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Clinicians toolkit

Our Six Pillars webinars will help you understand the importance of nutrition in helping to prevent and treat disease. Register for an upcoming webinar today or access our past webinar recordings to learn more.

 

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Plant-based nutrition and health: a guide for health professionals

Our 12-page guide aims to support clinicians to incorporate nutritional approaches into patient care.

In just 10 minutes, you’ll be informed about the benefits of shifting to a more whole food plant-based eating pattern, how it is linked to reduced rates of chronic disease and the range of positive outcomes for those who adopt these changes. It provides evidence-based guidance on healthy, sustainable eating patterns. Access your free digital download here:

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Toolkit for clinicians

We have developed a complete toolkit to support health professionals to incorporate nutritional approaches into patient care.

Freely available for digital download, the toolkit includes:

  • A 12-page colour guide for health professionals
  • A colour poster to display in clinic
  • A dietary assessment survey
  • Patient handouts

If you are a health professional, or would like to provide these tools to your GP or other healthcare provider, you can access them here:

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Clinicians Toolkit HCP

Guide references

Sources cited in Doctors For Nutrition’s 2020 publication:
Plant-based nutrition and health: A guide for health professionals.

  1. Australian Bureau of Statistics. aihw.gov.au/reports/burden-of-disease/burden-disease-study-illness-death-2015/contents/summary
  2. Tobias M. Health Loss in New Zealand 1990-2013: A Report from the New Zealand Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factors Study. Ministry of Health; 2016. health.govt.nz/publication/health-loss-new-zealand-1990-2013
  3. GBD 2017 Mortality Collaborators. Global, regional, and national age-sex-specific mortality and life expectancy, 1950-2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet. 2018;392(10159):1684-1735. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31891-9
  4. Hu FB, Rimm E, Smith-Warner SA, et al. Reproducibility and validity of dietary patterns assessed with a food-frequency questionnaire. Am J Clin Nutr. 1999;69(2):243-249. doi:10.1093/ajcn/69.2.243
  5. Sandison B. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Impact. 2018;2018(2):80-81. doi:10.21820/23987073.2018.2.80
  6. Willett W, Rockström J, Loken B, et al. Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems. Lancet. 2019;393(10170):447-492. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31788-4
  7. Food Frontier and Life Health Foods, 2019. Hungry for plant-based: Australian consumer insights. Colmar Brunton. foodfrontier.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Hungry-For-Plant-Based-Australian-Consumer-Insights-Oct-2019.pdf Food Frontier and Life Health Foods, 2019. Hungry for plant-based: New Zealand consumer insights. Colmar Brunton. foodfrontier.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Hungry-For-Plant-Based-New-Zealand-Consumer-Insights-Oct-2019.pdf
  8. Australian Bureau of Statistics. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/health-conditions-and-risks/dietary-behaviour/2020-21
  9. Drew J, Cleghorn C, Macmillan A, Mizdrak A. Healthy and Climate-Friendly Eating Patterns in the New Zealand Context. Environ Health Perspect. 2020;128(1):17007. doi:10.1289/EHP5996
  10. Tuso PJ, Ismail MH, Ha BP, Bartolotto C. Nutritional update for physicians: plant-based diets. Perm J. 2013;17(2):61-66. doi:10.7812/TPP/12-085
  11. Melina V, Craig W, Levin S. Position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics: Vegetarian Diets. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2016;116(12):1970-1980. doi:10.1016/j.jand.2016.09.025
  12. Kim H, Caulfield LE, Garcia‐Larsen V, Steffen LM, Coresh J, Rebholz CM. Plant‐Based Diets Are Associated With a Lower Risk of Incident Cardiovascular Disease, Cardiovascular Disease Mortality, and All‐Cause Mortality in a General Population of Middle‐Aged Adults. Journal of the American Heart Association. 2019;8(16). doi:10.1161/jaha.119.012865
  13. Ornish D. Intensive Lifestyle Changes for Reversal of Coronary Heart Disease. JAMA. 1998;280(23):2001. doi:10.1001/jama.280.23.2001
  14. Esselstyn CB Jr, Gendy G, Doyle J, Golubic M, Roizen MF. A way to reverse CAD? J Fam Pract. 2014;63(7):356-364b. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25198208.
  15. Qian F, Liu G, Hu FB, Bhupathiraju SN, Sun Q. Association Between Plant-Based Dietary Patterns and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA Intern Med. July 2019. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2019.2195
  16. Tonstad S, Stewart K, Oda K, Batech M, Herring RP, Fraser GE. Vegetarian diets and incidence of diabetes in the Adventist Health Study-2. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2013;23(4):292-299. doi:10.1016/j.numecd.2011.07.004
