The Department of Health and Human Services announced that 53 medical schools across 31 states will require at least 40 hours of nutrition education for students starting this fall.
The initiative, developed with the Department of Education, aims to expand nutrition training in medical curricula, where historically less than 1% of lecture hours focus on nutrition. According to an HHS fact sheet, medical students report averaging fewer than two hours of nutrition education per year, and as of 2024, about 75% of schools did not require clinical nutrition courses.
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“Chronic disease is bankrupting our health system, and poor nutrition sits at the center of that crisis,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said in a press release.
In a press conference at HHS, Kennedy said the effort could result in more than 30,000 physicians graduating each year with formal nutrition training to help prevent and manage chronic disease. HHS will invest $5 million through a multi-phase nutrition education challenge led by the National Institutes of Health to support medical schools, nursing residencies, and dietetics programs that integrate nutrition into their curricula.
Kennedy emphasized that the commitments are voluntary and do not constitute a federal mandate.
