Video: Top Tips for Patients to Encourage Healthful Diet and Lifestyle

Helping patients embrace a healthful diet—and the lifestyle changes that come with it—can be a challenge. “Society does not make…it easy for the healthy choice to be the easy choice,” said Robert Ostfeld, MD, ScM. “And behavior change, getting someone to change how they eat, how they live, can be very, very difficult. These are big hurdles that we face.”

Ostfeld is the director of preventive cardiology at the Montefiore Health System and a professor of medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York. He spoke with Drug Topics ahead of the American Society for Preventive Cardiology Congress on CVD Prevention, held August 2 through August 4 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Although it may be difficult or overwhelming for an individual practitioner to feel they can overcome these barriers with their patients, the best they can do is try to start. One way to do that, Ostfeld explained, is by relying on the team around you: physicians, support staff, nurses, and registered dietitians, among others. Another way is drilling down to find a specific reason why a patient may be interested in living more healthfully. “Maybe they want to lose weight or improve their skin complexion, maybe they want to lower their blood pressure, lower their cholesterol, come off a medication… Whatever the case may be, I try to highlight how consistently eating more healthfully can address that particular issue,” Ostfeld noted.

For those patients where cost may be a hurdle, “we certainly don’t have to buy organic green juices,” he said. Instead, remind them that frozen fruits and vegetables, as well as bulk purchases of items like oatmeal, beans, and potatoes, can be less expensive, less overwhelming, and “more doable” for those looking to ease the way for change.

Ready to catch up on the rest of our conference coverage? Click here for more of our coverage of the American Society for Preventive Cardiology Congress on CVD Prevention.