has metabolic syndrome. Considering that if these people are not treated, it can be estimated that the cost to be incurred will be higher than today’s gross domestic product, considering that each individual will suffer from many of these diseases. This will lead to inefficient use of the country’s resources. The health problems and the decrease in the quality of life of our citizens are also an incalculable value.” said. Dietitian Süheyla Subaşı Uçar underlined that precautions should be taken for citizens with metabolic diseases; “In order to increase the quality of life of our citizens and to reduce the burden of diseases on the country’s economy, we must protect our citizens and raise awareness without getting sick. One of the professional groups that will take the lead in this issue is dietitians who graduated from the nutrition and dietetics department of the faculty of health sciences. A person’s healthy diet allows him to be more energetic both mentally and physically while devoting time to his work, spouse, children, in short, to the things he loves. A dietitian can contribute to the formation of strong and healthy young generations, as well as saving the state economy as I mentioned above, with the nutrition education he/she gives. It can enable our young girl and boy to walk on the street with confidence. It can contribute to the comfortable personal care of our elderly grandparents. It can prevent parents from going into sleep mode when they come home from work, and can provide better energy for their children. It can contribute to the individual’s breathing. It can contribute to the sleep quality of our citizens. It can prevent the occurrence of diabetes, heart, kidney, cholesterol, vitamin deficiencies and many other diseases related to nutrition and increase the quality of life. It can prevent an individual with diabetes from being damaged by the disease. It can reduce the risk of heart attack. It can contribute to the treatment of blood pressure patients. It can prevent infants with metabolic diseases from being mentally retarded with appropriate nutritional treatment, and contribute to the preventive health system in many subjects that I have not written yet, and contribute to the treatment of diseases. Think of a car, just as driving a car with gasoline that meets quality standards will provide a quality driving pleasure, a quality diet forms the basis of a quality life process. That’s why we, dietitians, say that if the dietitian profession is supported, we can find solutions to many social problems from economy to health.” he ended his speech. SİVAS MEMLEKET NEWSPAPER