June 29, 2025 • 24 mins
Modern medicine has a blind spot – one that's costing us dearly in terms of health and longevity. Despite overwhelming scientific evidence that nutrition and exercise are the two most powerful levers for preventing and reversing chronic disease, most physicians receive minimal training in these areas. After completing a decade of rigorous medical education, I emerged with hundreds of hours of pharmacology training but barely 10 hours on nutrition. This disconnect continues to shape our healthcare system decades later.
The six pillars of lifestyle medicine – nutrition, exercise, sleep hygiene, stress management, avoidance of toxic substances, and social connection – have been proven exponentially more effective at extending healthspan than pharmaceutical interventions. Yet our medical system remains structured around treating diseases rather than preventing them. The curriculum is overloaded with clinical guidelines, new drugs, and interventional procedures, leaving little room for the fundamentals of health promotion. Without "big broccoli" to fund multi-million dollar studies and marketing campaigns, nutrition science gets sidelined in favor of more profitable interventions.
This knowledge gap creates real consequences. Patients with heart disease, diabetes, and obesity leave appointments with prescriptions but minimal practical guidance about food. Without evidence-based nutrition advice from their trusted healthcare providers, people turn to social media and fall down rabbit holes of misinformation. The good news is that change is coming. The American College of Lifestyle Medicine now offers board certification, some medical schools are incorporating cooking classes and motivational interviewing, and in 2026, our family medicine residency program will integrate comprehensive lifestyle medicine training. You can accelerate this shift by asking your doctor nutrition-specific questions, seeking out lifestyle medicine practitioners, and demonstrating through your own health improvements that food truly is medicine. Remember – genetics may load the gun, but lifestyle pulls the trigger. You don't need permission to start healing through what you eat.
Go check out my website for tons of free resources on how to transition towards a healthier diet and lifestyle.
You can download my free plant-based recipes eBook and a ton of other free resources by visiting the Digital Downloads tab of my website at https://www.plantbaseddrjules.com/shop
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Thanks so much!
Peace, love, plants!
Dr. Jules
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Hey everyone, welcome to Season 2 of the Dr Jules
Plant-Based Podcast, where wediscuss everything from
plant-based nutrition to themain pillars of lifestyle
medicine.
Yo, plant-based buddies,welcome back to another episode
of the podcast.
Today we're going to be talkingabout a subject very near and
(00:32):
dear to my heart nutrition inmedicine and why doctors are
learning so little aboutnutrition and exercise, the two
biggest levers that you can pullfor health and wellness and
healthspan and lifespan.
About 12 years ago, I went onthis journey of thinking out of
(00:58):
the box and looking outside ofthe medical system to try to
find something more than justpharmaceuticals when it came to
healing, and everything seemedto point towards lifestyle
medicine.
Now, if you would look at theentirety of the scientific
(01:19):
literature and you would writedown the top six things that are
shown to improve lifespan,healthspan and reduce chronic
disease risk, you would find thevery six pillars that make up
lifestyle medicine Nutrition,exercise, sleep hygiene, stress
(01:45):
management, the avoidance oftoxic substances and social
connection.
These six pillars of lifestylemedicine are exponentially more
powerful than anything we canput inside of a pill to make you
live better, for longer and toreduce chronic disease risk.
(02:08):
Yet medical doctors learn verylittle about these subjects
during sometimes a decade-longmore journey of becoming a
doctor.
Now, why is this?
Well, this all starts with astory.
(02:33):
When I was in mid-school, I didmy training from 2001 to 2005
in Sherbrooke, quebec.
I had hundreds of hours ofpharmacology, anatomy, disease,
pathology we learned the Krebscycle inside and out but
nutrition maybe 10 hours, andthat's being generous, and I'm
(02:57):
not the exception.
A 2019 study published inAcademic Medicine found that 14%
of medical schools in the USmet the minimum recommended 25
hours of nutrition education,and even fewer medical schools
taught anything aboutplant-based nutrition,
(03:17):
evidence-based nutrition,culinary skills or behavior
change psychology or coachingskills or behavior change
psychology or coaching.
