RFK Jr. to tell medical schools to teach nutrition or lose federal funding

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he plans to tell American medical schools they must offer nutrition courses to students or risk losing federal funding from the Department of Health and Human Services.

Speaking at an event in North Carolina in April, Kennedy lamented, "There's almost no medical schools that have nutrition courses, and so [aspiring physicians] are taught how to treat illnesses with drugs but not how to treat them with food or to keep people healthy so they don't need the drugs."

He added, "One of the things that we'll do over the next year is to announce that medical schools that don't have those programs are not going to be eligible for our funding, and that we will withhold funds from those who don't implement those kinds of courses."

The idea, which Kennedy mentioned in passing at an event focused on plastics in the environment, lacks details but has drawn optimism from some nutrition experts who have for years sought ways for medical schools to teach more nutrition content.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/rfk-jr-tell-medical-schools-173804599.html

From a guy who takes his grandkids swimming in shitty water.

[Dave Bowman]

1. What an ignorant fool.

[brush]

23. Yep, to think nutritional studies have never ever been a part of medical school curricula.

That brain worm is eating more and more of his brain.

[ananda]

29. You mean there's some left?

It's hard to tell.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

68. Only an ignorant fool would think it a good idea for doctors

to know anything at all about nutrition. I get it.

[Dave Bowman]

75. They already study nutrition.

[GP6971]

70. Really?? You're very funny!

[Polybius]

74. He is ignorant, but why are you mad at this?

He's right in this case. He's actually right every 6 weeks or so, he's got broken clock syndrome.

[Dave Bowman]

76. I'm mad at the blackmailing.

[markodochartaigh]

2. A stopped clock is correct twice a day.

But I bet that they won't be teaching Dr Esselstyn/McDougall/Ornish type diets. Probably med schools will have seminars sponsored by the dairy board, cattlemen's association, association for the advancement of high fructose corn syrup, national fried foods producers, etc.

[Basso8vb]

3. I'm so sick of this goddamned dumbfuck.

[elocs]

61. Yes, how dare he suggest that doctors in training should learn about nutrition. n/t

[Ritabert]

4. He's acting like junk food companies will change their ways.

Ha ha. Chips, soda, cookies and candy aren't going anywhere. I stopped eating them long ago but not everybody has.

[mwmisses4289]

5. As I understand it from friends who went

to med and nursing school, they get a semester in very basic nutrition, and that's it. There are certfied nutrition programs, but I don't know how attached to a med degree they are.

[k_buddy762]

9. Exactly.

[haele]

49. Yes, but they also have to take bio-chemestry.

And Nutrients, supplements, ect ...at the molecular level are typically taught then. The food pyramid or "healthy joint, bones and growth/ how not to get obese or develop type II Diabetes" type of nutrition RFK Jr. Is blabbing about about is actually taught as part of health science in high school.
On edit - what he (and Dr. Oz and all the other fad diet pushers) wants is supplemental or preventative nutrition education - basically hormones, vitamin/minerals, and "whole foods" nutrition therapies to replace pharmacology in general diseases or special health conditions. Like Arthritis, Alzheimer's, or Diabetes type I.
Mostly therapies that cannot be properly studied or peer reviewed because of the genetic component in many of the conditions they're supposed to treat, and in many cases, end up being placebos that makes lots of money for supplement companies.

[yardwork]

52. Medical school curricula are changing.

The concept of "food as medicine" has been taking hold for some time. Some health systems provide "prescriptions" for healthy food.

But this requires a lot of money. It requires coordination with SNAP and WIC and other government programs that the Republicans are taking away.

Empty promises.

[no_hypocrisy]

6. FFS! They're physicians, not nutritionists

and/or naturopaths.

Nor am i aware of any medical malpractice actions that involve nutrition over standards medical practice.

[elocs]

60. Nutrition should be an important part of any physician's education.

At least as important as prescribing pills for a nutritional problem.

[no_hypocrisy]

7. Part 2 of rant:

Hey Bob! Will you make my health insurance pick up the tab for my certified organic produce , meats, poultry, and fish?

[k_buddy762]

10. This is a great question

and this would be awesome.

[k_buddy762]

8. Food is medicine and medicine is food

I support this 1000000%.

[BannonsLiver]

11. I actually spoke with a hospital nutritionist recently.

She said MD students actually get very little nutrition education while in school which I found interesting/surprising.

[yardwork]

57. It's changing, though.

All the "woke" changes that this administration demonizes include a stronger focus on nutrition and overall health. There's a growing recognition of "social determinants of health."

