Speaker 1 (00:18):
Okay. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Department of Health and Human Services. We want to thank the students, representatives of medical schools and leaders from prominent healthcare organizations who are joining us today for today's special announcement. We also want to thank members of the media in advance. So, now please welcome our secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Thank you.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr (00:53):
Good morning, everybody. I can't tell you how excited I am to be here today and thank you all for joining us. Today we mark an historic announcement delivering the solution to a problem the American Medical Association first identified 60 years ago when my uncle was president. Together with the Department of Education, Secretary Linda McMahon, I'm pleased to announce the transformative breakthrough in medical education that will reshape the way that we train doctors in our country and deliver on President Trump's promise to end the chronic disease epidemic in America. 53 medical schools across 31 states are driving the national movement to champion nutrition education and reshape the future of medical training. Beginning this fall, these schools will require every medical student to complete 40 hours of comprehensive nutrition education or competency equivalent before graduating. More than 30,000 physicians each year will now graduate equipped with nutrition education to help prevent, treat, and reverse chronic disease. This is how we implement the MAHA agenda. This is how we make America healthy again.
(02:13)
I want to give a special thanks to Florida Congressman Vern Buchanan for being a champion for nutrition. He told me this morning that he spent 40 years advocating for this. I'm very, very grateful for all of your work and your leadership. And he authored a letter to the accreditors last fall supporting our nutrition efforts. I also want to thank Indiana Senator Jim Banks, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer, and South Carolina Congressman Sheryl Biggs and Florida Congressman Aaron Bean. And I also want to thank three people in the audience, Marty Makary, our extraordinary FDA commissioner, Dr. Oz... Dr. Oz ran for president successfully at his medical school on this issue, on getting more nutrition education in the school, and Jay Bhattacharya who's doing an amazing job, both as NIH administrator and recently as CDC's acting administrator. He really wanted to burnish his curriculum vitae.
(03:41)
I want to acknowledge the support and partnership of this initiative from president of American Medical Association, Bobby Mukkamala, Bobby... and the president and CEO of the Association of the American Medical Colleges, Dr. David Skorton, and the president of the American Association of Colleges and Osteopathic Medicine, Dr. Robert King. And special thanks to the University of Nebraska President Jeffrey Gold, who played a key role in guiding our efforts and assuring that this was a school-led, consensus-based project. Florida State University President Richard McCullough and dean alma littles, who along with Dr. Gold, were the first to encourage and embrace this tremendous initiative. Thanks to the deans and senior officials representing 53 medical schools, as well as leaders in medical accreditation who have been working on this exciting announcement that we're going to unveil later in the day. And special thanks to Dr. Travis Smith and Sam Waters for their relentless work to make this a reality.
(05:03)
Thank you all for being with us today. We know why we are here, chronic disease is overwhelming our country and it is accelerating. When my uncle was president, we spent zero on chronic disease in this country. Today, we spend $4.5 trillion a year on healthcare and 90% of it goes to managing chronic disease. Poor nutrition is often at its core. Six in 10 American adults live with at least one chronic disease. Four and 10 live with two or more. 38% of our teens are pre-diabetic or diabetic, nearly 40% are overweight or obese. Almost one in five adults has non-alcoholic fatty-liver cancer.
(05:55)
When I was growing up, doctors rarely saw any of these conditions in children, and now they are commonplace. The AMA, the AAMC and ACOM have sounded the alarm. Medical education must teach the science of nutrition. Yet today, the average medical student report receiving less than two hours of nutrition education every year, and that ends now. In conversation after conversation with leading researchers and medical school deans, I heard the same message, " America's academic institutions stand ready to lead. They want to bring the full weight of American science to this crisis, and they want to move faster than anyone thought was possible."
(06:44)
Our doctors are among the most dedicated and professional in this country. They chose this calling to heal. The leaders in this room are not the obstacles to reversing chronic disease, they are the solution. Today's announcements strengthens the doctor-patient relationship. It equips physicians to work hand-in-hand with dieticians and other health professionals and it shifts our system toward prevention, instead of perpetual prescriptions. With the promise to lower healthcare costs in the process and to give us higher quality and better health.
(07:24)
To accelerate this effort, HHS will invest $5 million through a multiphase NIH nutrition education challenge, thanks to the leadership of Jay Bhattacharya. We will support curriculum development and fund clinical training in gold-standard science. We will extend this effort beyond medical schools to residency programs, nursing, dietician, and nutrition science programs nationwide. To be clear, today's announcement is not the Trump administration dictating medical curriculum. Today represents a mutual recognition that HHS and leaders in American medicine can come together to advance shared goals and interests. After months of seeking feedback, we landed on a clear standard, a minimum of 40 hours of nutrition education across all four years of undergraduate medical education. There are schools that felt competency-based learning was a better benchmark for mastery. We partnered with national experts and those medical schools to build a framework grounded in gold standard science. 71 evidence-based competencies across 10 domains.