Now, what's clear in thescientific literature is that
you can have all of theknowledge in the world if you do
not know how to communicatethis to your patients or to
coach your own patients throughchange, that knowledge can be
(03:44):
close to useless or at least alot less effective than if you
were trained in lifestylemedicine these six lifestyle
pillars and in behavior changepsychology.
Now, modern doctors weretrained to diagnose and
prescribe, and not to preventand not to nourish.
(04:07):
It's like learning how to fix acar without ever checking the
fuel system.
Now, lifestyle medicine issomething that changed my own
life and gave me my life back.
So I am highly biased when Italk about the benefits of
(04:28):
lifestyle interventions, but weknow that nutrition and exercise
are the two biggest levers thatyou can pull to reduce your
rate of chronic disease beforeit happens.
Studies show that between 60and 80 percent of health care
costs are spent directly orindirectly managing chronic
disease lifestyle diseases thatare brought upon by our own
(04:53):
daily habits.
The Danish twin study showedthat, in general, our health and
longevity is probably a 20%explanation from genetics and an
80% from lifestyle.
So lifestyle is exponentiallymore important.
(05:15):
When it comes to chronicdisease cardiovascular disease,
strokes, heart attacks, cancerof all types, autoimmunity
allergies, heart attacks, cancerof all types, autoimmunity
allergies, neurodegenerativedisease lifestyle is
exponentially more importantthan genetics.
Genetics may load the gun, butlifestyle pulls the trigger.
(05:47):
So if by now, you're askingyourself why don't they just add
nutrition education in themedical curriculum, I agree.
Why don't we just do it?
Well, the curriculum is alreadyoverwhelmed, and the pace of
change of new pharmaceuticals,new imaging technologies, new
diagnosis, new treatments that'ssimply overwhelming the
(06:08):
curriculum.
And now that guidelines areoften based in findings from
randomized controlled trials,and since randomized controlled
trials cost a lot of money torun, and so the only
corporations that can afford torun multi-million dollar trials
(06:30):
are pharmaceutical companies.
So how did we get here, wheredoctors are so detached from
lifestyle medicine thatsometimes your fellow influencer
online or wellness coachactually probably knows more
(06:51):
about lifestyle medicine thanyour own doctor?
Now don't get me wrong A lot ofthe doctors that I work with
practice something that is veryclose to lifestyle medicine
without even knowing it.
But the doctors who do this aretypically the doctors who have
themselves adopted healthylifestyle habits, and studies do
(07:15):
show that doctors who don't eathealthy diets, who don't
exercise, who drink or smoke aremuch less likely to counsel
their own patients aboutlifestyle choices and the impact
that they can have on chronicdisease risks.
(07:36):
Let's talk about all of the keyreasons that might explain why
nutrition is left out of themedical curriculum.
Number one medical culture isnow disease-focused, and our
system was built around treatingacute illness and not promoting
long-term wellness.
(07:57):
I get paid per patient and Ihave no problem with that, but
the problem is that we don'thave any useful, easy codes that
we can bill to get paid forcounseling.
So, human nature being humannature.
(08:18):
I'm not going to spend an hourwith someone to make $50 so that
half of that can then beremoved and lost or paid in
income tax and make $20 an hourafter 15 years of training and
being a lifelong learner.
So we need to incentivizedoctors to practice prevention,
(08:43):
to coach, to communicate, toeducate, to accompany, to
cheerlead patients towardshealthier lifestyle habits.
Now the second reason whynutrition is left out is well,
we all know about big pharma,but unfortunately there's no big
broccoli and there's a lot morefunding and lobbying behind
(09:06):
pills than behind fruits andveggies.
And it's simple when you havethese millions of dollars,
you're able to run commercialswho hasn't seen a commercial of
Ozempic on television?
And you're able to runhigh-quality randomized control
(09:26):
trials that simply aren'taccessible to researchers
studying lifestyle medicine.
Now the third reason thatnutrition is not in the medical
curriculum is that nutritionscience is complex and evolving.
Now registered dietitians arethe real heroes of nutrition and
(09:49):
I'm not pretending that we'retrying to make doctors into
registered dietitians.
The modules on nutrition duringthe lifestyle medicine
curriculum and certificationtraining is based on
understanding macros, micros,diet culture, relationship of
(10:12):
people, people's relationshipswith food and how that may
impact health.
Understanding energy balance.
