COLUMN: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day or is it?

A woman in her 60s, was recently admitted to Sana during a visit to Nuuk.

There was just one problem: there was no space. During the day she would sit out in the hallway. At night she would be moved into an office to sleep.

She also said that after a blood clot a few years ago, she was granted home help in Ilulissat. But the help never came. She has called the municipality several times. The answer is the same: there is no labor.

That made me think, this is not just a single story. It is a warning.

The large cohorts from the 1940s to the 1960s are entering an age where the need for hospitals, care and home help is increasing significantly. At the same time, we already know today that there is a lack of “warm hands”.

So what happens when the pressure really grows? Are there enough hospital beds? Are there enough staff? Or are we heading towards a system that cannot keep up?

That question leads to something we rarely talk about: how much of the burden of disease we ourselves actually help to create – and can prevent.

Research indicates that people with a healthy lifestyle often live long and relatively healthy lives, and only get sick shortly before death. Conversely, many with unhealthy habits live for years with diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and arthritis. We know that this is not just an individual problem. It is a pressure on the entire society.

One of the biggest culprits in both Greenland and Denmark is processed meat; cold cuts, bacon and sausages. Over 10 years ago, the WHO classified it as carcinogenic to humans. Yet consumption has remained largely unchanged. It is not just cancer but many other diseases that are caused by excessive meat and saturated fat intake, such as high blood pressure, the leading cause of death worldwide.

This is reminiscent of the 1950s, when tobacco was first suspected of causing cancer, while doctors appeared in cigarette advertisements. New knowledge takes time to make its way through. Not least because the industry shapes our habits. It influences what we perceive as “normal”.

Just think of the phrase: “breakfast is the most important meal of the day”. It sounds scientific, but it comes from Kellogg's. Or the advice about “a glass of milk a day”.

Advertisements disguised as health. Did you also know that a glass of whole milk contains as much saturated fat as four slices of bacon? What about the “Keyhole Label”, which draws our thoughts to something healthy?

So maybe the solution doesn’t just start in the hospital, it starts with food.

If we know that healthier eating can reduce illness and thus the pressure on the healthcare system, why don’t we talk about it more?

Why are the unhealthy choices still the most filling?

Are there enough hospital beds in the Greenland of the future?

Who will take care of the elderly if the hands are missing?

And most importantly: do we as a society dare to take responsibility for what we already know?

Is our food culture too heavily influenced by industry advertising?

Because it's not about living to 100.

It's about living as many years as possible without disease.