However, don't be fooled by this highly cynical statement by the Trump administration, which is defunding all safety nets. They just want poor and "not beautiful" people to die. They're making excuses for not providing healthcare to people deemed "undeserving."

[Girard442]

66. Yup. They're one step away from those who lecture sick people about "see-un."

[yardwork]

67. That's the goal.

[yardwork]

12. Medicine is food?

[k_buddy762]

13. Hippocrates

The phrase “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” is commonly attributed to Hippocrates, the ancient Greek physician often called the "father of medicine."

[maxrandb]

17. I hope we've "evolved" and advanced since the days of Hippocrates

Note: I said "hope" we've evolved and advanced, NOT "sure".

Unless you live under a rock, you've been told about "eating right" and exercise since you were 2 years old, or if not from your parents, since you began kindergarten.

Hey Bob, maybe make med students take smoking cessation classes too.

This is what pisses me off about ALL these fucking MAGAt dipshits.

They fucking believe in simplistic fucking shit like this, because it's so fucking simplistic!

Easy-peezy, right?

They’ve done their "own research", right?

Every fat, fucking disgusting, smoking, "cook my food in lard", sit on my ass all day nimrod that has diabetes, has been told by their fucking doctor to stop gourging on chicken fingers and Lucky Strikes!

It's the horseshit Paleo-Diet going mainstream. Nevermind that man in Hippocrates' day lived to the ripe old age of 35!

I am all for encouraging people to eat healthier, but this is nothing but MAGAt "look at how common sense RFK Jr. is doing something" BULLSHIT

In the meantime, your "surgeon" will be taught to tell you to "eat better", and SNAP and School Lunches will be ripped away from starving American children.

I don't know what makes me more furious.

Pretending that information on nutrition was just "discovered" by RFK Jr, or folks on DU patting that fucking drug addled moron on the back as if he gives one fuck about your health.

No, I do know....it's the second one.

[k_buddy762]

42. Lots of dramatic emotion in this post

I'm simply advocating for doctors to get more nutritional education in med school than they presently do.

[maxrandb]

50. Fascism requires "dramatic emotion" and ACTION

Part of my action is to give "no quarter" to ANY of these fascist asshats.

Donnie Dipshit, JD, Eloon, RFK Jr., MTG, Elise Stefanik, and the ENTIRE MAGAt cult are NOT "like a broken clock", or, "right twice a day".

Normalizing fascists by saying: "gee, he's an evil NAZI, but boy he's right about this issue", is like saying; "Hitler did some good things".

My policy standard is that Fascist are ALWAYS WRONG. There is no "gray area".

It's their fascism that ALWAYS makes them wrong, regardless of the issue.

It's like praising Jeffrey Dahmer because he makes a good risotto.

[k_buddy762]

80. If Hitler told German kids

"Its good to brush your teeth," I assume then that you would stop brushing your teeth.

[maxrandb]

82. No, but I wouldn't take ANY advice from Hitler...would you?

If Hitler said I should exercise, my response would be; "fuck you fascist"

If Donnie Dipshit said I should eat my spinach, my response would be; "fuck you fascist".

If Elise Stefanik held a hearing to condemn antisemitism, my response would be; "fuck you fascist".

If Elon Musk gave 1/1,000 of his net worth to send every poor kid in America to college, or trade school, my response would be; "fuck you fascist".

There is simply too much to lose by normalizing fascists...and there are plenty of decent people that we can get advice from. I don't need it from fascists.

Maybe the standard isn't; "well, Hitler cares about my teeth, it's just the murdering of the Jews and the disabled that I have a problem with".

Maybe the fascism trumps EVERYTHING!

Maybe some things are so precious we shouldn't accept the; "even a broken clock is right twice a day" standard.

For me, that precious thing is my soul, so NO! I wouldn't take advice from Hitler.

[yardwork]

47. I've seen first hand what these dipshits think.

They want to replace nurses with AI avatars and they think that weight loss drugs are a panacea. There are a bunch of self-important 30-something prigs walking around the White House with the attitude that if AI and weight loss drugs don't fix what ails you, you can go ahead and die because you're a burden.

That's it.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

24. He didn't say it and it wouldn't have fit his philosophy.

This literary creation is not only a misquotation but it also
leads to an essential misconception: in the Hippocratic medicine,
even if food was closely linked to health and disease, the concept of
food was not confused with that of medicine.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258099432_Let_not_thy_food_be_confused_with_thy_medicine_The_Hippocratic_misquotation

[yardwork]

46. Thanks.

[yardwork]

53. Those are two different things and one of them is silly.

Food is indeed medicine, but medicines (COVID vaccines, cancer therapy, hypertension drugs) are NOT food.