Understanding how nutritionimpacts chronic disease Now
we're not calculating the amountof potassium to put in an IV
drip in someone who has agastrostomy tube, but we are
(10:34):
understanding how dietarypatterns impact chronic disease
risk, from cardiovasculardisease to cancer risk.
Now, the fourth key factor isthe lack of clinician role
models.
Now, if your teachers don'tknow how to cook or to eat well
(10:55):
themselves, they're not passingthat knowledge down to future
doctors.
Now, cooking used to be a skillthat was handed down from
generation to generation and nowthat cycle has been broken
within the last generation ortwo, where we rely completely on
our education system to teachour kids about food and gardens
(11:18):
and tending after plants thatare growing, and knife skills
and cooking skills and applianceskills.
But our school is failing ourkids as well in dad department.
So I've encountered teenagersthat aren't even able to name
(11:38):
the ingredients on a pizza.
We need to bring cooking wholefoods back in schools, but we
need to have it back inhouseholds first.
Now the fifth key factorexplaining why we don't have
nutrition in medicine is simpleit's time constraints.
(12:02):
Even if doctors wanted to learn, the current curriculum is
jam-packed, but we're trying tobypass that because in July 2026
, the contract is officiallysigned.
Students that are becomingfamily doctors and doing their
training at our family medicineunit in Dieppe will have the
(12:25):
chance to opt in to a lifestylemedicine curriculum.
The American College ofLifestyle Medicine has a medical
curriculum that can beintegrated over 100 hours of
training in the six lifestylepillars, including culinary
skills and coaching available todoctors who want to take their
(12:49):
knowledge of lifestyle medicineto the next level.
I am the course director andmajor leader and advocate for
lifestyle medicine in my neck ofthe woods and I'm extremely
proud.
It is the biggest thing I'veever done in my career.
I can't wait Now.
(13:11):
The fact that doctors are notwell-versed in nutrition does
create real-life consequencesfor patients, and that gap in
knowledge can really impactpatient outcomes.
We have patients walking intoclinics with diabetes, heart
(13:32):
disease, obesity, and they oftenleave with a prescription but
no nutrition plan.
And they often leave with aprescription but no nutrition
plan.
And when they do ask about food, they hear things like watch
your carbs or just eat inmoderation or try a
Mediterranean diet.
We actually had a doctorpromoting keto diet to his
(13:57):
cardiovascular patients, when weknow that the scientific
literature is overwhelminglyshowing that these types of
diets are typically high incholesterol, high in animal
saturated fat in animal protein,pro-inflammatory and
accelerating the deposits ofatherosclerosis.
Plaques of cholesterol blockingyour arteries grow quicker on
(14:21):
these diets.
Now the misguided nutritioneducation that doctors give to
their patients.
That has real life meaning.
But what does it even mean tosomeone shopping at Costco with
three kids, no time and no ideawhat fiber is.
(14:43):
Without practical,evidence-based guidance, people
are left to Google it and theyfall into that YouTube rabbit
hole or TikTok trends, andthat's a recipe for confusion
and misinformation.
Studies show that about 80% ofpeople or more get their news
from a tablet or an iPhone.
(15:04):
People aren't readingscientific articles or
newspapers anymore and they gettheir nutrition guidance on the
same apps where they get theirentertainment.
But now, good news, things arestarting to shift.
Lifestyle medicine is gainingtraction.
(15:24):
In 2017, the American Collegeof Lifestyle Medicine certified
its first board exam forphysicians.
We have plant-based nutritionprograms going mainstream from
groups like PCRM, doctors forNutrition, guelph University,
the T Colin Campbell Center forDisease and Nutrition.
(15:48):
Education Studies are showingup in major journals and even
hospitals are offering wholefood plant-based options.
Now the 2019 Canadian FoodGuide went plant-based when it
started, recommending most ofour calories come from real
whole plants.
They removed the meat insubstitute food group.
(16:09):
They removed the dairy foodgroup.
Replaced it with 50% of yourplate fruits and veggies, 25%
whole grains and 25% focus onprotein, which has special
emphasis on plant protein.
Now, on the bright side, medicalcurriculums are evolving and
some med schools are evenincluding cooking classes,
(16:30):
motivational interviewing andeven food as medicine rotations.
