Integrating Nutrition Education into Clinical Practice

Focusing on integrating nutrition education into clinical practice, Helen Delichatsios outlines the challenges faced by physicians in counselling food choices and weight management and offers some tools for talking to patients.  She believes it is never too late to change your attitude and encourages physicians themselves to set a good example: health care providers with better self-health habits are more likely to proactively counsel their patients on healthy eating and lifestyles.  She details a 90-minute format for a group medical visit, where physicians talk to more than 10 patients together about medical conditions affected by obesity, using the opportunity to bring nutrition to the fore in the discussion, including having the patients produce simple nutritious meals together.