Doctors don't know about eating right!

Written By Elaine Perlman

Who can we rely on to keep us healthy? Only ourselves. 

A friend who is an oncologist was eating over at my apartment. He poured salt on his potatoes and it looked like snow while telling me that there is no connection between nutrition and cancer. 

My dad was a doctor and one of the least healthy eaters I've known.

Doctors don't learn about nutrition!

Teachers don't learn about nutrition!

"In 1985, the National Academies of Science recommended that every aspiring doctor in the United States receive at least 25 hours of nutrition instruction. But the most recent survey of U.S. medical schools offers a harrowing diagnosis: Very few schools meet that recommendation, and only one in four requires even a single course on nutrition. Despite the prevalence of diet-related disease, the number of schools offering the minimum nutrition instruction is declining."

 

"Of course, they’re the ones paying the price. Four years ago, diet surpassed smoking as the largest risk factor for disease and death in the U.S. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 7 out of every 10 deaths are caused by chronic diseases like heart disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes that can be prevented and treated through lifestyle changes. Chronic diseases account for a whopping 75 percent of the $2 trillion annual U.S. health care spending."

Elaine Perlman

Elaine is aiming to pass two federal laws in the United States, the End Kidney Deaths Act and the Honor Our Living Donors Act. Elaine is the Executive Director of Waitlist Zero, an advocacy group that seeks to end the kidney shortage and provide kidneys to the 90,000 people who are waiting for their lives to be saved in the United States. Both Elaine and her son Abie gave their kidneys to strangers. Elaine founded the groups NYC One Kidney Club, Kidneys 4 Strangers, and Vegan Kidney Donors. She leads the Global One Kidney Club meetings and the Ask Me Anything meetings for the National Kidney Donation Organization. She is also on their Mentoring Team. Elaine cohosted an National Kidney Foundation workshop about the benefits of plant based eating to promote kidney health in addition to a cooking demonstration. Elaine has been a mentor for Plant Powered Metro New York during nine Jumpstarts that help people make the transition to plant based eating.

From 2016-2022, Elaine was a Professor and Program Director for the Peace Corps Fellows Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. For 30 years, she has been a teacher of nearly every subject for all grades from 2-11, in addition to 7 years of teaching children under the age of five. Elaine was a public school specialist teaching children in grades 2-5 about eating healthy foods in the South Bronx, Crown Heights, and Harlem through the Coalition for Healthy School Food. Elaine has painted eleven school murals. She completed the Columbia University course "Food and Nutrition For All," the Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate course from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies and eCornell and the Main Street Vegan Coaching Certificate course.

http://elaineperlman.com/
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