But student-driven change ishuge and the newer, younger
generations of doctors recognizethat big pharma isn't going to
dig us out of this chronicdisease epidemic.
Med students themselves aredemanding for better training.
(16:54):
Groups like NutriTank orPlant-Based Health Professionals
UK are leading the charge.
But we're not there yet.
Most practicing physiciansstill don't get ongoing
education on nutrition.
But it's coming soon.
There's a light at the end ofthe tunnel Now.
(17:14):
If your doctor doesn't bring upnutrition, don't be afraid to
bring it up yourself Now,regardless if it's nutrition or
pharmaceuticals or newtreatments or new therapies or
new technologies.
When a patient asks me aquestion that I can't answer, I
do my research and I go find outwhat I can learn about this
(17:35):
subject.
So be respectful, but you canask specific questions about
nutrition to your doctor inhopes of stimulating them to go
get that information right.
Maybe this will encourage themto dive deeper into nutrition
and lifestyle medicine.
Now, specific questions thatyou could ask that could be very
(17:58):
useful are things like arethere any dietary patterns that
you'd recommend for loweringinflammation?
Now, do you know of anyscientific evidence, and what
does it say about plant-baseddiets for my condition?
Now you can also do your ownresearch, but be careful.
Online, you want to make sureto find reputable sources like
(18:20):
plantbaseddoctorjulescom,nutritionfactsorg, the
Plantrition Project,peer-reviewed studies on PubMed
websites like PCRM, and don'thesitate to seek out lifestyle
medicine-informed practitioners,naturopaths, registered
dietitians and there are reallygood coaches out there.
(18:41):
Now I'd also encourage you totry to find a doctor that's
passionate about lifestylemedicine, that speaks your
language and talks aboutnutrition and exercise as
first-line treatments forchronic diseases.
There's a growing network ofplant-based doctors, dieticians
and coaches out there.
(19:02):
Start by going to the AmericanCollege of Lifestyle Medicine
website.
If you're trying to change,don't wait for perfect guidance.
Just eat more plants, cook moreat home, add beans, hydrate,
sleep, breathe, move, meditate,manage stress and be a role
(19:24):
model.
Sometimes the best way to teacha doctor is to be the case
study, and when they see yourblood pressure drop or your
cholesterol improve, they notice.
And if your doctor asks youwhat have you been doing lately,
be proud to tell him that youexercise and you eat more plants
(19:45):
and support better education.
I always say to my followers, myreaders, my patients if you see
a post of mine online, goengage with it.
Either like it, comment, share.
I know sometimes people like tonavigate behind the scenes,
(20:12):
flying under the radar.
They don't want to notice thatthey're interacting with content
.
But if you like content and youtell me that you like it, the
algorithm will serve it up toyou much more often.
But most importantly is thatwhen people engage and interact
(20:32):
with my content, it makes itmore visible to more people.
People are more likely to seeit when they scroll online and
that's why my content is nowbeing followed by more than
10,000 people and we're going tothe 50,000 podcast downloads
(20:53):
soon.
This is because of you, wholistens and who shares and who
talks about it and who tagspeople in my comments.
Supporting my content is thebest way of promoting lifestyle
medicine.
If you're involved in lifestylemedicine or you're just
(21:14):
passionate, make sure to share,like, subscribe, donate, support
programs or talk aboutplant-based medical initiatives,
or seek out that content online.
Seek out that content online.
(21:40):
Now, what I want people to takeaway today is that most doctors
still aren't trained innutrition, and that's a problem.
And it's not because they don'tcare.
It's because the system wasn'tbuilt for prevention.
But things are changing slowly,but we can't wait any longer.
Changing slowly, but we can'twait any longer.
In 2026, we're going to have alifestyle medicine curriculum
integrated into our familymedicine residency training and
I cannot wait to see the newdoctors flourish when they see
(22:06):
all the amazing things thatthey're going to learn things
that they're going to learn.
But, as a patient, remember thatyou have the power.
Ask better questions, seek outinformed providers and be the
change.
Prove to your doctor that youcan lower your blood pressure,
(22:27):
blood sugar, blood cholesterol.
You can improve all metabolicparameters with lifestyle
medicine.
And remember food and exerciseare amongst the most powerful
tools that we have for healing.
