Primary Care Nutrition
Writing the Nutrition Prescription

The time is now for this textbook on primary care nutrition. Had it been written at any time during
the last 30 years, it would have been thought to be totally irrelevant and an unnecessary diversion
from the serious work of primary care practitioners. How could nutrition be important to a medical
profession schooled in drugs and surgery for the prevention and treatment of disease?
Nutrition was an afterthought for most physicians that had nothing to do with medicine
but was a supportive function delegated to dietitians. Dietitians functioned in limited ways in
hospitals to help patients choose which menu items they would like to eat from the limited,
cost-driven choices provided by most hospital kitchens. Some administrative dietitians came
to control hospital kitchen budgets and were named directors of nutrition departments in major
medical centers. Out in the world, dietitians struggled to develop private practices and were
always driven by food industry–directed information that they were urged to deliver to patients.
The American Dietetic Association had more members in one large state than the total number
of certified by.