Eight medical groups and more than a dozen medical schools have pledged to ramp up education on nutrition, officials announced on June 8.
The National Board of Medical Examiners and American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine were among the eight medical accrediting, assessment, and board organizations that reached an agreement with the Department of Health and Human Services to implement nutrition education reform across programs for medical students and professionals, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said.
Kennedy has prioritized increasing nutrition education in schools, and in March, he announced that 53 schools were going to require a minimum of 40 hours of nutrition education.
Nineteen additional schools have committed to requiring at least 40 hours of nutrition education or mandating a 40-hour competency equivalent, officials said on June 8. They include Texas A&M University, the University of Maryland, and the University of Massachusetts.
“Together these three announcements send a clear message—nutrition is returning to the center of American medicine,” Kennedy told reporters in Washington.
Approximately 163 schools in the United States offer doctor of medicine degrees. About 100,000 students attend those schools.
In the fall of 2025, officials with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Education Department contacted medical organizations, requesting they improve nutrition education, and have since engaged in more than 100 meetings with stakeholders, health officials said on June 8.
The government has pointed to a survey published in 2015 that showed that most medical schools did not provide at least 25 hours of nutrition education, and a survey released in 2023 found that medical students received an average of only 1.2 hours of nutrition education per year.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, after Kennedy spoke, recounted his time in medical school. He said doctors are not taught nutrition or other aspects of prevention and that they carry an attitude that only what is taught in medical school is important.
“The arrogance that’s associated with not learning about nutrition in medical school contaminates the entire medical space,” Oz said.
The commitments are voluntary, and the government is not forcing schools to adopt any specific curriculum, Kennedy said.
Other nutrition-related efforts at his department have included unveiling a changed food pyramid and nutrition guidelines, which affect the food served in institutions such as schools and prisons.