HHS, Education Dept. Push Nutrition Education for Medical Students

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced a new initiative to encourage medical schools to include comprehensive nutrition education and training. A study published in 2023 found that the majority of medical students reported receiving fewer than two hours of nutrition education and training. 75% of medical schools in the US have no requirement for nutrition education. A panel of medical experts pointed out the lack of nutritional education for medical students last year and called for reforms.

Secretary Kennedy wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal to explain what he feels is a health crisis fueled by poor nutrition and dietary choices. He explained that diet-related illnesses kill 70% of Americans, including heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. These conditions also consume 90% of the $4 trillion annual healthcare spending nationwide.

“We train physicians to wield the latest surgical tools, but not to guide patients on how to stay out of the operating room in the first place,” Secretary Kennedy wrote. “We know that when applied properly, nutrition counseling can prevent and even reverse chronic disease.”

Kennedy explained that even students who pursue a degree in nutritional education only receive 2.9 hours of formal nutrition education per year.

“We demand immediate, measurable reforms to embed nutrition education across every stage of medical training, hold institutions accountable for progress, and equip every future physician with the tools to prevent disease—not just treat it,” Kennedy said in the HHS press release.

HHS is asking US medical education organizations to submit written plans by September 10 explaining the “scope, timeline, standards alignment, measurable milestones, and accountability measures of their nutrition education commitments.”

HHS and the Department of Education are requesting that schools implement nutritional education requirements in accordance with pre-medical standards, medical school curricula integration, medical licensing examination preparation, residency requirements, board certification, and continuing education.

“The chronic disease epidemic is the most urgent and costly health crisis in America today,” Kennedy wrote. “We can’t afford another decade of delay. Reforming medical education to put nutrition at its core will equip the next generation of doctors with the tools to restore the health of our nation— to make America healthy again.”

Kennedy further explained in a video that while nearly all medical residents are asked to provide nutrition advice to patients, only a quarter of all practicing physicians feel adequately prepared to do so. Kennedy also states that doctors in the future will be able to confidently prescribe diets that can help reverse chronic diseases and also prevent the proliferation of chronic diseases throughout the country.

“This is an approach that is both radical and common sense,” Kennedy said. “We’re going to reconnect medicine with its roots. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, said, ‘Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.’ His advice remains true today, and we’re bringing back food to its proper place in medicine.”

Journalist and Author Nina Teicholz, PhD, praised Secretary Kennedy for calling out the lack of nutrition education and taking action, but she said there needs to be an update to what is considered a healthy diet.

“This is a great idea–with a crucial caveat: the nutrition content must be up-to-date, not just more of the failed plant-based status quo diet, which is still embedded in ALL government agencies and universities,” Teicholz wrote on X. ”If we don’t update our definition of a “healthy” diet, based on the recent science, we will only be enshrining the ineffective conventional wisdom of the past 75 years.”

In June, Kennedy announced the intention to pressure medical schools to include more nutrition education requirements in their curricula and that schools that don’t comply will not be eligible for federal funding. Two different schools reached out to ABC News at the time to say that they do have adequate nutrition training.

“We have an extensive nutrition curriculum as part of our medical school training,” Sarah Smith, a spokeswoman for Weill Cornell Medicine, told ABC News in an email.

Most US medical schools have financial ties to pharmaceutical companies and collectively rake in billions of dollars to support the development of pharmaceutical drugs, which are used to treat conditions that can be prevented through nutritional and dietary interventions. Weill Cornell Medicine has received millions of dollars in grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which touts ultra-processed foods like Beyond Meat as suitable nutritional alternatives to help combat climate change.

Kennedy has discussed the harms of seed oils and ultra-processed foods while advocating for beef tallow and the elimination of synthetic food dyes. He has called for an overhaul of the nutritional guidelines and the removal of ultra-processed foods from school lunches.

Primary care physician Dr. Nate Wood told NBC News that it’s “short-sighted” to think primary care physicians can solve the chronic disease epidemic through nutritional education. He said doctors often deal with multiple complex issues that patients have, and don’t have enough time to counsel them on diet and nutrition. Wood believes a better solution is to ensure health insurance providers cover dietitian appointments.

More than 70% of Americans are either overweight or obese, which increases the likelihood of developing chronic conditions and diseases. It is also a primary risk factor for serious illness and outcomes related to COVID-19 infection.