Do you know more about basic nutrition than most doctors?<\/p>\n
\u201cA poor diet now outranks<\/a> smoking as the leading cause of death globally and in the United States, according to the latest data.\u201d The top killer of Americans is<\/a> the American diet, as you can see below and at 0:23 in my video How Much Do Doctors Actually Know About Nutrition?<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n If diet is<\/a> humanity\u2019s number one killer, then, obviously, nutrition is the number one subject taught in medical school, right? Sadly, \u201cmedical students around the world [are] poorly trained<\/a> in nutrition.\u201d It isn\u2019t that medical students aren\u2019t interested in learning about it. In fact, \u201cinterest in nutrition was \u2018uniformly high\u2019 among medical students,\u201d but medical schools just aren\u2019t teaching it. \u201cWithout a solid foundation of clinical nutrition knowledge and skills, physicians worldwide are generally not equipped to even begin to have an informed nutrition conversation with their patients\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n How bad is it? One study, \u201cAssessing<\/a> the clinical nutrition knowledge of medical doctors,\u201d found the majority of participants got 70 percent of the questions wrong\u2014and they were multiple choice questions, so they should have gotten about a fifth of them right just by chance. \u201cWrong answers in the\u2026knowledge test were not limited to dif\ufb01cult or demanding questions\u201d either. For example, less than half of the doctors were able to guess how many calories are in fat, carbohydrates, and protein; only one in ten knew the recommended protein intake; and only about one in three knew what a healthy body mass index (BMI) was. We\u2019re talking about really basic nutrition knowledge.<\/p>\n Even worse, not only did the majority of medical doctors get a failing grade, but 30 percent of those who failed had \u201ca high self-perception of their CN [clinical nutrition] expertise.\u201d They weren\u2019t only clueless about nutrition; they were clueless that they were clueless about nutrition, a particularly bad combination given that doctors are<\/a> \u201ctrusted and influential sources\u201d of healthy eating advice. \u201cFor those consumers who get information from their personal healthcare professional, 78% indicate making a change in their eating habits as a result of those conversations.\u201d So, if the doctor got everything they know from some article in a magazine while waiting in the grocery store checkout aisle, that\u2019s what the patients will be following.<\/p>\n Of doctors surveyed, \u201conly 25% correctly identified<\/a> the American Heart Association recommended number of fruit and vegetable servings per day, and fewer still (20%) were aware of the recommended daily added sugar limit for adults.\u201d So how are they going to counsel their patients? And get ready for this: Of the doctors who perceived themselves as having high nutrition knowledge, 93 percent couldn\u2019t answer those two basic multiple-choice questions, as seen here and at 2:39 in my video<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cPhysicians with no genuine expertise in, say, neurosurgery [brain surgery] are neither likely to broadcast<\/a> detailed opinions on that topic nor to have their \u2018expert\u2019 opinions solicited by the media. Most topical domains in medicine enjoy such respect: we defer expert opinion and commentary to actual experts. Not so nutrition, where the common knowledge that physicians are generally ill-trained in this area is conjoined to routine invitations to physicians for their expert opinions on the matter. All too many are willing to provide theirs, absent any basis for actual expertise\u2026\u201d Or worse, they\u2019re \u201coften made on the basis of native bias and personal preference, at times directly tethered to personal gain\u2014such as diet book sales\u2014and so arises yet another ethical challenge.\u201d That\u2019s one of the reasons all the proceeds I receive from my books are donated directly to charity. I don\u2019t want even the appearance of any conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a culture that routinely fails to distinguish expertise from mere opinion or personal anecdote, we physicians should be doing all we can to establish relevant barriers to entry for expert opinion in this [diet and nutrition], as in all other matters of genuine medical significance.\u201d I mean, we aren\u2019t talking celebrity gossip. Lives are at stake. \u201cEntire industries are devoted to marketing messages that may conspire directly against well-informed medical advice in this area.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMedical education must be brought up to date. For physicians to be ill-trained in the very area most impactful on the rate of premature death at the population level is an absurd anachronism\u2026.The mission of medicine is to protect, defend, and advance the human condition. That mission cannot be fulfilled if the diet is neglected.\u201d<\/p>\n A possible starting place? \u201cPhysicians and health care organizations can collectively begin<\/a> to emphasize their seriousness about nutrition in health care by practicing what they (theoretically) preach. Is it appropriate to serve pizza and soft drinks at a resident conference while bemoaning the high prevalence of obesity and encouraging patients to eat healthier? A similarly poor example exists in medical conferences, including national meetings, where some morning sessions are accompanied by foods such as donuts and sausage.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/nutritionfacts.org\/app\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0-23.png\")
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