Diet Therapy: The Prevention and Cure of Common Diseases
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For my entire medical career, spanning half a century, the pot of gold to be made from sick people has been tapped into almost exclusively by the pharmaceutical, surgical, radiation, device, screening, and hospital and healthcare provider industries. The economics are changing, fortunately, as the news spreads that "food poisoning" (due to subsisting on the rich Western diet) is the cause of most of our chronic diseases, and that diet therapy will prevent and cure most of these patients. You can become a dominating part of this multi-trillion-dollar medical-care business (about $9,990 annually per US citizen) by practicing diet therapy: the prevention and cure of common diseases by teaching patients how to stop food poisoning (via the standard American diet) and how to eat food that supports good health (like the McDougall diet).
Honest Medical Care Begins with Training
Medical students tell me that the two primary purposes of their half-million-dollar education are (1) to get them ready to pass the national licensing boards, and (2) to learn a trade. Yes, medical schools, and the residency programs that can follow for further training, are trade schools designed to provide technical skills required to perform the tasks for a specific job. For example, all healthcare practitioners are trained to prescribe medications (including supplements), catheterize coronary arteries (cardiologists), insert intestinal scopes (gastroenterologists), and remove body parts and replace them with mechanical devices (various surgeons). These tasks are the profit-makers.
Training students to teach their patients how to eat well is currently unprofitable and, as a direct result, is not a respected field in medicine. Primary care—as delivered by general practitioners, and family and internal medicine specialists—is currently the principal source of the meager dietary advice given to patients. Medical schools have been found to be hostile to students interested in primary care. The current curriculum provided in medical schools worldwide does not include meaningful lessons on diet therapy. The brief "nutrition education" offered by medical schools means that students memorize obscure facts about biochemical pathways and cellular metabolism. I made one effort to fix this with California law SB 380, which passed in 2011, requiring medical schools to teach students, and for practicing physicians to learn, about human nutrition. No practical change has followed over the past six years; therefore, expecting educators to make long-overdue corrections is unrealistic.
Students Must Self-serve and Self-educate
Students often ask me, "How should I train? I want to really help people with their chronic diseases by changing what they eat." I recommend that they go through traditional training first, such as medical or osteopathic school, dietetic or nursing school, naturopathic or chiropractic school, or respected post-doctorate training programs (such as a PhD in Nutrition). I advise them to learn everything these conventional schools have to teach. I also recommend that students not be combative during their training; not "going along" is risky, and students could easily be asked to leave before getting their degree. Once credentialed, however, is the time to begin speaking out.
Physicians, dietitians, nurses, chiropractors, naturopaths, etc. must become self-educated in diet therapy. I provide a CEU-credited course on nutrition (The Starch Solution Certification Course) and a CME-credited course on Diet Therapy.
Like everyone else, you must provide financially for your and your family's needs: tuition for school, shoes on the kids, house and car payments, etc. I started in my first practice in 1978 by opening an individual doctor's office. This can still be done; however, one of the biggest problems will be attracting customers (patients). In addition to building a client base interested in diet therapy, in the beginning, I had to care for everyday problems (viral flu, lacerations, broken bones, emotional distresses, etc.). I also carried a beeper, worked day and night, and frequented emergency rooms for customers in order to pay my bills. Finally, by 1986, my determination and efforts to practice honest medicine for people with chronic disease resulted in my full-time practice of diet therapy.
Finding Profitable Employment in the 21st Century
In the current medical environment of payment based on "unit relative value" (paying for doing things), setting up an individual practice like I once did is very difficult. Opportunities can be found, however, within the established practices of others, such as working with a cardiologist, oncologist, or diabetologist. These busy specialists do not have the training or the time to educate their patients on what to eat and how to prepare new foods. Fortunately, you can perform this vital education and make the "specialist" appear to be a far more effective healthcare provider.
Most physicians now practice within medical groups (including universities) where efforts are made to keep the business (profits) within the company. Apply to become a member of one of these established organizations. Your extraordinary knowledge of human nutrition can make sick patients well. Unfortunately, making patients well is still largely unprofitable. "Fee for service" incentivizes more office visits, tests, referrals, and treatments. (One standout exception to these economic enticements is Kaiser Permanente.)
Popularization of another payment system, "capitation," will soon push diet therapy to the forefront of medical care. Capitation is a payment arrangement for health-care services where providers are paid a set amount for each enrolled person. Remuneration is greatest when costly patients are made well. Regaining a healthy body and appearance for most people simply means stoping food poisoning (from eating animals and vegetable oils) and instead eating a starch-based diet. Thus, as a credentialed (MD, DO, RD, RN, ND, DC, etc.) practitioner trained in diet therapy, you have the potential to become the largest profit-maker for any medical company.
Speaking of companies, another approach is to become employed by medically self-insured businesses. I am currently working with two multi-billion-dollar US companies. Our last 8-day, live-in session included 120 employees. The cost to this company for this Program (which eventually ends up affecting more than just the attendees) was less than three heart bypass surgeries that went well; and far less than would have been spent for one employee sent for a heart surgery accompanied by major complications (an expected scenario). Consider the billions of dollars at stake for millions of businesses, small and large, that could profit from your knowledge and skills using diet therapy instead of screenings, medications, surgeries, etc.
Someone Is Going to Make the Money
My view is that there is a pot of gold available for the taking ($3 trillion annually in the US)—for your taking! At least half of that money is spent directly on dietary diseases that are easily prevented. More importantly, because people rarely act until they get into trouble, is that these illnesses can be reversed and, in most cases, cured by switching to a health-supporting diet. But they (the patients and the businesses) need your help. Become a part of this highly rewarding, self-gratifying, and financially profitable business of diet therapy, and leave antiquated medical practices (the competition) behind.
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Over the past four decades, beginning with my book