As a physician, one of the most frustrating public takes is the claim that doctors don’t receive enough training in medical school about nutrition, as though that is the central reason chronic disease continues to overwhelm healthcare.
It’s an easy accusation because it sounds thoughtful on the surface… especially when it comes from people who have never actually been to medical school. Do I have as much training in nutrition as a dietitian? Of course not! But the argument misses the deeper issue entirely.
No physician is going to argue against the value of a well-balanced diet, regular exercise, and avoiding habits like smoking, as these are basic pillars of health that we understand, teach, and try to reinforce in our respective practices.
The real problem is that the message goes in one ear and out the other. The environment around patients is built in direct opposition to the aforementioned advice. In many communities, cheap calories are easier to find than quality nutrition. Processed food is fast, convenient, heavily marketed, cheap, and everywhere. Whereas a burger and fries can be obtained in minutes with virtually zero effort, a healthier meal takes more planning, time, and money.
This is the unfortunate structure of the society we all live in.
Medicine itself also has limits that the general public doesn’t always want to acknowledge. Physicians are not custodians of daily human behavior. We can’t monitor every meal, enforce an active lifestyle, or prevent every self-destructive choice patients make after leaving the healthcare setting. Despite assessing risks, explaining physiology, and outlining consequences (good and bad) based on our experience and evidence, we cannot substitute our judgment for a patient’s own willingness to act.
The patient-physician relationship is a two-way street, and personal responsibility on the part of the patient still matters, no matter how uncomfortable that truth may be for people looking to assign blame to physicians. We cannot want health more than the patient does.
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