The missing ingredient in medical training: evidence-based nutrition
Author: Dominic D’Agostino
Published: December 18, 2025
Author: Dominic D’Agostino
Every day, patients walk into clinics with diseases that, unbeknownst to them, stem from what’s on their dinner table — yet most doctors are ill-equipped to counsel them. That’s not for lack of care or effort, but for lack of training.
As a research scientist specializing in nutrition and a professor preparing future physicians, I know the uphill battle it is to get medical schools to embrace one of the most powerful tools for tackling chronic disease: evidence-based dietary interventions.
Today, most medical students receive fewer than 20 hours of nutrition training over four years of school — far short of the modest 25-hour minimum recommended decades ago. And much of that instruction is outdated. Medical education largely overlooks the latest science on metabolic health — how efficiently the body converts food into energy and keeps blood sugar in balance — to the detriment of both doctors and patients.
