Nutrition Education Mandate Introduced for Doctors

Doctors think they know nutrition, but studies show that most of them really don’t. The majority overstate their actual knowledge. So, what’s the solution? Obviously, more nutrition training in medical school, but what about for all the docs running around now? “…[A]ttendance 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.”

Dr. John McDougall: “I’ve been in the business of medicine since 1968, so, about 44 years. My son just graduated from medical school two years ago, and he can’t remember a course on nutrition. But you’re going to hear from other interested parties that we don’t need to have a law that mandates that doctors get an education on something basic like nutrition, because doctors already take care of this. That’s plain and simple not true. And not only is this a travesty for the patient; it’s insulting to the doctor, not to be able to deliver this kind of a powerful tool for their patients, to teach them about the cause of dietary diseases. And based on the scientific literature, if you correct what’s making people sick, they get well. So, as doctors, we’re missing a real opportunity, and it’s not going to be fixed unless somebody does something about it. And that is, to mandate basic education on human nutrition. Thank you.”

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.

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• 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.

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

• Dr. John McDougall
• enfermedades crónicas
• formación médica
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