Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is pushing for doctors to receive more education about nutrition. <\/p>\n
He announced Wednesday that a team within the Health and Human Services Department would target \u201cthe woeful lack of nutrition education in medicine\u201d by making it a greater part of premed and medical school curricula, medical licensing exams, residencies, board certification and doctors\u2019 continuing education.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can reverse the chronic disease epidemic simply by changing our diets and lifestyles, but to do that, we need nutrition to be a basic part of every doctor\u2019s training,\u201d Kennedy said in a video on X<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019ll start by embedding nutrition directly into college premed programs and test it on the MCAT.\u201d<\/p>\n The move comes as Kennedy has taken far more controversial steps to reshape public health in America, including slashing vaccine research<\/a> and downsizing federal health agencies<\/a>.<\/p>\n HHS did not respond to individual questions, but pointed NBC News to a press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n The department has directed medical education organizations to submit written plans for incorporating nutrition education by Sept. 10. The Association of American Medical Colleges creates the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), and medical schools have requirements or recommendations for the coursework that premed students should take. <\/p>\n Many doctors lauded the announcement for recognizing the role of nutrition in managing and preventing chronic disease, a personal interest of Kennedy\u2019s that he has made a policy priority in office. However, some expressed concern about not having enough time in the exam room to provide nutrition counseling, and said HHS\u2019 resources would be better spent incentivizing hospitals to have more dietitians on staff or expanding insurance coverage for dietary counseling. Still others said Kennedy\u2019s announcement undermines trust in doctors and sows doubt in their ability to care for patients. <\/p>\n Texas and Louisiana both passed laws in June that align with Kennedy\u2019s medical education policy proposals<\/a>. Texas\u2019 law requires doctors to take nutrition courses to renew their licenses and medical schools to offer nutrition education to receive certain public funds. Louisiana\u2019s law requires some doctors to complete a minimum of one hour of continuing education in nutrition every four years. <\/p>\n Dr. Nate Wood, a primary care physician and the director of culinary medicine at Yale School of Medicine, said the idea that doctors should be well-trained in nutrition is a good one. However, he doubted whether it was the most effective approach to fighting chronic disease.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s a little short-sighted to think that physicians are going to be the answer to this chronic disease epidemic by providing nutrition counseling,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Wood added that \u201ca lot of visits are sick visits, where patients come in for a very quick visit and they want to address four or more complex problems, and it\u2019s already very difficult to address even one or two of those.\u201d<\/p>\n In an editorial<\/a> in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, Kennedy said medical organizations \u201clook the other way\u201d when it comes to nutrition education requirements. He pointed to a 2022 survey in the Journal of Wellness<\/a>, which suggests that medical students receive just over an hour of formal nutrition education per year, on average. He also cited a 2024 study in the journal Advances in Nutrition<\/a>, which found that 75% of U.S. medical schools have no required clinical nutrition classes.<\/p>\n Previously, Kennedy said he would withhold funding<\/a> for medical schools that didn\u2019t have nutrition courses. <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what really inspired me to get into this field, seeing that nutrition was the top cause of poor health in most of my patients, yet it was pretty much missing from my education,\u201d Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist who directs the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University.<\/p>\n He said he supports Kennedy\u2019s policy proposals for nutrition education in medicine.<\/p>\n \u201cThe federal government should say, \u2018Look, if you\u2019re not going to do your job and train doctors how they should be trained, we\u2019re going to stop funding you.\u2019 And then they\u2019ll listen,\u201d Mozaffarian said.<\/p>\n But the Association of American Medical Colleges maintains that medical students are trained about the impact of diet on health. According to the group\u2019s recent survey of U.S. and Canadian medical schools<\/a>, all 182 schools said they cover nutrition as part of their required curricula, up from 89% five years earlier.<\/p>\n \u201cMedical schools understand the critical role that nutrition plays in preventing, managing, and treating chronic health conditions, and incorporate significant nutrition education across their required curricula,\u201d Alison Whelan, the chief academic officer of the AAMC, said in a statement. <\/p>\n Kennedy\u2019s call for more nutrition education has sparked debate about what people can reasonably expect of primary care doctors. <\/p>\n Mozaffarian said the goal is not to turn doctors into dietitians, but to give them enough knowledge to identify issues with a patient\u2019s diet and refer that person to a specialist.<\/p>\n However, Dr. Jake Scott, an infectious diseases specialist at Stanford Medicine, said doctors have that basic knowledge already. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not ignorant when it comes to nutrition, and that\u2019s the implication\u201d of Kennedy\u2019s announcement, he said. <\/p>\n Scott added that poor nutrition in the U.S. is not just a problem with not knowing that quinoa is healthier than fries. It\u2019s also a product of systemic barriers, such as being unable to afford a doctor or access healthy foods, he said. Around 18.8 million people in the U.S. live in food deserts<\/a> \u2014 low-income neighborhoods far away from a supermarket.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s so many other creative, possible solutions, but tacking on this medical education requirement, it\u2019s the last thing I would do if I were the head of HHS,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n