A Gap in the United States Healthcare System: Physician Nutrition Education Knowledge and Application

Physicians demonstrate an insufficiency in medical nutrition training, yet are expected to deliver nutrition counseling to patients with chronic disease. There is a clear understanding that unhealthy lifestyle behaviors (e.g. smoking, physical inactivity, poor diet) contribute to morbidity and mortality across the nation and worldwide. A preventable contribution to millions of deaths annually, which can be mitigated via brief nutrition and lifestyle counseling. Primary care is the ideal venue to deliver nutrition education and counseling, with a majority of all Americans regularly visiting their physician offices. With preventive medicine on the rise, is it imperative that a physician is proficient to have a sense of medical nutrition, to briefly counsel patients. This missing link, if fixed, will change the healthcare delivery system and overall patient outcomes for the better.