Dietary Changes Could Be Key to Preventing Chronic Disease, Expert Says

Nutrition may be the most powerful tool in preventing life-threatening conditions like cancer, according to medical experts who believe Americans’ changing dietary habits have contributed to rising rates of chronic disease.

Dr. Frank Dumont, an internal medicine physician and executive medical director of Colorado-based Virta Health, points to troubling trends in American health over recent decades. The country has experienced significant increases in obesity, diabetes, autoimmune diseases and cancers – problems he believes are largely tied to lifestyle factors, particularly diet.

“We know food is a big part of that,” Dumont said in an interview. “Our diet has changed dramatically over the past few decades. A lot of the foods we’re eating are much more processed. They’re much higher in simple carbohydrates and simple sugars than they ever were previously.”

These dietary shifts have led to increased insulin levels and inflammation in the body, creating conditions that promote chronic disease development. But Dumont believes simple food swaps can significantly reduce health risks.

“It depends on the individual situation,” he explained. “The better you know your body, the better you can make decisions and make these types of swaps.”

Among his top recommendations is choosing whole fruits over fruit juice. While juice contains beneficial vitamins and minerals, it lacks the fiber that naturally accompanies fruit sugar in whole produce.

“Fruit juice can have some benefits — it has minerals, vitamins and micronutrients, but the bottom line is that it’s more processed, and you’ve eliminated a lot of the fiber that is supposed to go hand in hand with the fruit sugar,” Dumont said.

He pushes back against the notion that fruit should be avoided due to sugar content. “There’s a lot of good health in fruit,” he noted, though he acknowledges individual metabolic conditions may affect how people process even natural sugars. “For most people, and especially earlier on when you’re not as metabolically sick, the wonderful thing about fruit is that you’re actually packaging all of that sugar up in the fiber.”

Another straightforward swap Dumont recommends is opting for grilled chicken instead of breaded varieties, even when dining out. Choosing a grilled chicken salad over a breaded chicken sandwich at a fast-food restaurant can make a significant difference.

“You put that on top of some lettuce with a good healthy dressing, and it can actually be extremely healthy eating out on the road at a fast-food restaurant,” he said.

Dumont’s perspective on nutrition’s role in healthcare has evolved dramatically throughout his career. Initially trained to be skeptical about patients’ ability to maintain lifestyle changes, he was taught to quickly transition to medications and procedures.

“I was seeing people get worse and worse, and that was really disheartening for me,” he recalled. “What I found later in my career is the power of nutrition and lifestyle. And it’s something that, honestly, I have really been trained to be pessimistic about.”

His experience proved that conventional medical wisdom wrong. “If you gave people the right information, and they were able to implement it, you could help them do it in a way that was actually enjoyable and doable for them,” Dumont said. “The power of that was more than the power of the medicines I had been using.”

This approach has transformed his outlook on patient care. He now witnesses significant health improvements when patients align their nutrition with their body’s needs, creating a sense of empowerment among those who previously felt defeated by failed health initiatives.

“I’ve worked with patients who feel like they’ve failed at everything they’ve tried to improve their health, and then all of a sudden feel empowered to say, ‘I’m listening to my body. I’ve learned from my body, I know what works for my body, and look at what I’ve accomplished,'” Dumont explained.

The difference in outcomes has been remarkable, changing his entire perspective on treatment possibilities. “It’s a night and day difference,” he said. “And I am very optimistic about that now.”

As rates of chronic disease continue to rise nationally, Dumont’s experience suggests that dietary interventions might offer a more effective first-line approach than the medication-centered model that has dominated healthcare for decades.