The importance of nutrition

If you believe that we are indeed what we eat, don't you find it surprising that in the medical curriculum learning about nutrition is conspicuous by its absence? We are so keen to medicalise everything that we often ignore the fact that the patient in front of us is a whole person not just a sick bit. Everything they do, including what they do or don't eat or drink, will affect their health.1

Take the following typical scenarios: a teenage girl who is tired all the time, a middle aged man with chronic headaches, and an elderly woman with a venous ulcer that will not heal. How many of you would rush in with a monospot test suspecting glandular fever, refer for computed tomography to rule out a tumour, or apply a topical antibiotic after screening for diabetes, assuming that the skin breakdown is due to a secondary bacterial infection?

All these things may not …