You don't need permission tostart using it Right on.
Thanks so much for listening.
(22:48):
I hope that this episode hithome and that you become more
educated to better advocate foryour own health.
It's not that your doctordoesn't want to learn about
lifestyle medicine.
It's that the curriculum isoverloaded with clinical
guidelines and the system issimply not set up to incentivize
(23:10):
doctors to practice prevention.
But that's going to change andI'm hoping to be a big part of
it locally, where I work andteach.
Thank you for making my messagemore discoverable to more
people.
That has opened up a milliondoors for me and has helped me
(23:33):
fuel this passion of integratinglifestyle medicine into our
medical curriculum.
Right on, you have an awesomeday.
Take care.
Thanks for listening.
Hope to see you in the nextepisode, Peace.
Hey, everyone, go check out mywebsite plantbaseddoctorjulescom
(24:03):
to find free downloadableresources and remember that you
can find me on Facebook andInstagram at Dr Jules Cormier,
and on YouTube at Plant Based DrJules.
Hey everyone, welcome to Season 2 of the Dr Jules
Plant-Based Podcast, where wediscuss everything from
plant-based nutrition to themain pillars of lifestyle
medicine.
Yo, plant-based buddies,welcome back to another episode
of the podcast.
Today we're going to be talkingabout a subject very near and
(00:32):
dear to my heart nutrition inmedicine and why doctors are
learning so little aboutnutrition and exercise, the two
biggest levers that you can pullfor health and wellness and
healthspan and lifespan.
About 12 years ago, I went onthis journey of thinking out of
(00:58):
the box and looking outside ofthe medical system to try to
find something more than justpharmaceuticals when it came to
healing, and everything seemedto point towards lifestyle
medicine.
Now, if you would look at theentirety of the scientific
(01:19):
literature and you would writedown the top six things that are
shown to improve lifespan,healthspan and reduce chronic
disease risk, you would find thevery six pillars that make up
lifestyle medicine Nutrition,exercise, sleep hygiene, stress
(01:45):
management, the avoidance oftoxic substances and social
connection.
These six pillars of lifestylemedicine are exponentially more
powerful than anything we canput inside of a pill to make you
live better, for longer and toreduce chronic disease risk.
(02:08):
Yet medical doctors learn verylittle about these subjects
during sometimes a decade-longmore journey of becoming a
doctor.
Now, why is this?
Well, this all starts with astory.
(02:33):
When I was in mid-school, I didmy training from 2001 to 2005
in Sherbrooke, quebec.
I had hundreds of hours ofpharmacology, anatomy, disease,
pathology we learned the Krebscycle inside and out but
nutrition maybe 10 hours, andthat's being generous, and I'm
(02:57):
not the exception.
A 2019 study published inAcademic Medicine found that 14%
of medical schools in the USmet the minimum recommended 25
hours of nutrition education,and even fewer medical schools
taught anything aboutplant-based nutrition,
(03:17):
evidence-based nutrition,culinary skills or behavior
change psychology or coachingskills or behavior change
psychology or coaching.
Now, what's clear in thescientific literature is that
you can have all of theknowledge in the world if you do
not know how to communicatethis to your patients or to
coach your own patients throughchange, that knowledge can be
(03:44):
close to useless or at least alot less effective than if you
were trained in lifestylemedicine these six lifestyle
pillars and in behavior changepsychology.
Now, modern doctors weretrained to diagnose and
prescribe, and not to preventand not to nourish.
(04:07):
It's like learning how to fix acar without ever checking the
fuel system.
Now, lifestyle medicine issomething that changed my own
life and gave me my life back.
So I am highly biased when Italk about the benefits of
(04:28):
lifestyle interventions, but weknow that nutrition and exercise
are the two biggest levers thatyou can pull to reduce your
rate of chronic disease beforeit happens.
Studies show that between 60and 80 percent of health care
costs are spent directly orindirectly managing chronic
disease lifestyle diseases thatare brought upon by our own
(04:53):
daily habits.
The Danish twin study showedthat, in general, our health and
longevity is probably a 20%explanation from genetics and an
80% from lifestyle.
So lifestyle is exponentiallymore important.
