How trusting are you of doctors?!
What do you think about dietary advice from a general practitioner?
Answers: Diet goes a long way in deciding the health of a human. It's probably the #1 factor. Why would anyone trust a general practitioner's advice regarding diet? After all, a doctor is useless without patients to treat right?
What do you think about dietary advice from a general practitioner?
You ask two very different questions.
GPs have very little training in nutrition it's true, so no, I don't take my GP's advice on diet very seriously and I know I am at least as well-informed on diet as he is. I trust his medical knowledge and professional advice though.
You go on to ask: "Can doctors who require sick patients to make a living be trusted to give good health advice?".
which is a very different matter.
My situation is different from that of many of the people who've answered because I live in a country with a national health service and my GP is paid the same salary whether I visit him for advice four times a week or twice a year.
However, wherever they are, doctors and other medical workers went into medicine for one reason only: to help ill people get better. If wealth was their motive, they made a foolish choice - there are many ways an unscrupulous person can make more money than a doctor does, and without the costly and lengthy training.
Not long ago I was ill enough to be obliged to put my life in the hands of medical professionals; I didn't encounter any, from student nurses to the consultant surgeon, who did not have my health and recovery at heart and who didn't work their socks off to that end. Any suggestion of a conspiracy to make or keep people sick in order to make money would be nonsense.
I'm a difficult patient, I questioned every little thing, but all the questioning convinced me that the treatment being recommended by the doctors was the way to go.
Curing disease with medicine? Sounds good to me.
Considering they have ZERO nutritional training, I wouldn't listen to a single thing one tried to tell me.
ETA:
I think doctors are doing the best they know how. I don't think they're purposely making people sick. Most of the country is brainwashed when it comes to what's healthy and what's not. We know that. Yeah, there are doctors who push medications because of the kickbacks they get or simply because they don't have knowledge of any other methods.
Honestly, the only thing I want from a doctor is for her/him to fix me when I'm physically broken.
You have to be careful because GPs are not trained in nutrition. They get about 1 lecture maximum in it at medical school.
It's better to get advice from a dietitian.
Hi Me! Long time no see!
I would be weary accepting advice from a general practitioner simply because he has been taught only to cure disease with medicine. That is the American Way. Cure any ailment with a bunch of chemicals and crap that your body does not need.
Most doctors are not educated on nutrition. They are taught how to prescribe medication to their patients.
I don't trust them, generally.
I have had four doctors in my life.
- One was my pediatrician who felt that children should only eat veal, as other meats sometimes made them vomit and that was a sign, to her, that they weren't 'good for kids.' Did not believe in eating pork.
- One was an old man who swore that beef was the best source of iron and my lack of eating it caused my anaemia, despite the fact that my iron had been low even when I ate plenty of meat. Coincidentally, from a family of beef farmers.
- One was a Hindu guy. He felt meat and eggs was a bad idea generally, and espoused drinking lots of milk and eating lots of lentils, beans and chickpeas. Coincidentally, a lacto vegetarian.
- One was my sister in law, who felt that veganism was the best choice. Coincidentally, a vegan.
Doctors aren't trained in nutrition. That's why we have programs for registered dietitians, where dietitians spend 4-6 years studying only nutrition and how it affects the body.
My dietitian knew why vegetarianism could be healthy, knew why veganism could be healthy. She knew why both could be unhealthy. Same goes for beef, pork, veal eating.
Being that this is n the VV section I will answer like a V/V.
it depends on if the doctor is omnivore or veggie.
some are bi-est
Doctors give you the c-word.
The only people that you should take dietary advice from are registered dietitians and even then you can't believe every little thing that you are told.
Given the fact that most of them got mere hours of nutritional education, I don't think doctors in general are a good source of dietary advice. They're taught to treat with drugs and surgery, not to prevent with diet and exercise.
However, I trust my own doctor completely. It's about being a good (aware) patient. I know I can trust my doctor because of the dialogue we've shared. If I didn't trust her I'd find one I felt more comfortable with. But I digress.
I totally agree with Mookie.
Not too long ago, I had to visit my doctor's office 4 times over a week. I was getting dizzy, cold sweats, and passing out. I asked her to do a blood iron test on me, she refused, told me I was having anxiety, and wrote out a script.
I didn't fill that script, I knew I was not having anxiety attacks. I went to another doctor, had blood work done, and found out I did had low iron and low sugar due to my lack of eating.
Never, ever trust a doctor about diet, most of them are overweight anyways.
I love most of these answers. It points out that most Americans are understanding that GPs are only a signature to allow them to see the people that really know (or can figure out) what's going on.
I used to have almost absolute trust in Drs. but became increasingly wary of them by my mid-20's. I certainly wouldn't go to one for dietary advice although most have approved of my vegetarianism & occasionally I'll even meet a veg Dr. The 1 time a Dr. questioned my diet was when I was severely anemic (*not* diet-related) & if they'd figured out what was causing the problem earlier it wouldn't have become as bad as it did. My blood count improved without eating meat, btw.
it is inaccurate to state all doctors have zero nutritional training. docs, specially those treating diet sensitive illnesses (diabetes, hypertension, OB-GYN etc) are generally knowledgeable nutritionists. What they are not are dieticians.
Continuing medical education courses are there for any physician who wants them.
I trust my doc 100% but he is not a GP anyway. He is a cardio-pulomonary specialist. Also a trained in sports medicine, my tennis and golf partner three times a week and a family friend.
I absolutely trust that my doctor's advice is going to be what she believes is best for my health. She knows as well as I know there are always going to be sick people to treat.
I don't, however, take everything my doctor says to be the final word. There have been times that I have known more about a certain medication for instance than she has because I researched the hell out of it before I went in to see her. They can only know so much about so much.
*My doctor gave her full support when my daughter and I decided to go vegetarian, but she had little to offer in the way of dietary advice.
doctors are generally very ignorant of nutrition.
you wouldn't talk to a plumber about decorating your house, would you?
Likewise, if you need nutritional advice, ask a NUTRITIONIST.