(08:41)
These competencies are not a curriculum and they are not a mandate. They are one resource among many in a non-exhaustive list. This morning, we unveiled a public website, hhs.gov/nutrition-education. That's hhs.gov/nutrition-education. If you visit this website, you can see whether your alma mater or the medical school you're considering is on the list. And you can click through to see medical school commitments and their plans for putting nutrition in the classroom. This website is not just about us championing their efforts. It's a public commitment from these institutions to hold themselves accountable, to be a public leader and a catalyst for change.
(09:36)
Additionally, the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, led by Admiral Brian Christine, will soon require the more than 5,000 officers in the Commissioned Corps of the US Public Health Service and to be continuing nutrition education as part of their professional requirements. Admiral Christine and his team will convene national experts in the coming weeks to ensure that our Commissioned Corps is equipped with a leading science to best serve the country.
(10:08)
At HHS, we are leading by example. This is how the movement starts. If your school is not on today's list, that does not mean the door is closed. We welcome you, we encourage you, we expect you to step forward. We thank you very much and we want every medical school in America to participate. This is one of my proudest days at HHS. I want to thank you, the deans and presidents of America's leading medical schools on the days and in the audience, and the AMA and the other organizations that have worked with us for months to achieve this monumental accomplishment. You've shown yourselves to be dedicated champions in the battle to reverse America's chronic disease epidemic.
(11:04)
Thank you all very, very much. I now welcome my friend and my colleague, Linda McMahon. Linda's become a very, very close friend. My niece, Zoe Hines, recently signed a contract with WWE, which Linda has a lot to do with, to become a wrestler. And I'm really looking forward to knowing so many good doctors who can treat her after.
Linda McMahon (11:46):
Not the segue I expected, but then we never know with Secretary Kennedy, so thank you so much, Robert. It's a pleasure for me to be here this morning and hello everyone. It's an incredible honor to join you as we celebrate
Secretary McMahon (12:00):
... celebrate this major commitment to reforms that will reshape America medical training for generations to come. And I'd especially like to thank Secretary Kennedy for leading this common sense reform that will benefit every single American. How many times have we heard, "You are what you eat?" Some days I'm kind of proud of that, and other days I'm going, "Man, I'm going to be rough tonight because this was not a good day for eating for me. " But we really do have to focus on our nutrition. It is so incredibly important. We know that there are certain foods that cause inflammation and how much of the different diseases that we see today are just really inflammatory responses.
(12:40)
Today's announcement puts nutrition and prevention front and center in how we train tomorrow's doctors and healthcare leaders. It's a privilege to recognize the dozens of medical schools stepping up to strengthen nutrition education. Because to make America great again, we must first make it healthy. Healthy again. Today's announcement reflects a shared understanding. Quality nutrition is foundational to a healthy life. For too long, this essential pillar of public health has been overlooked. Diet-related chronic diseases contribute to roughly one million deaths each year and impose enormous economic and emotional costs on our population. And a staggering, staggering 14.7 million school-aged children today suffer from obesity.
(13:34)
On average, medical schools have required only about two hours of nutrition education to earn a diploma. Two hours. All despite strong evidence indicating that nutrition is a powerful tool for preventing disease. Even more striking, a recent study found that a staggering 75% of US medical schools have no required clinical nutrition coursework. This isn't a minor training issue. It's an institutional barrier to better health outcomes, and we today have the power to fix that. And as Bobby said, "Today we are moving forward."
(14:12)
Thankfully, President Trump's MAHA mission has taken hold across this great nation. Secretary Kennedy and I have jointly urged medical education associations to study the best ways to elevate nutrition in their programs. In Congress, members from both parties have called for stronger nutrition competencies in medical education. And today, dozens of institutions, many of you represented today, have pledged their commitment to make comprehensive nutrition education a graduation requirement, a full 40 hours, as Bobby mentioned earlier, or competency equivalent. Starting this fall, so we're not wasting time, starting this fall. We respect the independence of medical schools and accrediting bodies, and the Department of Education will never mandate curriculum. That's not our job. But we can and will spotlight promising evidence-based models, convene leaders who are improving health outcomes, and celebrate institution-driven curricular reforms that are reforming medical education.
(15:17)
And while these commitments are groundbreaking, they are also rooted in just plain common sense. From adding required nutrition hours to integrating competencies across all four years and revising assessments, these actions promise real progress toward our shared goal of a healthier America. I want to thank each school for your leadership in studying this issue and implementing these changes. I appreciate everyone involved, from faculty to policymakers, for your work as we make America healthy again. Your dedication to evidence-based nutrition education and strong partnership will deliver a healthier future for every single American. For those children today that we're seeing starting school, going to middle school, on to high school and into higher education, let's make sure this generation doesn't get lost and left out with this strong nutritional refocus.
