I'd venture a guess that the threat of litigation is a chief motivator to treat "by the book".

It's a complex mixture of stuff. Lawsuits are a real concern. I asked my doc hubby about it and it would conceivably be possible to frame a Paleo diet as falling outside the "Standard of Care," which is how juries decide fault and awards.

And don't forget. The research behind our way of eating is new and not proven yet. Of course we all think it's correct, but that doesn't mean it's been rigorously and blindly tested in large enough populations to be considered evidence-based. We need to focus on making that happen. That said, my husband says that everyone he knew in medical school knew that nutrition was a shadowy science full of potholes and that anyone who believed that stuff wasn't very bright.

Also, don't go to a doctor if you don't want a medical solution to your problem. It's like going to a car mechanic and asking him/her to bake a cake for you.

Someday they will all catch up. But it will take time. In the meantime, continue on your path and ignore all the idiots.

Have you met pre-med students? They really, really need to be right. It is a hyperfocus, knowing what is right. Granted it seems to largely be created by the academic system they are part of and only occasionally be the result of underlying personality, but it seems silly to expect a habit built up during childhood (because you get to be a doctor by making good grades and being right) to suddenly disappear and for flexibility and openness to suddenly become a priority.

I can change, but it is almost unreasonable to expect it.

Ironically it was my doctor's "set in his ways" mentality that started me down the paleo path. I asked him to see why I was always feeling bloated after eating almost any meal, he brushed it off saying not to worry about it. Well that didn't sit well for me so I started doing my own research and n=1 experiments and I figured out it was because of the typical SAD I was eating at the time. Turns out I was also very close to being a type 2 diabetic as well (I started testing my own blood glucose). Once I educated myself on all things paleo I changed how I was eating, etc and now I do not bloat anymore, my blood glucose is back to normal, I lost almost 40 lbs and I have experienced a multitude of other benefits.

An extremely important question. That's why, even though I do not agree with everything I've seen from Dr Davis, I definitely respect and appreciate his quest.

I have a close business associate whose wife has advanced cancer. They are very wealthy, so they can afford the 'best' healthcare on the planet. But why is it that they have hired a team of top medical professionals from Europe and are (in his words) "completely disconnected from American Medicine so we are free to explore many more possibilities". So sad that it has to be that way right now.

It's like there's an Iron Curtain around the medical establishment in this country. There's something inherently wrong with that at it's core and it's high time we had more qualified Docs step outside of the system and stop ignorantly turning a blind eye to the reality that everyone else seems to be able to see so clearly.

Many doctors are set in their ways. They have treated their patients the same way, and have responded to a set of symptoms the same way for years. They do this not because they're lazy, or because they don't know any better, but because they haven't been sued. People in America love to sue doctors, so when a doctor finds something that "works" they are very reluctant to change their ways. We have a lot of trouble at my work when we change a policy that requires doctors to modify their methods.

The real answer is CW is how we get paid. If you deviate or "get out of line" the system punishes you. I wrote a blog about it last night and not sure when I will publish it. The fact you brought it up here means you are already thinking about therefore I need to publish it sooner than later

i used to work in a pharmacy here in canada and from that perspective i believe the biggest problem is that drug companies are able to buy a doctor's co-operation in the promotion of their products.

once a month each pharma would come to our little dispensery with lunch for us all and get stats about which doctors were writing scrips for their "new" product. we co-operated in return for discounts on purchases. the rep would then go to the local doctors knowing what "Ra Ra" speech they had to give. the doctors (who never receive much in the way of education about pharmaceuticals) make decisions based on the expert advice of the drug rep. and if they prescribe in suffient numbers they might just get invited to an educational convention in florida or arizona in the dead of canadian february.

and to be fair, no one is visiting the doctors promoting alternatives.

Doctors are not trained nor advised to focus on prevention.

When all you have is hammers everything in the world is a nail. Hammers=pharmaceuticals.

I know and work with lots of doctors and I have to say they do develop a sort of 'expectation of human weakness' over their career. I'm sure some of them were young and idealistic and tried to implement lifestyle changes in their patients, and since 95% of all healthy eating plans fall by the wayside (yes, even paleo) they get cynical and want some guaranteed results.