U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Education have moved to increased nutrition requirements within medical education. The development comes as 19 medical schools have also signed the Trump administration’s Nutrition Education Pledge to implement 40 hours of nutritional education or an equivalent into graduation requirements. Dozens of other schools have also pledged to incorporate nutritional education.
“Poor diets are the primary driver of America’s chronic disease epidemic, and today’s announcement reflects the shifting landscape toward placing nutrition and prevention at the core of patient health,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement. “Still, more work remains, and I look forward to seeing nutrition play an increased role as the latest science, data, and best practices develop.”
The effort follows through on an initiative announced last year, where Kennedy shared a plan to require college and pre-med programs to implement nutritional education. “U.S. medical education has not kept up with the overwhelming research on the role of nutrition in preventing and treating chronic diseases,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said at the time. “Medical schools across the country must act now to align their training with the latest research so that future physicians have the means to best help their patients stay healthy. The U.S. Department of Education is proud to stand with HHS in working to lower chronic disease rates, especially in children.”
The United States spends more than $4.4 trillion each year on chronic disease and mental health care, HHS explained last year. The department has also criticized that the majority of physicians do not have adequate nutrition training, and noted that nutrition is “one of the most powerful tools for disease prevention.”
