Could an overweight physician convince you to lose weight?
Who could be a better guide for helping people to lose weight than their physicians? No one sees the dangers of excess weight more clearly, and no one is better positioned to spread the word.
Could an overweight physician convince you to lose weight?
Robert I. Field, Ph.D., J.D., M.P.H., Professor, Earle Mack School of Law & Drexel School of Public Health
Robert I. Field, Ph.D., J.D., M.P.H.
Who could be a better guide for helping people to lose weight than their physicians? No one sees the dangers of excess weight more clearly, and no one is better positioned to spread the word.
But what if the physician giving the advice could stand to lose a few pounds, himself? Does that dilute the message?
According to a 2004 study, 44 percent of all physicians in the United States are either overweight or obese. That means almost half of the most effective spokespeople for the benefits of slimming down have ignored their own profession’s recommendations.
Some of the reason may be the enticements they constantly face to overeat. A study just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association tried to estimate the number of free meals that are offered to physicians on a regular basis. It found an abundance of them.
The study reported that more than 40,000 continuing medical education events for physicians were held in the United States in 2010, a large number of which offered free meals. Many of the 9,000 residency training programs for new physicians arrange at least one free lunch conference a week. Many medical students regularly attend free weekly pizza club discussions. And research projects often provide free meals at regular meetings of team members.
What do attendees eat at these events? The study’s authors found that the typical meal contains 1,280 calories, about double what is needed. Between a turkey sandwich, bag of chips, cookie and sugary drink, there is a lot of fat and salt and no vegetables. (And we can only guess what attendees consume when the menu includes pizza.)
Another recent study looked at offerings at hospital cafeterias where many physicians grab a lot of their meals. It found excessive calorie counts for most of them. And another examined the food served as medical society meetings and discovered that menus rarely follow nutritional guidelines.
What does this mean for the function of physicians as role models? According to another recent research report, physicians who are overweight are less likely to diagnose obesity in their patients or to offer counseling for it. They usually identify the condition only when a patient’s weight is higher than their own.
Once upon a time, many physicians smoked. They did so in hospitals and often in front of patients. As the anti-smoking movement gained steam, that behavior stopped. Hospitals no longer permit smoking inside their walls, and today, patients rarely see their caregivers lighting up.
Perhaps it’s time to take the same approach to unhealthy eating. Hospitals, medical schools, continuing education providers, and medical societies could start by serving the same meals to physicians that physicians would like their patients to eat. It may not slim down the entire profession, but it would help to eliminate the conflicting message that physicians and patients currently receive.
If there’s going to be such a thing as a free lunch, at least it should be healthy.
Doctor's don't do a good job lecturing patients on weight loss because they have virtually no knowledge about nutrition...they had little to no training on the subject. Further, most do almost no reading on the subject and the literature they do read (AMA, JAMA) offers no insight about nutrition. The only thing they'll do is suggest a "more balanced diet" and suggestion medications.
Healthcare is not about health these days, it is about a pill to eliminate symptoms, not solve problems.— Keith S.- For me personally, yeah it does dilute the message. As a professional, your main testimony should be yourself. You can't preach well what you don't practice. Our website reviews diet products, and one thing we always look at is if the author is a "living proof" author. That is, is he/she a product of his/her product. For example, we recently reviewed Old School New Body, a diet program for 40 year olds and above. It received high marks because the author are in great shape AND they are 40 year olds. (HTML deleted)— wandamariano
No matter who suggest you to loss weight, we should responsible for ourself. For me, i take exercise and with some slimming pills(a kind of pills called meizitang bought from http://www.botanicalslimming.us) to loss weight. I have loss 20 pounds in months. I need to go ahead my programme.— atlevis
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