HYDE-SMITH COMMENDS UMMC & WILLIAM CAREY FOR JOINING MAHA NUTRITION EDUCATION INITIATIVE

HYDE-SMITH COMMENDS UMMC & WILLIAM CAREY FOR JOINING MAHA NUTRITION EDUCATION INITIATIVE

Miss. Institutions Among 53 Nationwide to Ramp up Nutrition Education for Med Students, Fight Food-related Chronic Diseases

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) today commended the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) and the William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine (WCUCOM) for joining an initiative to ramp up nutrition education as part of medical training.

UMMC and WCUCOM are among 53 medical schools across the country that have voluntarily committed to require at least 40 hours of nutrition education, or implement a 40-hour competency equivalent, for students starting in Fall 2026. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), a majority of U.S. medical schools require no clinical nutrition classes, and fewer than 15 percent of residency programs require a nutrition curriculum.

"The Make America Healthy Again effort means being willing to look at different ways to take on the health issues people face. I'm very pleased with UMMC and William Carey for accepting the challenge to ensure more physicians and health providers better understand the intrinsic role nutrition has in our wellbeing," said Hyde-Smith, who serves on the Senate Labor, HHS, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee.

"The additional instruction students at these schools receive should make them more effective in tackling some of the chronic diseases that afflict individual Mississippians and our state overall," the Senator added.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced the nutrition education initiative on Thursday as one means to attack a "preventable disease crisis." By increasing nutritional education, they hope more physicians will be better suited to answer basic questions about food and nutrition as they relate to patient health.

HHS indicated that the $4.4 trillion is spent annually on treating chronic disease and mental health, and that an estimated one million Americans die from food-related chronic illnesses each year.

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