Congressman James P. McGovern, Chairman of the House Rules Committee, (D-MA) applauded passage by the House of Representatives of a bipartisan resolution he authored alongside Congressman Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (R-TX) that calls for medical schools, residency, and fellowship programs to provide nutrition education that demonstrates the connection between diet and disease. Click here to see the Text of Resolution
McGovern has led the push for a White House conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. Earlier this month President Joe Biden announced that his administration would convene such a conference—the first in over 50 years. Obesity, type-2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and stroke are among the leading causes of death and disability nationwide and are inextricably linked to diet. Moreover, the economic costs related to diagnosed diabetes exceed $300 billion per year and the costs related to obesity exceed $200 billion per year. Despite the human and economic toll, physicians in training receive little to no education on the relationships between diet, food and health—often lacking the skills to counsel patients.
McGovern’s resolution, which directly addresses the lack of nutrition training in medical education, was drafted following a Congressional Briefing organized by the Nutrition Education Working Group—a group of nationally-recognized leaders in nutrition science, education, and food and health policy who meet regularly at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.