Arguably, diet and lack of exercise are the primary causes of death. As our tobacco consumption falls, the importance of diet increases. Up to 800,000 deaths each year in the United States are due to nutrition and exercise practice. So, very possibly, this is our leading cause of death. In addition, our patients are asking for more information.
Physicians are the primary source of nutrition information for the U.S. population.
That is kind of a scary thought when you consider that most physicians don't feel prepared to answer their patients' questions. We have new information that a healthy diet really works. If that trial had been a randomized, controlled trial of a drug, it would be the most successful randomized, controlled trial in the literature today, but because the treatment was a diet, it is not. The point is that we have evidence to suggest that these dietary interventions work. Of course, we have new dietary products out there that physicians should know how to use.