Nutrition Needs
A recent survey reported that 95 percent of physicians understand the importance of nutrition in fighting chronic diseases.
Sadly, only 12 percent of them do something with that knowledge.
The online survey of 400 physicians was conducted by Hart Research Associates in conjunction with the American Dietetic Association and the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine. It also had support from Abbott Nutrition, a division of the Abbott health-care company.
Judging from the ADA’s June press release, I’m guessing that the survey’s main purpose was to push for better insurance coverage for nutrition services in any health-care reform bill that surfaces in Congress.
But I do think it’s true that most doctors don’t deal with diet as part of their treatment, whether preventative or not. It’s really a shame, since diet plays a role in many types of cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other chronic diseases.
In fact, I’m reading a new book by Ski Chilton, a professor at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, that deals with this subject from a fascinating new angle.
The book, called the Gene Smart Diet, talks about how to get our genes to work for us through diet and exercise. It draws a line from the wrong kind of diet to inefficient gene function/cellular maintenace to chronic inflammation to a host of deadly diseases.
I’m still reading the book, so stay tuned for more info later. But basically Chilton believes that we can help determine which genes express themselves in us simply by what we eat.
