Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine Applauds Administration’s Effort to Expand Nutrition Education in Medical Schools, but Curriculum Must Be Based on Science

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced today an agreement among 53 medical schools to conduct a minimum of 40 hours of required nutrition education across all four years of undergraduate medical education or a minimum 40-hour competency equivalent beginning in Fall 2026 to strengthen nutrition education for future physicians.

“Teaching future doctors about nutrition is important, but the most important question is whatwe are teaching them,” says Neal Barnard, MD, FACC, adjunct professor of medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a longtime proponent of improving nutrition training in medical schools who attended today’s event. “They need to learn evidence-based nutrition; that means a focus on fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and other plant-based foods that can reverse heart disease and diabetes.”

Most medical students receive inadequate nutrition education. Only 1 in 4 U.S. medical schools offers students the 25 hours of nutritional training recommended by the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Nutrition.

In November 2025, the American Medical Association backed an effort to boost nutrition training in medical schools, announcing its support for medical education curriculum that “includes the role of nutrition in preventing and managing chronic disease, and other challenges to wellness associated with common societal problems.”

“Adding anything to an already packed curriculum is a bitter pill for a medical school to swallow,” Dr. Barnard adds. “To make it work, the key is to integrated nutrition into what they are already teaching. For example, in the lectures on colorectal cancer, the causal role of hot dogs and other processed meats should be included. That takes very little time and transmits a vitally important message.”

All medical school students should receive nutrition education as part of their standard curricula, according to articles published in recent years in both the British Journal for Nutrition and BMJ Nutrition, Prevention and Health.

The Physicians Committee, a nonprofit public health advocacy organization with more than 17,000 doctor members, is committed to preparing next-generation physicians and other health care professionals with resources to change the future of patient care. The Physicians Committee offers education tools to medical and nursing students to increase awareness of nutrition education in educational institutions. It is also host to hundreds of physicians and other medical professionals at its annual International Conference on Nutrition in Medicine.