Monday, April 30, 2018

What Is It About Diets That Make Some MDs Believe There Can Be Only One?

It seems like it's a growing phenomenon.

MDs, enamoured by a particular diet, strongly recommend it to all of their patients, their colleagues, and even write op-eds in the media about why the entire country ought to be following it.

It's such an odd thing.

In part it's odd because there's no doubt that the evidence on "best" diets, whether for weight management, or overall health, is far from conclusive, is fraught with confounding, and is built, regardless of what diet we're talking about, on evidence buttressed by the inherent flaws of food frequency questionnaires and dietary recall.

It's also odd because doctors, more than most, ought to know that different treatments work differently for different people, and that adverse effects are both real and unpredictable.

Whether it's depression, hypertension, high cholesterol, arthritis, etc. - there are a myriad of treatment options and patient considerations. What works well for one patient may not work for another, and what is well tolerated by one patient, may drive intolerable side effects in another.

Yet here some MDs seem intent on promoting the notion that when it comes to diet, there can be only one.

If you do come across an MD who's doing that, maybe best to move on to another MD.