Why don't these doctors that push medications on patients, push a plant-based diet for healing? I've read lots on how to heal and exercise.

Exercise hard, eat fiber, die anyway!

I was a vegetarian for years and my health was terrible, when I reintroduced animal protein I lost 30# and felt great. We can not live on rabbit food, it doesn't provide our human bodies all of the nutrients we were created to use.

The problem lays with ALL the garbage they are injecting in the animals and their food.

Moderation and taking responsibility for yourself is really the key to healthy living and eating.

I had a family practice doc once tell me, without identifying anyone, of a family he dealt with. They were all obese with multiple health conditions such as hypertension and diabetes. None were interested in making any changes to their lifestyle and they laughed at and made fun of the one family member who was considered “the skinny one” as she was only about 250lbs. The doctor was completely defeated and could only dole out meds. This made me really see the doctor side of things, how they’re trained to advise and not just throw pills at people, but we live in a culture that often doesn’t want to hear it, much less act on it. The US is one of only a couple of countries in the world where advertising medications on tv is allowed. We’ve taught the population that there’s a pill for everything and our medical community has little choice but to follow the demands of their clients. I’m not criticizing people with weight issues, been there before myself, but personal responsibility can’t be placed on doctors or anyone but the individual

An old friend of mine died recently. Marathon runner, 100 mile biker, health food and alternative medicine adherent.

He died of prostate cancer because he didn't "believe" in Western medicine and all those stupid screening tests.

Like for PSA.

Hello All, I don't think I've posted for over a year now, due in part to dealing with yet more family bereavements, but saw this post and it resonated. Last August, in the space of 2 weeks, I caught Covid for the first time and was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. The nurse suggested I might like to try losing weight to put the diabetes into remission. I started a low blood sugar, Mediterranean diet and by December had lost over 30lb and got my blood sugar levels back to pre diabetes levels. I'm still following a Mediterranean style of eating, and have now lost over 50lb in total! Friends tell me I look 15 years younger, and I certainly feel really good. I eat so much variety, and using herbs, spices and other seasonings makes it all taste wonderful. It has been really life changing for me and I don't feel the need to return to the high carb high sugar days of before.

One of the saddest doctor visits I ever had was at a cardiologist's for an EKG before a medical procedure that I was going to have. I had no cardiac problems. I sat near two women, one was 26 and the other was about that age. They were related. They were obese. Huge, in fact. Maybe 300 pounds each, about 5'5" tall. They were there for their heart issues, which they freely discussed, and talking about the problems they were having with their hips and knees. One was complaining that she didn't want to have a knee replacement, which another doctor was planning to do.

I was sad for them. In their twenties and already in bad health, clearly because of their weight! Our joints aren't meant to schlepp around 300 pounds of fat.

As a family caregiver, I wish people would take better care of themselves so that others won't have to.

I think most Doctors advocate for healthy eating and exercise. However, I believe our medical system doesn't do enough to support proactive medial care. It focuses more on curing or medicating for chronic dieses. For example, most insurance won't cover weight loss/management but pay for diabetes treatment, which is some cases estimated to cost $14K a month!

Doctors should continue to advocate to stay healthy but as a society we need to push to have more focus on preventative medicine because if not, medical care will bankrupt the country.

But they do. If you read any info about cancer, heart disease and stroke and a myriad of other common diseases you will see recommendations to lose weight, eat healthier, exercise more and quit smoking. My mom's neurologist recommended she eat "nothing with a face" and also limit high cholesterol foods like eggs, but being a realist he also prescribed a statin.

Paying attention to plant-based diets is important for all of us, but what they eat becomes less important in very old age. For the very old we focus on what they enjoy eating rather than what is most healthy. My mom gets a good portion of her daily calories from ice cream. I prepare healthy, well-balanced meals, but how much she eats of them is up to her. I top off each meal with a dish of pudding and offer ice cream snacks in the afternoon and evening. She has lost weight over the past year, but not a lot, which pleases me.

Because they don't work. My cousin ate a 100% plant based diet and still died at 48 yrs old from brain cancer.

Doctors don't push plant- based diets because we are not herbivores and not carnivores, but we are omnivores. The best diet for us incorporates grains, fruits, veggies. and meats. And we eat way too much of most of them!
That isn't to say we can't be perfectly healthy on other diets. But it would be wrong to ask doctors to tell us to be vegetarians, when that is not what we are.

As to doctors and diets, they do not seem to address obesity at all, and THAT is what makes me cringe, as a nurse. Say what we will about fat-shaming, etc., it is not healthy to become so overweight that we have to face down diabetes (type 2, and many other illnesses), one of the best killers out there, and one that gets little recognition, because it causes so much organ failure that the cause of death listed is merely the organ that gave out first.

Like you, I wish doctors would discuss diet. I wish they would incorporate nutritionists so that whatever diet you wish to follow that person can expertly guide you toward health.

Given our doctors are allowed 10 minutes each with us now, I guess they are limited in what they CAN discuss, because seems to me they don't discuss our exercise and our (bad) habits, either.

We can argue diets, what's best for us and what's best for the planet, until the cows come home. But why would we? We've so much ELSE to argue!
We all have a right to our own choices which to follow, and our choices whether to eat too much of it or not.