(05:15):
When it comes to chronicdisease cardiovascular disease,
strokes, heart attacks, cancerof all types, autoimmunity
allergies, heart attacks, cancerof all types, autoimmunity
allergies, neurodegenerativedisease lifestyle is
exponentially more importantthan genetics.
Genetics may load the gun, butlifestyle pulls the trigger.
(05:47):
So if by now, you're askingyourself why don't they just add
nutrition education in themedical curriculum, I agree.
Why don't we just do it?
Well, the curriculum is alreadyoverwhelmed, and the pace of
change of new pharmaceuticals,new imaging technologies, new
diagnosis, new treatments that'ssimply overwhelming the
(06:08):
curriculum.
And now that guidelines areoften based in findings from
randomized controlled trials,and since randomized controlled
trials cost a lot of money torun, and so the only
corporations that can afford torun multi-million dollar trials
(06:30):
are pharmaceutical companies.
So how did we get here, wheredoctors are so detached from
lifestyle medicine thatsometimes your fellow influencer
online or wellness coachactually probably knows more
(06:51):
about lifestyle medicine thanyour own doctor?
Now don't get me wrong A lot ofthe doctors that I work with
practice something that is veryclose to lifestyle medicine
without even knowing it.
But the doctors who do this aretypically the doctors who have
themselves adopted healthylifestyle habits, and studies do
(07:15):
show that doctors who don't eathealthy diets, who don't
exercise, who drink or smoke aremuch less likely to counsel
their own patients aboutlifestyle choices and the impact
that they can have on chronicdisease risks.
(07:36):
Let's talk about all of the keyreasons that might explain why
nutrition is left out of themedical curriculum.
Number one medical culture isnow disease-focused, and our
system was built around treatingacute illness and not promoting
long-term wellness.
(07:57):
I get paid per patient and Ihave no problem with that, but
the problem is that we don'thave any useful, easy codes that
we can bill to get paid forcounseling.
So, human nature being humannature.
(08:18):
I'm not going to spend an hourwith someone to make $50 so that
half of that can then beremoved and lost or paid in
income tax and make $20 an hourafter 15 years of training and
being a lifelong learner.
So we need to incentivizedoctors to practice prevention,
(08:43):
to coach, to communicate, toeducate, to accompany, to
cheerlead patients towardshealthier lifestyle habits.
Now the second reason whynutrition is left out is well,
we all know about big pharma,but unfortunately there's no big
broccoli and there's a lot morefunding and lobbying behind
(09:06):
pills than behind fruits andveggies.
And it's simple when you havethese millions of dollars,
you're able to run commercialswho hasn't seen a commercial of
Ozempic on television?
And you're able to runhigh-quality randomized control
(09:26):
trials that simply aren'taccessible to researchers
studying lifestyle medicine.
Now the third reason thatnutrition is not in the medical
curriculum is that nutritionscience is complex and evolving.
Now registered dietitians arethe real heroes of nutrition and
(09:49):
I'm not pretending that we'retrying to make doctors into
registered dietitians.
The modules on nutrition duringthe lifestyle medicine
curriculum and certificationtraining is based on
understanding macros, micros,diet culture, relationship of
(10:12):
people, people's relationshipswith food and how that may
impact health.
Understanding energy balance.
Understanding how nutritionimpacts chronic disease Now
we're not calculating the amountof potassium to put in an IV
drip in someone who has agastrostomy tube, but we are
(10:34):
understanding how dietarypatterns impact chronic disease
risk, from cardiovasculardisease to cancer risk.
Now, the fourth key factor isthe lack of clinician role
models.
Now, if your teachers don'tknow how to cook or to eat well
(10:55):
themselves, they're not passingthat knowledge down to future
doctors.
Now, cooking used to be a skillthat was handed down from
generation to generation and nowthat cycle has been broken
within the last generation ortwo, where we rely completely on
our education system to teachour kids about food and gardens
(11:18):
and tending after plants thatare growing, and knife skills
and cooking skills and applianceskills.
But our school is failing ourkids as well in dad department.
So I've encountered teenagersthat aren't even able to name
(11:38):
the ingredients on a pizza.
We need to bring cooking wholefoods back in schools, but we
need to have it back inhouseholds first.
Now the fifth key factorexplaining why we don't have
nutrition in medicine is simpleit's time constraints.
