These health problems are not only common and debilitating but also costly. Treating high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol costs around US$400 billion per year. Within 25 years, those costs are expected to triple to $1.3 trillion.
These facts support the need for physicians to give accurate advice about diet to help prevent these diseases. But how much does a typical doctor know about nutrition?
Not surprisingly, the lack of education had a direct impact on physician nutrition knowledge. In a study of 257 first and second year osteopathic medical students taking a nutrition knowledge quiz, more than half passed the test. Before the test, more than half of the students – 55% – felt comfortable counseling patients on nutrition.
Unfortunately, this problem is not limited to US medical schools. A global study in 2018 concluded that, regardless of country, the nutrition education of medical students around the world is insufficient.
Bringing back nutrition education
Although evidence suggests that nutrition education may be effective, there are many reasons why it is lacking. Medical students and physicians are some of the busiest people in society. The amount of information taught in medical curricula is often described as overwhelming – like drinking from a fire hose.
First- and second-year medical students focus on dense topics, including biochemistry, molecular biology, and genetics, and learn clinical skills such as interviewing patients and understanding heart and lung sounds. Third and fourth year students practice in clinics and hospitals while learning from physicians and patients.
As a result, their schedules are already jammed. There is no room for sustenance. And when they become physicians, it doesn’t get any better. It would take them more than seven hours a week to provide preventive care, including nutritional counseling to patients – and that’s not counting the time they have to spend on continuing education to keep up. up to date with new findings in nutritional science.
Additionally, the lack of nutrition education in medical schools has been attributed to a shortage of qualified nutrition instructors, as most physicians do not understand nutrition well enough to teach it.
Ironically, many medical schools are part of universities that have maintained departments with Ph.D.-educated professors; those academies could fill this gap by teaching nutrition to medical students. But these classes are often taught by physicians who lack adequate nutrition training – meaning that truly qualified instructors, who are within most medical schools, are left out of the process.
Getting the right advice
The best source of nutrition information, whether for medical students or the general public, is a registered dietitian, certified nutrition specialist or some other type of nutrition professional with multiple degrees and certifications. They study for years and record many hours of practice to give nutritional advice.
Although anyone can make an appointment with a nutrition professional for nutritional counseling, a referral from a health care provider such as a doctor is usually required for the appointment to be covered by insurance. So seeing a doctor or other primary care provider is often a step before meeting with a nutrition professional.
This extra step may be one reason many people look elsewhere, for example to their phones, for nutrition advice. However, the worst place to look for accurate nutrition information is social media. Here, about 94% of posts about nutrition and diet have low value – either inaccurate or lacking sufficient data to support the claim.
Keep in mind that anyone can post nutrition advice on social media, regardless of their qualifications. Good diet advice is tailored and takes into account age, sex, body weight, goals and personal preferences. It’s hard to capture this complexity in a short social media post.
The good news is that nutrition education is effective when it occurs, and most medical students and physicians acknowledge the critical role nutrition plays in health. In fact, close to 90% of med students say that nutrition education should be a mandatory part of medical school.
We hope that nutrition education, after being devalued or ignored for years, will become an integral part of the curriculum of all medical schools. But given its history and current status, this is unlikely to happen anytime soon.
In the meantime, those who want to learn more about a healthy diet should meet with a nutrition professional or, at the very least, read the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans or the World Health Organization’s healthy diet recommendations.