Americans spend an average of $12,555 per person on health care annually according to the Peterson-KFF Health Care Tracker. By comparison, typical health care spending across other developed nations is about $6,651, However, Americans are the sickest, fattest, unhealthiest population. The US ranks high in infant mortality and ranks low in life expectancy compared to other industrialized nations. This shows that the American approach to healthcare is not working.

Why are so many Americans, including children, so sick when we spend so much more for healthcare than any other nation? What if the food we eat undermines our health? What if the medical system is not designed to protect or restore our health but to make us permanent cash cows for Big Pharma? If so, how did this happen and how can we fix this unhealthy system?

We are told that Hippocrates, a Greek physician who lived from around 460–377 B.C., was the father of Western medicine. Doctors reportedly take The Hippocratic Oath. Hippocrates said, "Let food be your medicine and medicine your food". However, since the Rockefellers' takeover of Westen medicine in the early 20th century, doctors learn almost nothing about nutrition. Instead, they have a pill for every ill.

21st Century Functional Medicine

Functional Medicine: 21st Century Healthcare shows that a growing number of MDs are going back to get their "ND" for Naturopathic Medicine. The Disease Delusion: Conquering the Causes of Chronic Illness for a Healthier, Longer, and Happier Life by Dr. Jeffrey Bland, the father of Functional Medicine, explains the transition from 20th century Allopathic Medicine to 21st century Functional Medicine.

Dr. Bland, a biochemist, earned dual degrees in biology and chemistry from the University of California, Irvine, and completed his PhD in organic chemistry at the University of Oregon.  He is a Fellow of both the American College of Nutrition where he is a Certified Nutrition Specialist and the Association for Clinical Biochemistry. Dr. Bland is a former professor of biochemistry at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, and served as Director of Nutritional Research at the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine in the early 1980's, working directly with two-time Nobel Laureate Dr. Linus Pauling whom he considers his lifelong mentor.