During my 30-year career in nutritional medicine, one relative constant has been the resistance in medical academia to the notion that nutritional therapy, particularly micronutrient supplementation, can be useful for the prevention and treatment of disease. This bias against nutrition was the topic of an editorial in the Archives of Internal Medicine several years ago.’ The lack of knowledge about, or interest in, nutritional therapy among conventional physicians markedly decreases their therapeutic options. Moreover, sensing that their doctor is indifferent or even hostile to natural medicine, patients frequently keep their doctor out of the loop with regard to the nutritional supplements and herbs they are taking, thereby increasing the risk of drug-nutrient or drug-herb interactions.

In an editorial in Lancet, Tim McAlindon, MD, from the Arthritis Center, Boston University Medical Center, stated: “It is time for the profession to accommodate the possibility that many nutritional products may have valuable therapeutic effects and to regain the credibility of the public at large.”(2) Fortunately, it appears that at least some members of the academic community are beginning to take that suggestion seriously.

In March, more than 100 scientists and practitioners, many from academic institutions, attended the week-long “Food as Medicine” conference in Florida, sponsored by the Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, DC, and organized by James Gordon, MD, and Susan Lord, MD. The conference was designed to provide medical school professors with the tools to bring state-of-the art information about diet and micronutrients back to their institutions. As one of the presenters, I was impressed with the excitement and awareness of new possibilities that resulted from the attendance at this course.

Among the many whole-foods snacks and healthful meals served at the conference, not a crystal of refined sugar was to be found, and none of the fatty acids were present in the transform. Indeed, the only trans-formation was in the hearts and minds of those attending the conference.