  17. Barnard ND, Cohen J, Jenkins DJA, et al. A Low-Fat Vegan Diet Improves Glycemic Control and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in a Randomized Clinical Trial in Individuals With Type 2 Diabetes. Diabetes Care. 2006;29(8):1777-1783. doi:10.2337/dc06-0606
  18. Le LT, Sabaté J. Beyond meatless, the health effects of vegan diets: findings from the Adventist cohorts. Nutrients. 2014;6(6):2131-2147. doi:10.3390/nu6062131
  19. Matsumoto S, Beeson WL, Shavlik DJ, et al. Association between vegetarian diets and cardiovascular risk factors in non-Hispanic white participants of the Adventist Health Study-2. J Nutr Sci. 2019;8:e6. doi:10.1017/jns.2019.1
  20. Wright N, Wilson L, Smith M, Duncan B, McHugh P. The BROAD study: A randomised controlled trial using a whole food plant-based diet in the community for obesity, ischaemic heart disease or diabetes. Nutrition & Diabetes. 2017;7(3):e256-e256. doi:10.1038/nutd.2017.3
  21. Hastert TA, Beresford SAA, Patterson RE, Kristal AR, White E. Adherence to WCRF/AICR cancer prevention recommendations and risk of postmenopausal breast cancer. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2013;22(9):1498-1508. doi:10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-13-0210
  22. Ornish D, Weidner G, Fair WR, et al. Intensive lifestyle changes may affect the progression of prostate cancer. J Urol. 2005;174(3):1065-1069; discussion 1069-1070. doi:10.1097/01.ju.0000169487.49018.73
  23. Bouvard V, Loomis D, Guyton KZ, et al. Carcinogenicity of consumption of red and processed meat. Lancet Oncol. 2015;16(16):1599-1600. doi:10.1016/S1470-2045(15)00444-1
  24. La J, Roberts NH, Yafi FA. Diet and Men’s Sexual Health. Sexual Medicine Reviews. 2018;6(1):54-68. doi:10.1016/j.sxmr.2017.07.004
  25. Towe M, La J, El-Khatib F, Roberts N, Yafi FA, Rubin R. Diet and Female Sexual Health. Sexual Medicine Reviews. 2020;8(2):256-264. doi:10.1016/j.sxmr.2019.08.004
  26. David LA, Maurice CF, Carmody RN, et al. Diet rapidly and reproducibly alters the human gut microbiome. Nature. 2014;505(7484):559-563. doi:10.1038/nature12820
  27. Clinton CM, O’Brien S, Law J, Renier CM, Wendt MR. Whole-foods, plant-based diet alleviates the symptoms of osteoarthritis. Arthritis. 2015;2015:708152. doi:10.1155/2015/708152
  28. McDougall J, Bruce B, Spiller G, Westerdahl J, McDougall M. Effects of a very low-fat, vegan diet in subjects with rheumatoid arthritis. J Altern Complement Med. 2002;8(1):71-75. doi:10.1089/107555302753507195
  29. Blanchflower DG, Oswald AJ, Stewart-Brown S. Is Psychological Well-Being Linked to the Consumption of Fruit and Vegetables? Soc Indic Res. 2013;114(3):785-801. jstor.org/stable/24720280
  30. Schwingshackl L, Schwedhelm C, Galbete C, Hoffmann G. Adherence to Mediterranean Diet and Risk of Cancer: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Nutrients. 2017;9(10). doi:10.3390/nu9101063
  31. Schwingshackl L, Bogensberger B, Hoffmann G. Diet Quality as Assessed by the Healthy Eating Index, Alternate Healthy Eating Index, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension Score, and Health Outcomes: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Cohort Studies. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2018;118(1):74-100.e11. doi:10.1016/j.jand.2017.08.024
  32. Baade PD, Meng X, Sinclair C, Youl P. Estimating the future burden of cancers preventable by better diet and physical activity in Australia. Med J Aust. 2012;196(5):337-340. doi:10.5694/mja11.11082
  33. Rizzo NS, Jaceldo-Siegl K, Sabate J, Fraser GE. Nutrient profiles of vegetarian and nonvegetarian dietary patterns. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2013;113(12):1610-1619. doi:10.1016/j.jand.2013.06.349
  34. Australian government. Nutrient reference values for Australia and New Zealand. nrv.gov.au/nutrients/protein
  35. Young VR, Pellett PL. Plant proteins in relation to human protein and amino acid nutrition. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 1994;59(5):1203S – 1212S. doi:10.1093/ajcn/59.5.1203s
  36. McDougall J. Plant Foods Have a Complete Amino Acid Composition. Circulation. 2002;105(25). doi:10.1161/01.cir.0000018905.97677.1f
  37. Tucker KL, Rich S, Rosenberg I, et al. Plasma vitamin B-12 concentrations relate to intake source in the Framingham Offspring study. Am J Clin Nutr. 2000;71(2):514-522. doi:10.1093/ajcn/71.2.514
  38. Saunders AV, Craig WJ, Baines SK, Posen JS. Iron and vegetarian diets. The Medical Journal of Australia.2012;1(2):11-16. doi:10.5694/mjao11.11494
  39. Harvard Health Publishing. How much calcium do you really need? – Harvard Health. Harvard Health. health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/how-much-calcium-do-you-really-need
  40. Willett WC, Ludwig DS. Milk and Health. N Engl J Med. 2020;382(7):644-654. doi:10.1056/NEJMra1903547
  41. Nowson CA, Margerison C. Vitamin D intake and vitamin D status of Australians. Med J Aust. 2002;177(3):149-152. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12149085
  42. Li M, Eastman CJ. The changing epidemiology of iodine deficiency. Nat Rev Endocrinol. 2012;8(7):434 440. doi:10.1038/nrendo.2012.43

Looking for dietitian-approved recipes?
Head to the Doctors For Nutrition recipe collection.

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