Healthcare spending has reached 5.3% of GDP! The solution is not in the hospital, but at the dinner table.
Türkiye's GDP (Gross Domestic Product) for 2024 is approximately 26 trillion TL. Total healthcare spending in the same year reached 2.36 trillion TL. This indicates that healthcare spending reached 5.3% of GDP. This is a very serious situation.
The data tells us this: healthcare costs are rising rapidly, and this burden is growing every year. This is where functional foods come into play.
Functional foods;
• Food industry production is included in GDP.
• However, unlike traditional food, it produces high added value.
• It creates 3–5 times more economic value with the same production volume.
• It increases the unit price in exports.
• R&D triggers technological and industrial transformation.
More importantly, functional foods are not a healthcare expense. They are a production area that reduces healthcare costs in the long run.
Given the impact of chronic diseases, obesity, muscle wasting, and nutrition-related health problems on the national budget, functional foods represent an indirect but strategic balancing element within GDP.
In this context, my research shows that in developed countries, functional foods are not considered under the headings of agriculture and traditional food, but rather within the scope of high value-added industry and preventive health economics.
From Türkiye's perspective, functional foods are a strategic production area where industry, health, and export policies intersect, although their share in GDP may seem small, their impact is significant.
Functional foods appear as a food industry component in GDP.
However, its effect is that of a high value-added production method that balances the economy against rising healthcare costs.
