David Katz (MD): "Everything about our culture conspires against the Lifestyle Medicine prescription. This is fairly obvious. Here is the part that really worries me. All too often, you see fast foods in the hospitals that serve food on one floor of the hospital that causes the coronary disease and then the treatment on another floor of the same building. We are basically profiting from both causing disease and treating disease."

Pam Popper (PhD): "You know what the leading source of revenue for any hospital in United States of America is? Bypass surgery. I hate to sound like a pessimist but there is too much money in the status quo! And the resistance from an institutional standpoint: the hospitals, the drug companies and the medical schools can be very strong."

Saray Stancic (MD): "Even now, nearly a decade after founding my own lifestyle medicine practice, I never stop being amazed by how much confusion there is about what to eat. Of course, I can see why that is the case. Every time I turn on the TV, .."

Robert Ostfeld (MD): "Physicians know so little about nutrition! We are susceptible to the same societal messages that everyone else gets. So physicians are equally confused as everyone else out there."

Steven Adelman (MD): "If you're going to medical school, you know that you're going to come out with 400 thousand dollars of debt. What specialties are you gonna think about? You're going to think about big ticket items of specialty that allow you to pay back that debt. It's a rational economic decision. Those are the procedure specialists. That's where the financial rewards are in medicine."

Robert Ostfeld (MD): "The financial aspect is a hugely important one. If I spend 45 minutes counseling somebody about plant-based nutrition, the hospital will get reimbursed the same if I spend three minutes writing them a prescription. So right now, the system is not geared to make it [Lifestyle Medicine] financially viable."

Michael Greger (MD): "Big Pharma plays a role in medical education and practice. When is the last time your doctor was taken out to dinner by Big Broccoli? It's probably been a while."

Pam Popper (PhD): "The pharmaceutical industry absolutely runs the healthcare industry. It's incredibly insidious. The American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Cardiology -- they are all supported by the drug companies. Appearing at conferences and supporting these organizations gets their drugs sold. Take a look at any medical school that's part of a complex. We got hospitals and research and all that sort of a thing. Who funds all that?"

Caldwell Esselstyn (MD): "Let's be honest. Medical schools are run by pharmageddon! It's really a national embarrassment but our medical schools are totally missing out on the strongest tool in our toolbox."

David Eisenberg (MD): "As long as physicians and hospitals make money or save money by having more or better diagnostic tests, surgical procedures, .. If money is made by more they do, then what's the incentive to helping people prevent disease or alter the course of your disease through enhanced diet, exercise, mindfulness and behavior change?"

Saray Stancic (MD): "So to change the curriculum in medical school, we'll have to change the financial incentives essentially."

David Eisenberg (MD): "I think that's part of the solution. Sadly."

Saray Stancic (MD): [emotionally charged; frustrated] "Everybody has to make money. I get it. But physicians: that doesn't apply to us. Finances: that should not be part of the decision making process! We [should] always act in the best interest of our patients. That has nothing to do with money. That was my naive thinking when I started this film [Code Blue]. I've been trying to figure out why I got a little bit emotional, you know. Maybe because we're getting to the end of this journey. You know -- the questions that I wanted answered have been answered and maybe the answer is not the answer I wanted to get. I think that it's much more complicated than just financial incentives. There is no physician in this country that's sitting around going, "Yes, another diabetic!" What I do believe is that physicians don't know this because they are not taught it. And I lay the blame completely on the medical school. Finances should not be the incentive to teach the right thing, to teach the truth, to teach what's best for communities, for health and for the well being of the entire country, the globe! How about we change because it's the right thing to do? How about we change because the evidence is overwhelming? How about we change because we're scientists and we're physicians and we want to deliver the best care? When we know better, we do better. Yes, maybe we didn't know things in the past, but we know today! Okay, so maybe I'm pissed."