Plant-based diets: Why recommending one can help patients with these 6 conditions

All physicians don’t need to be nutrition experts.

But all physicians, whatever their specialty, should know how a plant-based diet can help six common medical conditions, said Saray Stancic, MD, FACLM, director of medical education for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

“The field of medicine, despite its prominent influence in society, has invested little to promote healthy lifestyle choices,” Stancic said in “Six Applications of Plant Based Diets for Health Promotion,” a commentary published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine. “The consequence of this is reflected in our ever-rising chronic disease statistics, most notably obesity and diabetes rates.”

The nonprofit Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine also published a news release about the commentary co-authored with Josh Cullimore, MD, and Neal Barnard, MD, and published May 26.

Stancic will present “What Every Doctor Needs to Know About Nutrition” at the International Conference on Nutrition in Medicine taking place in Washington, D.C., from Aug. 18-20.

A plant-based diet could help patients with these conditions: