Calling it “one the most important course corrections in modern American medicine,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced this week that a growing number of medical schools and accrediting agencies are signing on to the Trump administration’s Nutrition Education Pledge. The pledge involves a promise to provide at least 40 hours of nutrition education as a graduation requirement for medical schools beginning in Fall 2026.
Kennedy has blasted poor diets as the “primary driver of America’s chronic disease epidemic.” He said the pledge reflects the “shifting landscape toward placing nutrition and prevention at the core of patient health.”
“That means nutrition will no longer sit at the margins of medical education,” Kennedy said. “It will shape what students learn, what physicians master, what licensing boards assess, and ultimately how patients receive care.”
Kennedy was joined by eight accrediting agencies in the medical field as he made his remarks June 8. Those organizations are:
Additionally, Kennedy announced that 19 medical schools recently signed the nutrition education pledge, bringing the total number to 73.
Fierce Healthcare, a healthcare policy news site, reports that schools will not face any monetary penalties if they fall short of the 40-hour curricula goal, and that HHS and the Education Department won’t dictate what nutrition information is taught.