(16:16)
And now it's my honor to introduce Dr. Bobby Mukkamala, President of the American Medical Association, to talk more about this announcement. So thank you and welcome. Bobby?
Dr. Bobby Mukkamala (16:27):
Well, thank you, Secretary McMahon and Secretary Kennedy, for your leadership in bringing attention and action to this issue. For too long, nutrition has been treated as an elective in medical education. A few hours here and there, as you just heard. Considering how important what we eat is for our health, it should be a basic foundational training because it impacts every one of our patients.
(16:57)
So at the AMA, we know that improving the health of our country means more than breakthrough drugs and new technology. It means giving physicians the tools to help patients prevent disease in the first place. The science is pretty darn straightforward. Poor diet, highly processed foods that are high in sodium and added sugar is one of the drivers of chronic disease, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and even some cancers. And yet, many physicians receive very little formal training on nutrition. That's not because doctors aren't interested. It's because these priorities in medical education need updating, and that's what you're going to hear here today. The good news is that change is here. As we'll hear today, there's real momentum to bring practical, evidence-based nutrition education into medical schools and residency training. Medical schools are rethinking their curricula. Health systems are starting to embrace the idea that food is medicine. Policymakers are focusing on prevention.
(18:06)
Let me be clear, this isn't about turning doctors into dieticians, who are critical to taking care of our patients. It's about making sure that physicians feel confident having productive conversations with patients about nutrition, conversations that can truly change lives. I see this in my own practice. Patients are starting to ask me about food, weight, metabolic health, and I'm an ear, nose, and throat doctor. It's not being a primary care physician that's getting these questions to me. That tells us something. Every specialty needs a basic understanding of how nutrition affects health, and places like my hometown of Flint, Michigan, need to focus on getting access to real food.
(18:53)
Recently, after 25 years in practice, I became certified in lifestyle medicine because I wanted more knowledge about how food and sleep and exercise impacts health. But imagine how awesome it would be to have had this training begin when I was in medical school. This is that paradigm shift. So I truly believe that pairing stronger nutrition education with this national focus on prevention will make meaningful, even transformational, difference in the health of our community. So when physicians and patients learn about nutrition, we open the door to practical steps people can take right away. We move from reading and reacting about illnesses to preventing them. And the AMA is excited to help people live longer and better lives preventing disease. So thank you very much for including us in this immense, important effort. And now it's my honor to invite Dr. David Skorton up here.
Dr. David Skorton (19:59):
Thank you, Bobby, and good morning, everyone. And I want to add my thank you to Secretaries Kennedy and McMahon for the opportunity to be here today and for your sincere colleagueship on making us move forward. We value our partnership with HHS and education and working to make nutrition a meaningful and lasting part of medical education. This is a great example of an area where alignment between government and academic medicine can drive real impact for patients. I also want to thank our AAMC member medical schools that are here today. Just quickly raise your hand if you're representing a medical school here today. You can see all these folks who are here. Yes, thank you.
(20:44)
The Association of American Medical Colleges is marking our 150th anniversary, represents all the accredited ND granting medical schools and about 500 academic health systems and teaching hospitals. And we want to improve the health of people everywhere, and this is a very important way to do that. At the AAMC, we often take on critical efforts in tandem with others, and such is the case here today. In the case of nutrition education, I've also been very impressed with the efforts of our medical schools, and I am so privileged to be here today with many of them who just raised their hand in concert with leadership from Secretaries Kennedy and McMahon. We've made significant progress over the last years, reflected in the leadership, and I want to recognize Dr. Alison Whelan, the Chief Academic Officer at the AAMC, who has been a big part of this. Thank you for everything you've done to date.
(21:46)
Earlier last fall, Dr. Whelan put out a call to our members, medical schools, and academic health systems to reflect on where and how nutrition can be meaningfully strengthened in their curriculum. Today is about recognizing this important work and committing to doing more in the future and acknowledging the commitment of HHS and education on this particular topic. I thank you, Secretary Kennedy, for the privilege of direct personal discussions that we've had. I know how important this is to you and to our leaders across the country. This will be a prominent part of all of your legacies as educators and leaders.
(22:25)
Institutions are finding thoughtful, tailored ways to expand nutrition education, approaches that will work best for their learners, for the faculty, and most importantly for the communities they serve. I'm very encouraged by the momentum we're seeing, and we look forward to continuing to work along with HHS and the Department of Education to build on this progress and ensure that nutrition remains an ever-evolving core part of how we train the next generations of physicians.
