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Doctors and Your Diet
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14571 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
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3 / 1988 |
2,414 Words |
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R.P. Abernathy
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Physicians in the United States are among the best educated in the world, but many nutrition scientists believe most are ill-prepared to give up-to-date information on the role of nutrition in the prevention and treatment of disease. Those who espouse this view range from health-food enthusiasts to committee members reviewing the subject for the National Research Council's Food and Nutrition Board.
In 1970 the Committee on Maternal Nutrition, a division of the Food and Nutrition Board, indicated that many physicians did not have sufficient knowledge about nutrition and relied too heavily on commercially prepared information on diets and on vitamin and mineral supplements in treating their patients.
During the past 20 years, many studies evaluating the level of nutrition knowledge of physicians have been conducted. The conclusions have been remarkably similar--doctors don't receive enough nutrition education and their knowledge of nutrition is less than adequate.
In a recent study of students at 11 medical schools in the southeastern United States, the level of nutrition knowledge varied widely. Eighty-five percent of the students were dissatisfied with the amount of nutrition education they had received.
In 1974, the proceedings of the American College of Nutrition's first interim meeting in Chicago were published. In the introductory statement at this meeting, Dr. Myron Mehlman said, "Heretofore, medical school curricula has been principally preoccupied with diagnosis and specific therapy. Little time or attention has been directed toward the nutritional aspects of clinical medicine, therapeutics, and public health. Currently, only a few medical schools have the personnel and facilities necessary to develop a proper nutrition education program." Mehlman added that both medical schools and medical students recognize the need for more nutrition training.
In the mid-1970s, Dr. Charles E. Butterworth, a professor of medicine and chairman of the Council on Foods and Nutrition of the American Medical Association, reported that 30 percent or more of the patients in private rooms and wards of city hospitals throughout the United States were suffering from iatrogenic malnutrition, a condition induced because physicians had failed to provide adequate nutrition support.
These findings and other concerns about nutrition accelerated the already increasing discussion about low levels of nutrition research and education in medical schools. Open hearings of the U.S. Senate subcommittee on nutrition and symposia and seminars on nutrition education have been held to seek ways to improve nutrition education.
In 1979 the National Institute of Health began funding clinical nutrition research units. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition began publishing biennial surveys of medical centers, providing post-graduate training in clinical nutrition. Larger hospitals have begun to establish teams of clinical nutritionists which can be called upon for consultation when needed.
The Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council formed a committee to study the status of nutrition education in U.S. medical schools. In 1985, the
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