August 27, 2025 – The Trump administration is pursuing ways to require medical schools to boost nutrition education, which Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said is key to addressing chronic disease.
During a cabinet meeting Tuesday, Kennedy said that he and Education Secretary Linda McMahon are collaborating on “forcing” medical schools and accreditors to include nutrition studies. Kennedy has campaigned for greater diet-related studies since he first joined President Donald Trump’s team last fall.
“If you come out of a medical school under the Trump administration, you are going to know about diet,” Kennedy said during the cabinet meeting broadcast on CSPAN.
Kennedy argued in the meeting that doctors are not equipped to treat illnesses with diet changes and instead prescribe drugs.
In 1985, the National Academy of Sciences recommended at least 25 hours of nutrition studies in medical school. However, a 2010 survey of accredited medical schools found that only 27 percent met that recommendation.
In a video shared on social media Wednesday, Kennedy expanded on his cabinet meeting announcement and said he is leading a team to address this issue. The first step, he said, is to embed nutrition courses in pre-med programs, and test students on their nutrition knowledge as part of the Medical College Admission Test.
“Every future physician should master the language of prevention before they even touch a stethoscope,” Kennedy said.
Earlier this year, Kennedy said that his agency would revoke or withhold funds from medical schools that don’t implement nutrition curriculum.
But his latest comments, and a leaked draft of the second Make America Healthy Again Commission report, signal a new approach. The report, which set out to provide policy recommendations to address chronic diseases among children, also suggests accreditation reform to increase nutrition studies in medical schools.
Specifically, it states the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) should “bring in competing accreditors of medical education programs,” including those that focus on treating the root causes of chronic diseases.
The final MAHA report was submitted to the White House earlier this month but has yet to be publicly released, though it has been leaked to journalists.
Meanwhile, several states have enacted MAHA-friendly laws to advance some of Kennedy’s talking points on food and health, including changes to medical school curriculum.
Texas passed a law in June that requires medical schools and health care education programs to implement nutrition classes in order to receive certain public funds. Practicing physicians would also need to take continuing education courses on nutrition in order to renew their licenses. In June, Louisiana passed a law that similarly mandates continuing education classes on nutrition and metabolic health. (Link to this post.)
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