A Gap in the United States Healthcare System: Physician Nutrition Education Knowledge and Application

Abstract

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Physicians demonstrate an insufficiency in medical nutrition training, yet are expected to deliver nutrition counseling to patients with chronic disease. There is a clear understanding that unhealthy lifestyle behaviors (e.g. smoking, physical inactivity, poor diet) contribute to morbidity and mortality across the nation and worldwide. A preventable contribution to millions of deaths annually, which can be mitigated via brief nutrition and lifestyle counseling. Primary care is the ideal venue to deliver nutrition education and counseling, with a majority of all Americans regularly visiting their physician offices. With preventive medicine on the rise, is it imperative that a physician is proficient to have a sense of medical nutrition, to briefly counsel patients. This missing link, if fixed, will change the healthcare delivery system and overall patient outcomes for the better.