Ask a dietitian and they will tell you food is your best medicine. Yet, few doctors and patients ever discuss this topic. They should according to a statement written by a group of nutrition and heart disease experts. Diet directly effects disease and death rates yet it is not prioritized as a modifiable risk factor during regular health care visits.
The experts noted a number of reasons that diet quality is not addressed during regular office visits: lack of training, lack of time, no reimbursement, competing demands during a short office visit, and lack of nutrition services in that health care setting. The authors recommend a simple screening tool that asks questions about food variety and quantity and provides goals for actionable changes. Putting this into practice could slow down the rate of obesity, alter the burden of disease, and help direct some patients to services where additional help is needed.
