Strengthening Nutrition Education Across the Medical Education Continuum

The AAMC strongly supports flexibility in the approach of its member medical schools to integrate comprehensive evidence-based curricular content on nutrition across all stages of medical education in alignment with their unique missions and accreditation standards.

The AAMC is committed to supporting its member institutions as they continue to further integrate targeted and longitudinal training opportunities in this area throughout the medical education continuum. The following actions, as of October 2025, demonstrate the AAMC’s ongoing commitment to equipping future physicians with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to address all patients’ nutrition-related health needs effectively:

1. The AAMC will integrate content on nutrition education into meetings beginning in fall 2025 by intentionally weaving the topic into sessions across annual and regional gatherings that reach thousands of educators across academic medicine.  

2. We will co-sponsor the Teaching Kitchen Collaborative Annual Conference in late 2025 and join the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine for a 2025 Leadership Summit. 

3. We will host a first-of-its kind event for medical educators, Convening on Best Practices in Medical Nutrition Education, which will take place at the AAMC headquarters in Washington, D.C. in April 2026. This collaborative event will be offered by the Teaching Kitchen Collaborative, the National Board of Medical Examiners, and other collaborators and will identify and summarize effective strategies for competency-based education in nutrition.  

We strongly believe that the most effective approach to promoting change in medical education is to work with the academic medicine community to equip medical educators with the necessary tools and resources to address pervasive health challenges as they emerge. 

Medical education must prepare future physicians to understand the foundational science of nutrition and its role in patients’ health and development, while also preparing them to recognize how poor dietary patterns affect health outcomes and integrate evidence-based nutritional strategies into clinical decision-making. 

The AAMC calls upon the deans and medical education leaders at its member medical schools to evaluate their institution's current practices and identify, if needed, additional opportunities to further integrate nutrition education within their respective curricula. Building on a decade of active engagement on this issue, specifically, the AAMC recommends the following actions: 

1. Conduct a nutrition gap analysis
   • Use the AAMC’s Nutrition in Medical Education Curricula data snapshot (PDF) and the recently published “Proposed Nutritional Competencies for Medical Students and Physician Trainees” as guiding frameworks to map where nutrition competencies are currently addressed. 
   • Steps could include and are not limited to:
     • Assembling a small cross-functional task force including curriculum leaders, faculty with nutrition or lifestyle medicine expertise, including dietitians, nutritionists, and student representatives.
     • Reviewing existing curricular content (preclinical, clinical, interprofessional) and considering where nutrition is currently addressed — use the AAMC data snapshot and proposed nutritional competencies as guides.
     • Identifying gaps and redundancies, if any, across the learning continuum, noting opportunities for vertical and horizontal integration.
     • Identifying areas of strength and considering sharing with fellow educators.
2. Fill identified gaps
   • Partner with nutrition and dietetic practitioners, public health professionals, and lifestyle medicine experts for interprofessional co-development and delivery.
   • Focus on adding or amplifying nutrition into existing, high-impact educational curricula rather than creating standalone modules.
   • Refer to AAMC and MedEdPORTAL resources, data snapshots, and other materials.
   • Leverage other national resources described in the AAMC’s nutrition resource bundle for curricular materials and training; consider submitting exemplars to MedEdPORTAL for publication.
3. Share exemplary practices
   • Build connections and share practices within AAMC virtual communities.
   • Submit exemplary curricular practices and resources to MedEdPORTAL for dissemination.
   • Submit proposals to present works at future meetings and professional development conferences.

For additional information or questions about this work, please contact a curricular innovation team member.