And, the budget just passed by Republicans in the House strips funding for SNAP, WIC, all the nutrition programs, all the safety net for poor people. Where are they supposed to get this healthy food?

[womanofthehills]

25. I definitely support this too

I know so many people who are so ignorant about diet. Drs are so fast to prescribe drugs when they could give patients a few months to change diets/exercise to improve their health.

Most all my friends are college educated but I often can’t believe stuff they eat or their ideas on diet.

[NH Ethylene]

36. My thoughts exactly.

I've long bemoaned the lack of training in nutrition for physicians.

[yardwork]

56. Don't be fooled.

The budget that just passed the Republican controlled House strips funding for all nutrition programs and all safety nets for the poor.

These people want to let poor people die. If you're overweight and can't afford weight loss drugs, tough luck. No hypertension prescription for you. Lose weight and come back in three months if you're still alive. If not, well you were a burden on our "beautiful" country.

This is how the Trump administration thinks. This is what the staffers under RFK, Jr. are saying.

[k_buddy762]

81. 100000%

Excellent post. I completely agree. People who are emotionally tied to their foods or their pills cannot see the forest for the trees.

[claudette]

54. I agree 1000%

[bronxiteforever]

14. Tell me you support killing Americans

without saying you are killing Americans!
Cut off medical school funding, destroy medical research, censor science, lie about vaccines and flood the Country with conspiracy theories. I’d say Wormbrain has told us.

[Ping Tung]

15. No cake. Let them eat road kill.

[Grins]

16. Isn't that a high school course?

I seem to recall…

Medical school class schedules are full. Any idea where that extra class time is going to come from…?

[maxrandb]

18. My niece just started her residency after 8 years of Med School

She just raves about all the "free-time" she had during medical school.

[IcyPeas]

19. Seems kind of woke, doesn't it?

[elocs]

20. Medical schools really have done a piss-poor job in teaching future doctors about nutrition

not dictated by big food who still preaches that a big bowl of sugary cereal is a great breakfast.

[Aristus]

21. Uh...

I’m a Physician Assistant, not a doctor. But nowhere in any of the training I received did anybody ever say a great big bowl of sugary cereal is a great breakfast.

None of my instructors was sponsored by Big Anything. And every single one of our guest lecturers was required to disclose, before they ever said a word related to their lectures, if they drew any income from private corporations of any kind.

[yardwork]

48. The casual misinformation in this thread is a sight to see.

Not surprising, though.

[Rebl2]

22. I took classes

Last edited Thu Jun 5, 2025, 10:01 AM - Edit history (1)

for a two year degree in early childhood education many years ago and was required to take a nutrition class. I would think a doctor in training would have to take a class in nutrition.

[elocs]

59. "A class". Evidently teaching nutrition does not seem to be important in medical school. n/t

[appleannie1]

26. When Michelle Obama tried to teach that, MAGA people had a fit.

Of course she tried to teach that to grade school children, the age when you either learn to eat healthy or you learn to live on chicken McNuggets and a bottle of soda.

[keep_left]

33. Yep. Anyone remember Sarah Palin and her Big Gulp?

This was at a CPAC event. Palin and the MAGA chuds ridiculed Michelle Obama's health initiatives; Trump bulldozed the White House victory garden.

https://democraticunderground.com/100220343735#post11



https://democraticunderground.com/10143447157#post41
https://democraticunderground.com/10143371940#post34
https://democraticunderground.com/100219729247#post23

[yardwork]

51. The Republicans held steak fundraisers and laughed at Democrats for eating salad.

This is a deeply cynical and hypocritical move. Their real goal here is to remove access to healthcare for people they deem a "burden on society."

[area51]

27. Well, having a non-dr, w/no medical training

telling medical schools what teach is certainly helpful.

[Demovictory9]

28. how about classes on limiting sun exposure to skin, to prevent looking like RFK Jr.

[bucolic_frolic]

30. What nutrition told us

In the 1960s they told us dairy and beef fat cause heart attacks, and to use trans fats - margarine, vegetable shortening - a WWII accommodation with shortages.

In the 1980s they told us too much beef raises the risk of cancer. Nitrites were a risk of colon cancer, and remain so. Cancer patients were advised to cut back on protein and eat pasta.

In the 1990s chemicals and pesticides are bad for us, all sorts of cancers. Seed oils are ok, they lower the risk of heart disease and arteriosclerosis. Soy and its derivatives are advised as protein substitutes.

