\t\t\tKey Takeaways\t\t<\/p>\n
\tHealth Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is pushing for mandatory nutrition education in medical schools, emphasizing its importance in preventing chronic diseases.Kennedy argues that future physicians must learn to prescribe diets alongside medications to combat diet-related illnesses, which claim over a million American lives annually.Current data shows many medical schools provide minimal nutrition instruction.\t<\/p>\n
Arguing that preventable and chronic diseases can be ratcheted back through diet, nutritional health and lifestyle choices, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has directed medical programs to embed nutrition education into curricula and testing.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery future physician should master the language of prevention before they even touch a stethoscope,\u201d he said in announcing the initiative recently. \u201cIn the future, doctors won\u2019t just prescribe drugs, they\u2019ll be able to prescribe diets as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The directive comes as the Department of Health and Human Services works to develop updated U.S. dietary guidelines, expected to be released by December.<\/p>\n
The Health Department, along with the Department of Education, has tasked all medical programs across the nation with adding nutrition education into curricula, medical licensing exams, residency requirements, and board certification, according<\/a> to a news release.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kennedy, in a video<\/a> announcing the development, said poor nutrition takes over one million American lives per year through \u201cdiet-related illnesses.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n He wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that nothing is being done to address this.<\/p>\n \u201cAccrediting bodies and medical organizations look the other way, declining to set clear requirements. We train physicians to wield the latest surgical tools, but not to guide patients on how to stay out of the operating room in the first place,\u201d Kennedy wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n