Physicians Receive Inadequate Nutrition Education; Report Details Harm and Recommends Policy Changes

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 26, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Diet is the most significant risk factor for disability and premature death in the United States — so why does the average medical student spend less than one percent of lecture hours on nutrition? Doctoring Our Diet: Policy Tools to Include Nutrition in U.S. Medical Training, a new report from the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic (FLPC), calls for immediate policy change to bridge the gaps between nutrition-related diseases, climbing healthcare costs, and the lack of adequate nutrition education for physicians.

To reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and other diet-related diseases, most patients would like to rely on their doctor's advice; yet studies show only fourteen percent of physicians feel adequately trained to counsel patients on nutrition. The failure of our health care system to equip doctors with this training represents not only a missed opportunity to promote greater population health, but also to reduce healthcare costs. Federal Medicare spending, for example, accounts for nearly 15 percent of all federal spending and is expected to surpass $1 trillion in the next decade. Medicare is also the single largest funder of residency programs and graduate medical education—a critical stage of physician training which currently lacks any nutrition education requirements.  

"Despite the overwhelming evidence proving diet is vital to good health, medical professionals receive almost no education on diet or nutrition," says Emily Broad Leib, Director of FLPC. "Leveraging existing funding sources, such as Medicare, and adopting other policy interventions to require nutrition education throughout medical training can improve outcomes for patients, mitigate the immense costs of preventable diseases, and change healthcare for the better."

Doctoring Our Diet is the first report to provide actionable policy recommendations to increase nutrition education at every stage of medical training. Focusing on policymakers at the federal and state level, and medical accrediting and testing bodies, the report presents a range of policy solutions to ensure that physicians understand the relationship between food and health and can advise their patients accordingly.

The Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic (FLPC) serves partner organizations and communities by providing guidance on cutting-edge food system issues, while engaging law students in the practice of food law and policy. FLPC focuses on increasing access to healthy foods, supporting sustainable production and regional food systems, and reducing waste of healthy, wholesome food. For more information, visit http://www.chlpi.org/flpc/.

Contact: Najeema Holas-Huggins, 617-496-1507, [email protected] 

SOURCE The Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic

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http://www.chlpi.org/flpc