(12:02):
Even if doctors wanted to learn, the current curriculum is
jam-packed, but we're trying tobypass that because in July 2026
, the contract is officiallysigned.
Students that are becomingfamily doctors and doing their
training at our family medicineunit in Dieppe will have the
(12:25):
chance to opt in to a lifestylemedicine curriculum.
The American College ofLifestyle Medicine has a medical
curriculum that can beintegrated over 100 hours of
training in the six lifestylepillars, including culinary
skills and coaching available todoctors who want to take their
(12:49):
knowledge of lifestyle medicineto the next level.
I am the course director andmajor leader and advocate for
lifestyle medicine in my neck ofthe woods and I'm extremely
proud.
It is the biggest thing I'veever done in my career.
I can't wait Now.
(13:11):
The fact that doctors are notwell-versed in nutrition does
create real-life consequencesfor patients, and that gap in
knowledge can really impactpatient outcomes.
We have patients walking intoclinics with diabetes, heart
(13:32):
disease, obesity, and they oftenleave with a prescription but
no nutrition plan.
And they often leave with aprescription but no nutrition
plan.
And when they do ask about food, they hear things like watch
your carbs or just eat inmoderation or try a
Mediterranean diet.
We actually had a doctorpromoting keto diet to his
(13:57):
cardiovascular patients, when weknow that the scientific
literature is overwhelminglyshowing that these types of
diets are typically high incholesterol, high in animal
saturated fat in animal protein,pro-inflammatory and
accelerating the deposits ofatherosclerosis.
Plaques of cholesterol blockingyour arteries grow quicker on
(14:21):
these diets.
Now the misguided nutritioneducation that doctors give to
their patients.
That has real life meaning.
But what does it even mean tosomeone shopping at Costco with
three kids, no time and no ideawhat fiber is.
(14:43):
Without practical,evidence-based guidance, people
are left to Google it and theyfall into that YouTube rabbit
hole or TikTok trends, andthat's a recipe for confusion
and misinformation.
Studies show that about 80% ofpeople or more get their news
from a tablet or an iPhone.
(15:04):
People aren't readingscientific articles or
newspapers anymore and they gettheir nutrition guidance on the
same apps where they get theirentertainment.
But now, good news, things arestarting to shift.
Lifestyle medicine is gainingtraction.
(15:24):
In 2017, the American Collegeof Lifestyle Medicine certified
its first board exam forphysicians.
We have plant-based nutritionprograms going mainstream from
groups like PCRM, doctors forNutrition, guelph University,
the T Colin Campbell Center forDisease and Nutrition.
(15:48):
Education Studies are showingup in major journals and even
hospitals are offering wholefood plant-based options.
Now the 2019 Canadian FoodGuide went plant-based when it
started, recommending most ofour calories come from real
whole plants.
They removed the meat insubstitute food group.
(16:09):
They removed the dairy foodgroup.
Replaced it with 50% of yourplate fruits and veggies, 25%
whole grains and 25% focus onprotein, which has special
emphasis on plant protein.
Now, on the bright side, medicalcurriculums are evolving and
some med schools are evenincluding cooking classes,
(16:30):
motivational interviewing andeven food as medicine rotations.
But student-driven change ishuge and the newer, younger
generations of doctors recognizethat big pharma isn't going to
dig us out of this chronicdisease epidemic.
Med students themselves aredemanding for better training.
(16:54):
Groups like NutriTank orPlant-Based Health Professionals
UK are leading the charge.
But we're not there yet.
Most practicing physiciansstill don't get ongoing
education on nutrition.
But it's coming soon.
There's a light at the end ofthe tunnel Now.
(17:14):
If your doctor doesn't bring upnutrition, don't be afraid to
bring it up yourself Now,regardless if it's nutrition or
pharmaceuticals or newtreatments or new therapies or
new technologies.
When a patient asks me aquestion that I can't answer, I
do my research and I go find outwhat I can learn about this
(17:35):
subject.
So be respectful, but you canask specific questions about
nutrition to your doctor inhopes of stimulating them to go
get that information right.
Maybe this will encourage themto dive deeper into nutrition
and lifestyle medicine.
