“Fifty-three medical schools across 31 states are driving the national movement to champion nutrition education, reshape the future of medical training. Beginning this fall, these schools will require every medical student to complete 40 hours of comprehensive nutrition education or competency equivalent before graduating,” Kennedy said from HHS headquarters.
“More than 30,000 physicians each year will now graduate equipped with nutrition education to help prevent, treat and reverse chronic disease,” he added. “This is how we implement the MAHA agenda, this is how we ‘Make America Healthy Again.'”
According to HHS documents, the partnership will entail 71 requirements including an understanding of the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans that were released in January.
An HHS factsheet stated that $5 million is being put toward medical and health education programs that incorporate nutrition education in their instruction by HHS.
The nutritional aspect of the MAHA agenda is one area in which there has been bipartisan support, with its focus on eating more whole foods and moving away from processed foods.
Some aspects of Kennedy’s philosophy on nutrition have drawn criticism, including his support for eating more red meat and his aims of ending the “war on saturated fats.”
The secretary ascribes to a version of the so-called “carnivore diet” which he’s described as “mainly meat and then fermented — anything fermented. So, a lot of yogurt, good yogurt without sugar in it. Then, coleslaw and kimchi and all kinds of fermented vegetables.”
