ARTICLE
Every day, patients with diabetes, heart disease, cancer, stroke, and more are treated by doctors. Physicians around the country are learning the truth to what our mothers, and most chiropractors, already knew – Food is medicine. Medicine is from Latin medicina meaning, among other things, ”a remedy,” We need to start viewing food as a way to restore healthy function following disease. After all, the majority of the top killers of Americans are lifestyle related. A recent Time Magazine article highlighted programs where patients can pick up fresh produce and recipes along with their prescriptions. Other healthcare organizations and insurers are following suit. This information is not new, nor is the advice we give to our patients to exercise and eat more fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately, our recommendations are often met with blank stares. There is a severe lack of education about nutrition and food in general, for our patients as well as for physicians. According to a recent survey in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, only 27 percent of medical schools actually required a nutrition course. Additionally, the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine also recently indicated that with “recent data on the rising cost and loss of quality of life secondary to preventable causes, there is an absolute need for a drastic reform of the US medical education system.” Nutritional education in medical school equated to around 10 credit hours, almost all of it was biochemistry. Not covered were the elements of food preparation, how to read a nutrition label, or the environmental awareness of where our food comes from. However, most of the chronic diseases studied were caused by a diet, exercise, and lifestyle imbalance. Why is there was a heavier emphasis on pharmacology than the eating patterns of diabetic or obese patients. There was no instruction on how plant-based dietary patterns reversed heart disease, as Dean Ornish, MD, proved almost 30 years ago through Ornish Lifestyle Medicine. A certification in health coaching at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and a diploma in health-supportive and plant-based culinary arts from the Natural Gourmet Institute. Enabled one physician to talek with patients about diet and exercise, breaking down the importance of meal prepping, grocery shopping, and concepts of nutritional density versus caloric density of foods. He shares these principles with patients, regardless of why they came in for an appointment, because treating patients’ lifestyle is the best possible medicine. Less motivated patients roll their eyes when discussing their diet. Just the same as patients who smoke being told that smoking is bad for them. They know it, but they aren’t motivated enough to change — yet. Finding that motivation to change habits is difficult. Patients who want to change usually get stuck at meal planning. Remind them the prep work is 90 percent of the battle. In the end, what usually motivates patients isn’t their health but a connection to personal goals. It’s helping them to see that making these changes will lengthen their lives and ensure they will see their children get married or grandchildren graduate college. Source: https://www.physicianspractice.com/article/healthy-food-prescription-better-health
Every day, patients with diabetes, heart disease, cancer, stroke, and more are treated by doctors. Physicians around the country are learning the truth to what our mothers, and most chiropractors, already knew – Food is medicine. Medicine is from Latin medicina meaning, among other things, ”a remedy,” We need to start viewing food as a way to restore healthy function following disease. After all, the majority of the top killers of Americans are lifestyle related.
A recent Time Magazine article highlighted programs where patients can pick up fresh produce and recipes along with their prescriptions. Other healthcare organizations and insurers are following suit.
This information is not new, nor is the advice we give to our patients to exercise and eat more fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately, our recommendations are often met with blank stares. There is a severe lack of education about nutrition and food in general, for our patients as well as for physicians.
According to a recent survey in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, only 27 percent of medical schools actually required a nutrition course. Additionally, the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine also recently indicated that with “recent data on the rising cost and loss of quality of life secondary to preventable causes, there is an absolute need for a drastic reform of the US medical education system.” Nutritional education in medical school equated to around 10 credit hours, almost all of it was biochemistry. Not covered were the elements of food preparation, how to read a nutrition label, or the environmental awareness of where our food comes from.
However, most of the chronic diseases studied were caused by a diet, exercise, and lifestyle imbalance. Why is there was a heavier emphasis on pharmacology than the eating patterns of diabetic or obese patients. There was no instruction on how plant-based dietary patterns reversed heart disease, as Dean Ornish, MD, proved almost 30 years ago through Ornish Lifestyle Medicine.
A certification in health coaching at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and a diploma in health-supportive and plant-based culinary arts from the Natural Gourmet Institute. Enabled one physician to talek with patients about diet and exercise, breaking down the importance of meal prepping, grocery shopping, and concepts of nutritional density versus caloric density of foods. He shares these principles with patients, regardless of why they came in for an appointment, because treating patients’ lifestyle is the best possible medicine.
Less motivated patients roll their eyes when discussing their diet. Just the same as patients who smoke being told that smoking is bad for them. They know it, but they aren’t motivated enough to change — yet. Finding that motivation to change habits is difficult. Patients who want to change usually get stuck at meal planning. Remind them the prep work is 90 percent of the battle.
In the end, what usually motivates patients isn’t their health but a connection to personal goals. It’s helping them to see that making these changes will lengthen their lives and ensure they will see their children get married or grandchildren graduate college.
Source: https://www.physicianspractice.com/article/healthy-food-prescription-better-health