Nutrition can be the key to warding off disease — even fatal conditions like cancer.

That’s according to medical doctors like Dr. Frank Dumont, an internal medicine physician and executive medical director of Virta Health, a Colorado-based group that tackles metabolic health through diet.

In an on-camera interview with Fox News Digital, Dumont shared that Americans have experienced an increase in obesity, diabetes, autoimmune diseases and cancers in the last several decades, which “probably has a lot to do with our lifestyle.”

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“We know food is a big part of that … our diet has changed dramatically over the past few decades,” he said. “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.”

“The better you know your body, the better you can make decisions and make these types of swaps.” (iStock)

These foods have been linked to an increase in insulin and inflammation, which leads to health complications, Dumont warned. To lower the risk of chronic disease, he encourages people to make the following simple swaps.

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

No. 1: Choose real fruit over fruit juice

To help meet the goal of consuming more fiber and natural products, Dumont recommends eating real fruit instead of drinking fruit juice, which is highly processed.

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“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,” he said.

Eating whole fruits instead of drinking processed fruit juice is a healthier option, the doctor advised. (iStock)

Dumont added that he does not believe in “villainizing” fruit, as it has been scrutinized for being high in sugar.

“There’s a lot of good health in fruit,” he said. “It depends on that person’s individual metabolism. If someone is so metabolically sick, so insulin resistant … even some very healthy fruits can be more than their body can handle.”

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“But 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.”

2. Opt out of breaded chicken

Making this one small swap, even at a fast-food restaurant, can improve overall health, according to Dumont.

Rather than opting for a menu item that is heavy in carbohydrates, like a breaded chicken sandwich, choosing a chicken salad makes for a more well-rounded meal.

Choose grilled chicken in a salad instead of breaded chicken on a sandwich, the doctor recommended. (iStock)

The doctor recommends choosing chicken that is grilled rather than fried and breaded.

“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.

Food as medicine

Dumont noted that he has seen many patients lose their fight against chronic disease when treated only with medication.

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“I was seeing people get worse and worse, and that was really disheartening for me,” he said. “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.”

In his training, Dumont said he was taught that patients rarely sustain healthy lifestyle changes, and that moving to medicines and procedures should be “quickly” encouraged.

“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.” (iStock)

“I found that was not true,” he said. “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.”

“The power of that was more than the power of the medicines I had been using.”

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The doctor said he now sees people improve significantly when they match up their nutrition with what their bodies need.

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Dumont said he has 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.'”

“It’s a night and day difference,” he said. “And I am very optimistic about that now.”