Medical Schools Fall Short On Teaching Students About Obesity, Study Finds

Great news!

It’s no secret that obesity is a major problem in America. More than one-third of adults and one-sixth of children are obese and it is one of the leading causes of preventable death. The costs associated with obesity are estimated at $99 million annually, comparable to the economic toll of cigarette smoking.

Despite all this, few U.S. medical schools are providing adequate, effective training on how to address weight issues in obese patients, according to researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

“Medical students are surrounded by the same environment that everyone is in this country, a culture of idealized images of physical attractiveness in which thin is good and fat is bad,” said Mara Vitolins, Dr.P.H., R.D., professor of public health sciences at Wake Forest Baptist and lead author of the study that was published in the July issue of the journal Teaching and Learning in Medicine. “We just aren’t doing a good enough job of teaching our students evidence-based methods of intervention and care for our obese patients.”

Because the conventional medical approach to overweight/obesity is wrong.

See here, here, and here.

Keep it that way.