Now tallow (lard) is back in favor, soy isolates are to be avoided for cancer risk, seed oils are bad, bad, and bad, even if cold pressed without chemicals.

We've gone through diet craze after diet craze with famous doctor's names attached in bold headlines.

Now we have Keto telling us the problem all along was carbs, starch, pasta, potatoes, baked goods, and impure foods. Everything without sugar is great, fish and especially sardines are great, beef fed grass and the milk they produce is perfect. The real cause of heart disease and cancer was not trans/dairy/beef/seed oil fat and impurities, it was carbohydrates - including the pasta they recommended.

Nitrites and nitrates and growth hormones for turkey, beef, pork are still legal but not in Europe.

I am so glad Bob Kennedy has figured it all out for us. Does his recommendation come with a money back guarantee like the previous diets, crazes, experts??

[milestogo]

31. Lets just shut down medical schools.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

32. Yo Bobby! Nutrition has NO connection to Genetics when it comes to diseases!!!

This man is dumber than a box of rocks.

Nutrition plays a role in the quality of our lives, but Medical research and medications used are two different things all together. Diseases are often inherited be that Heart Disease, Type II Diabetes, Congenital Diseases, etc. Nutrition can deal with so much here.

[k_buddy762]

41. Genes are turned "on" and "off"

because of environmental variables, in part, including food.

[jmowreader]

34. I'm going to go out on a limb here...

...and think that the nutritional training he desires is somewhere between what was practiced at John Harvey Kellogg's Battle Creek Sanitarium and modern naturopathy, with heavy emphasis on things like raw milk.

[Initech]

35. Medical schools *DO* teach nutrition, and not wellness industry bullshit.

Fuck you RFK Jr!

[slightlv]

37. Oh, just what I think is absolutely most important!

A Neurosurgeon who has had nutrition classes! Gods, I'm all for wellness, and I agree (to a degree) that food is one path to that... especially if he'd get serious about making the food corporations sell real food to grocery stores, instead of all the chemicals, additives, and "tastes like" crap we usually have on offer.

It's amazing to me that WE get the "scolding" and not the companies putting the food out there... or trump for raising the prices on real food like fruits and vegetables and eggs and meat... to the degree you've got to be rich to be able to afford it, especially for a family!

[sop]

38. Republicans crucified Michelle Obama for urging healthier diets for children, called her a do-gooder and a busybody.

Meanwhile, Trump invites athletes to the Oval Office and feeds them Quarter Pounders, fries and Cokes, and rips out the White House vegetable garden. Republicans pass laws prohibiting doctors from asking depressed patients about guns, saying doctors should "stick to medicine" and "mind their own business." Republicans viciously attacked Dr. Fauci for recommending quarantines, masks and vaccines, while Gym Jordan and Matt Gaetz brayed about "personal freedoms!" during congressional hearings. Now RFK Jr. wants to mandate nutrition training in medical schools, even while spreading misinformation about childhood vaccines and advocating absurd measles "cures." Republicans are a fucking joke.

[Henry203]

39. Road kill for dinner.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

44. Followed by a nice swim

In Shit Creek.

[Initech]

78. Followed by peptides and raw milk.

[JT45242]

40. There are degrees in nutrition...they get hired to do that job

Hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living. Etc all hire professional nutritionist to do that job.

Let's let them do their job and teach doctors anatomy, biochemistry, medicine, pharmacology, etc.

[DFW]

43. As Kris Kristofferson might have put it:

&t=8s

[Botany]

45. Clueless idiot. Has he heard of dietitians? My mom wrote a book about nutrition. Kid you not.

Btw Just about every doctor and nurse @ some time has had instruction in human
nutrition in their undergraduate or graduate course work. But those are real science
classes not some half baked woo crap that Mr. Brain Worms/Heroin junkie believes
in.

https://www.abebooks.com/9780072287844/Perspectives-Nutrition-Margaret-Kessel-Gordon-0072287845/plphttps://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/13/trump-world-knowledge-diplomatic-774801

Perspectives in Nutrition

Covers all aspects of the study of nutrition. Chapters include the nutrition basics, energy-yielding nutrients and alcohol, vitamins and minerals, energy production and balance, nutrition and the life cycle, and putting nutrition knowledge into practice.

[claudette]

55. He's right to

want them to include it but wrong to threaten them with the withholding of funding

[marble falls]

58. "Nutrition" or "RFK Jr's Nut-rition"

[TheRickles]

62. According to a Google AI search, the average US medical school offers 20 hours of training in nutrition

over the 4 years of med school. That's quite an improvement from the one(!) hour I got almost 50 years ago. So there's been a lot of progress, with Food as Medicine seminars being one great example of this new emphasis. I think RFK Jr. is on the right track here, but the devil will be in the details.

