Objective: To reflect upon the challenges in education of health professionals in a context of tensions between the postulates of health promotion and their concision in the Colombian health system. Methodology: Literature Review. Articles about health promotion written in Colombia and published in indexed journals between 2000 and 2010, selected based on an intentional sampling, were reviewed. The content of a total of 37 articles was analyzed. Units of analysis, record and context were identified establishing emerging categories with the support of Atlas.ti 5.2 software. Descriptive and analytic writing started to progress. Results: The articles evidence an overview of health promotion within the framework of Colombian law. The current health system advocates a marketing perspective which constitutes an unfavorable context for health promotion. Priority has been given to the transformation of lifestyles and, while structural actions are left aside, those processes being more profitable are prioritized thus limiting the guarantee to the right to health. Conclusions: There is an enormous great gap between the system rational and the health promotion postulates; health promotion is confused in practice with disease prevention. Health reforms after Law 100 issued in 1993 do not postulate structural changes. This context demands from educators to reflect about the meaning given to health promotion, and to redefine their practice in search for concrete pedagogical and inquiry processes, as well as actions in health.