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Nutrition Education Mandate Introduced for Doctors

A bill drafted by Dr. John McDougall was introduced in California to mandate that physicians get continuing medical education in nutrition.

November 11, 2011 |
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Supplementary Info

Sources Cited

Parker WA, Steyn NP, Levitt NS, Lombard CJ. 2011. They think they know but do they? Misalignment of perceptions of lifestyle modification knowledge among health professionals. Public Health Nutr. 2011 Aug;14(8):1429-38.

View entire hearing at http://vimeo.com/23744792

SB 380 Senate Bill. 2011.

Acknowledgements

More about Dr. McDougall's groundbreaking work at http://www.drmcdougall.com/

Transcript

Doctors think they know nutrition, but studies show that most of them really don’t. So what’s the solution? Obviously more nutrition training in medical school, but what about for all the docs running around now? “attendance at lifestyle modification and chronic disease management workshops could form an essential component of continuing education for both medical and nursing professionals.” Doctors have to get continuing medical education credit anyway, why not mandate a few hours for nutrition? Good idea, said one of my favorite medical mentors, Dr. John A. McDougall, who drafted a bill in California to “require physicians and surgeons to complete, by December 31, 2016, a mandatory continuing education course in the subject of nutrition and life style behavior for the treatment of chronic diseases: "..."

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Peter Mellor.

To help out on the site please email volunteer@nutritionfacts.org

Dr. Michael Greger

Doctor's Note

Be sure to leave any ask-the-doctor type questions and I'd be happy to try to answer them. And please be sure not to miss Medical school nutrition education, Doctors know less than they think about nutrition, and all the other videos on the medical profession.

For some context, please check out my associated blog posts: Nutrition Education in Medicine: a Doctor a Day Keeps the Apples Away, Health Food Store Advice: Often Worthless or Worst, and Watermelon For Erectile Dysfunction.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/mgreger/ Michael Greger M.D.

    Be sure to leave any ask-the-doctor type questions and I’d be happy to try to answer them. And please be sure not to miss Medical school nutrition education, Doctors know less than they think about nutrition, and all the other videos on the medical profession.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/joe703631/ joe703631

    Hi Doc,
    Any push back from other docs?

    Is this mandated in other states?

    Joe

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/drdons/ DrDons

      I testified in support of this bill. It is not mandated in other states. I don’t get push back from individual physicians who practice medicine unless they are in administrative positions in organizations. Those “leaders” actually more aptly termed “politicians” have a knee jerk response against regulation and vested interest in maintaining the status quo. I give educational talks to physicians on preventing and reversing chronic diseases. In speaking with physicians informally… almost all would welcome information on this subject if it is presented in a well done manner offering practical approaches that they would find useful in their practices. Unfortunately many educational conferences are done over lunch or before workdays. I find it challenging to bring together the material and synthesize it into useful information in short time spans while allowing time to answer the attendees questions. Most of the larger educational programs are funded by drug and equipment companies and of course many physicians giving talks have little knowledge in this important area. Keep following NutritionFacts.org… let your physician(s) know about the site and print out abstracts of key articles that are relevant to your care and hand them to your physician(s).

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/ChrisKozura/ Chris Kozura

    Yes even naturopathic physicians have to continue to update themselves on human nutrition as science continues to see what helps in healing and what doesn’t. We tend to focus on pieces and parts but not wholism when it comes to diet. The question always comes to mind; ‘What is natural?’ Thanks for your website I share it to many people.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/meha/ Meha

    But this will not solve the problem because there is such a pressure to rely on pills and other medications rather than good advices.

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/drdons/ DrDons

      You are correct it won’t solve the problem as even if it passes(which it did in modified fashion). The physicians could be getting bad information in their CME courses… assuming the Medical Board of California decides to require educational content… the modified bill put the onus on them. As you mention there are other important factors such as reimbursement, misplaced goals(we measure success by our control of chronic conditions not cure), and misplaced organizational pressures and government policies. I do think it is a good first step and helps bring attention to an area where we have clearly learned alot of the last 20 years. The science if skillfully applied could alleviate huge amounts of suffering while saving alot money for patients, organizations and the country.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/mike-quinoa/ Mike Quinoa

    Considering the hundreds of study hours doctors must log to become MD’s, this seems to me a no-brainer. Diet might not be as sexy as “polypharmacology”—a term I heard Dr. McDougall use—but its importance is vastly understated. Kudos to Dr. John “Potato” McDougall for this initiative, and also to Dr. Greger for helping to spread the word.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/kpiers/ kpiers

    As my stepdaughter was making her way through medical training (she began teaching/practicing at a prestgious medical school in Chicago in 2010) at some of the very top medical schools in the USA, I asked her how much nutrition training she had received in medical school. At first she asked what I meant, then when I explained the connection between health outcomes and diet as I have come to know them through Dr McDougall’s work and others, she said maybe part of one class was given over to nutrition. It consisted of handing out the food pyramid prepared by the USDA and briefly summarizing the major food groups as a percentage of a healthy diet. My own MD, when I informed him that I had switched to vegan diet a couple of years ago did not even have enough interest in the topic to ask me why I did that. Obviously there is a GREAT need for remedial medical training related to nutrition and health outcomes.
    But the income of many MDs depends on having a steady parade of sick people populating their offices. So as long as we reward MDs for treating sick people but do not reward them for keeping people healthy, nutrition will alwyas be an umpopular topic in our medical schools.

  • Michael Greger M.D.

    For some context, please check out my associated blog post Nutrition Education in Medicine: a Doctor a Day Keeps the Apples Away!

  • Tony

    Awesome work Dr Greger. Please provide follow-up to this mandate as it has been approved. Email: amavros@atsu.edu

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