Now, specific questions thatyou could ask that could be very
(17:58):
useful are things like arethere any dietary patterns that
you'd recommend for loweringinflammation?
Now, do you know of anyscientific evidence, and what
does it say about plant-baseddiets for my condition?
Now you can also do your ownresearch, but be careful.
Online, you want to make sureto find reputable sources like
(18:20):
plantbaseddoctorjulescom,nutritionfactsorg, the
Plantrition Project,peer-reviewed studies on PubMed
websites like PCRM, and don'thesitate to seek out lifestyle
medicine-informed practitioners,naturopaths, registered
dietitians and there are reallygood coaches out there.
(18:41):
Now I'd also encourage you totry to find a doctor that's
passionate about lifestylemedicine, that speaks your
language and talks aboutnutrition and exercise as
first-line treatments forchronic diseases.
There's a growing network ofplant-based doctors, dieticians
and coaches out there.
(19:02):
Start by going to the AmericanCollege of Lifestyle Medicine
website.
If you're trying to change,don't wait for perfect guidance.
Just eat more plants, cook moreat home, add beans, hydrate,
sleep, breathe, move, meditate,manage stress and be a role
(19:24):
model.
Sometimes the best way to teacha doctor is to be the case
study, and when they see yourblood pressure drop or your
cholesterol improve, they notice.
And if your doctor asks youwhat have you been doing lately,
be proud to tell him that youexercise and you eat more plants
(19:45):
and support better education.
I always say to my followers, myreaders, my patients if you see
a post of mine online, goengage with it.
Either like it, comment, share.
I know sometimes people like tonavigate behind the scenes,
(20:12):
flying under the radar.
They don't want to notice thatthey're interacting with content
.
But if you like content and youtell me that you like it, the
algorithm will serve it up toyou much more often.
But most importantly is thatwhen people engage and interact
(20:32):
with my content, it makes itmore visible to more people.
People are more likely to seeit when they scroll online and
that's why my content is nowbeing followed by more than
10,000 people and we're going tothe 50,000 podcast downloads
(20:53):
soon.
This is because of you, wholistens and who shares and who
talks about it and who tagspeople in my comments.
Supporting my content is thebest way of promoting lifestyle
medicine.
If you're involved in lifestylemedicine or you're just
(21:14):
passionate, make sure to share,like, subscribe, donate, support
programs or talk aboutplant-based medical initiatives,
or seek out that content online.
Seek out that content online.
(21:40):
Now, what I want people to takeaway today is that most doctors
still aren't trained innutrition, and that's a problem.
And it's not because they don'tcare.
It's because the system wasn'tbuilt for prevention.
But things are changing slowly,but we can't wait any longer.
Changing slowly, but we can'twait any longer.
In 2026, we're going to have alifestyle medicine curriculum
integrated into our familymedicine residency training and
I cannot wait to see the newdoctors flourish when they see
(22:06):
all the amazing things thatthey're going to learn things
that they're going to learn.
But, as a patient, remember thatyou have the power.
Ask better questions, seek outinformed providers and be the
change.
Prove to your doctor that youcan lower your blood pressure,
(22:27):
blood sugar, blood cholesterol.
You can improve all metabolicparameters with lifestyle
medicine.
And remember food and exerciseare amongst the most powerful
tools that we have for healing.
You don't need permission tostart using it Right on.
Thanks so much for listening.
(22:48):
I hope that this episode hithome and that you become more
educated to better advocate foryour own health.
It's not that your doctordoesn't want to learn about
lifestyle medicine.
It's that the curriculum isoverloaded with clinical
guidelines and the system issimply not set up to incentivize
(23:10):
doctors to practice prevention.
But that's going to change andI'm hoping to be a big part of
it locally, where I work andteach.
Thank you for making my messagemore discoverable to more
people.
That has opened up a milliondoors for me and has helped me
(23:33):
fuel this passion of integratinglifestyle medicine into our
medical curriculum.
Right on, you have an awesomeday.
Take care.
Thanks for listening.
Hope to see you in the nextepisode, Peace.
Hey, everyone, go check out mywebsite plantbaseddoctorjulescom
(24:03):
to find free downloadableresources and remember that you
can find me on Facebook andInstagram at Dr Jules Cormier,
and on YouTube at Plant Based DrJules.
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