[viva la]

63. Nutrition training is fine.

It's using that to replace vaccines and medication that is problematic.

[lovesfruit]

64. I won't hate on this

Just because it’s RFK Jr.

I would like more information when there is an actual proposal, and until then, I’ll refrain from forming a judgment.

Currently I’m active in colorectal cancer support groups, and this is a common complaint by both patients and caregivers—that many oncologists don’t know enough about diet and supplements that might help support patients during and after traditional (chemo & radiation) cancer treatment.

And yes, we tried a dietician through the cancer center, and it was little help. Some cancer centers have integrative oncologists on staff. Ours does not, unfortunately, or we’d be working with one to have our dietary and supplement questions addressed.

Sorry for the essay! 😆 But this is just my personal observation from being in cancer support group—patients and caregivers want more guidance from their oncologists on diet and supplementation, rather than shrugs and “I don’t know”s.

[RobinA]

73. Maybe

there's just no real scientific evidence that supplements and diet choices make a significant difference. Most licensed professionals are limited to using methods that are evidence-based. Supplements? Not so much.

[yardwork]

77. Like many of TrumpCo's proposals, there's a little bit of truth.

For one hundred years western medicine has been rightly criticized for focusing too much on mechanics and too little on comprehensive health, including nutrition. It's not a new idea.

Beginning 20 years or so ago, medicine and US healthcare policy began to embrace a more holistic approach. "Social drivers of health" are a core part of government policy - at least, that approach was until the Trump administration destroyed it all as "woke."

Medical schools have changed their curricula, states are putting money into "food prescriptions," even health insurance companies like United are getting in on it. It's been accepted as best practices for years.

But the budget passed by Republicans in the House eliminates all that "woke" stuff like funding for SNAP, WIC, food programs.

This is a cynical way to cut people off from medical care and punish them for "eating wrong."

[Johonny]

65. Shouldnt we just cut to, we all die

and move on.

[flvegan]

72. You can teach it, but they won't practice it.

I'm not on ReallyFuckingKookie's side here. I think med school should include (real) nutrition training. I don't think funding should be withheld if they don't immediately institute whatever whacky "nutrition" ideas he'd have or our subsidized/commercial food industry demand, I mean scientifically recommend.

Fact is, and maybe this is just personal experience from stories told by every single person around me, if you see a doctor for something, the best nutrition advice you may get is "you could stand to lose a few pounds" or "you need to cut sodium" but no real instruction. When asked how to do those things, you get asked if you'd like a referral to a physician nutrition specialist. God forbid they get sued because they recommend their patients have some fruit instead of Hot Pockets now and then.

Kudos to doctors that do recommend diet/nutrition (and exercise) properly.

[EndlessWire]

79. A holistic approach to medicine

is fine. What's not fine is establishing the Trump regime's precidence in telling medical schools what to teach. Our medical system consists of different types of medical education, from allopathic to osteopathic to naturopathic. Each one has a different emphasis and approach to managing health concerns. Each one is constantly evolving.

Clubbing them over the head with threats about funding--apparently the only threat they have--just belies the intent to wield power over them in order to dictate the curriculum. Next, they'll mandate the teaching that vaccinations are evil, or they'll cut their funding. And anything else the idiot wants to impose, or he'll cut their funding.

This is a direct threat to the Universities that almost all--can't think of one that isn't--medical schools are attached to for their academic content. This insidious attempt to further control our educational system is a seemingly innocuous step that Bob is taking, but it really is a dangerous pursuit of control and power. It's just a baby step that most won't notice.

It was bad enough when trump stepped in to dictate women's health care and all the hideous results that currently imperil women. Here, they are attempting to take control of an aspect of medical education that a fool wants to impose as a requirement for funding, when he isn't qualified for diddly squat.

Yes, food is medicine. Perhaps there isn't enough nutrition education, but there is some, and the next line he draws will be what he thinks is enough, not what is already there. This is a bad idea.

What hypocrits they are, when they are cutting food funding out from underneath those that need food security. What good is it to teach nutrition when all they can afford is mystery meat that is uninspected refuse. What's a doctor supposed to do?

Do we see Bob imploring the trump regime to help feed people? No, he isn't wasting his time. He has joined the war on universities in order to pressure them into kneeling before trump. He's a rat weasel as much as any of them are.

[Iris]

83. What a lot of we just teach home economics in h.s. Again and then everyone could learn about nutrition?