(22:57)
And now it's my honor to introduce my friend and counterpart, Dr. Robert Cain, who is the CEO and President of the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, because together, these are the physicians who are going to make this difference. Dr. Cain.
Dr. Robert Cain (23:20):
Good morning. I want to thank Secretary Kennedy, Secretary McMahon for elevating prevention and launching this national conversation about nutrition. I am honored to represent the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine here today. I'm going to go maybe just a little different direction than what we've heard. So what is osteopathic medicine for those in the room who are not familiar with it? Put simply, it's an approach to patient care that takes into account the full range of factors that affect health and how the mind, the body, and the human spirit
Dr. Robert Cain (24:00):
... Spirit all interact. Since 1892, osteopathic medical education has remained grounded by a simple but powerful principle that the job of the physician is to help the patient find health, not merely manage disease. We teach our students that lifestyle, environment, and social conditions influence health just as powerfully as prescriptions and procedures. Today, our colleges educate more than 38,000 future physicians in this philosophy. Nearly 30% of all U.S. medical students will become osteopathic physicians or DOs, and our students are being educated across 73 campuses in 36 sites, and I'm going to do the same thing, hands up for all of the deans from our schools that are here today.
(25:01)
More than half of our campuses are located in rural and underserved communities, where prevention matters most. Now, that's not accidental, it's indicative of our roots. The community-based education model reflects who we are, the patients we care for, and where we serve. In the United States, an estimated 80% of healthcare happens in these community-based settings, not in tertiary medical centers that tend to get the most attention. If we are serious about prevention and addressing chronic disease, nutrition must be part of the conversation in these spaces as well. Our schools of long taught nutrition, but this initiative creates an opportunity to rethink learning outcomes, to innovate, and to improve interactions with patients when care plans are being discussed. That will be a step in the right direction for patient care and may even be a way to start to restore some trust that has been lost in medicine.
(26:06)
While nutrition education fits naturally within the framework I've described, medical education must continue to evolve. Strengthening nutrition across the continuum from undergraduate medical education through residency and into practice is both timely and necessary, but it must be done thoughtfully. And to be successful, it needs to be integrated into a broader commitment to whole personal care. Osteopathic medical education stands ready to partner with HHS and the Department of Education and other partners across the healthcare system to advance this effort and bring our unique experience to the table. Thank you for including us here today and we look forward to contributing to a better, healthier future for the American people. And now I would like to introduce the final speaker, Dr. Jeff Gold, the president of the University of Nebraska.
Dr. Jeff Gold (27:14):
Well, good morning, and thank you so much for the opportunity to share some thoughts with you on this historic day. As you heard, I'm Jeff Gold, and I have the honor of serving as the president of the University of Nebraska. However, it is not in that role that I address you today, or I would be speaking about intercollegiate athletics. That's tomorrow. I'm not speaking to you as a former member and chair of the board of the LCME or of the ACGME that accredit undergraduate and graduate medical education, or as the dean of medical school, or the chancellor of an academic medical center. But I am speaking to you today as a parent and as a grandparent who cares deeply about the future of our nation, our children, our adults, and overall the health that we can look forward to in the future. And I'm truly honored to participate today.
(28:11)
It has always been the goal of healthcare professionals to not just treat, but to prevent disease. To prevent disease, not only in individuals, but in communities today across our great nation. Much of our health is a gift from our parents, that is the genetic code that we carry, which may create risk, predisposition, or even some outcomes. But the environment and lifestyle personal decisions frequently determine the timing, the severity, and the total outcome of what that may be. The team-based system of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, therapists, and so many others work hand in hand with our patients and their families and the communities, and not just our medical schools, but our undergraduate colleges, our K through 12 systems, our early childhood programs together to focus on health and wellness.
(29:10)
Today marks a historic time that the importance of lifestyle decisions that relate to nutrition, exercise, tobacco, alcohol, sleep, and so many others will be surfaced and continue to be focused on. And please know that all of these are critical, they're all interconnected, and they're all predominantly lifestyle decisions. So today we are addressing an important component of that, which is how and what medical students learn. Evidence-based content is core to this process. As scientific discovery evolves, so does what we teach and how we teach. The future physicians of today learn best from a combination of didactic learning in the classroom from experienced instructors, physician faculty, biochemists, nutritionists, dieticians, and others, but they learn also from clinical practice observations.
(30:13)
There's an old saying as a medical student dean, students learn what they see much more than they learn what they watch in the classroom, reading textbooks and other things. So how clinicians treat our patients, both inpatients and outpatients, is critically important. And then they learn from direct hands-on experience, and they practice, and they practice, and they practice. Sometimes they practice on me. So how their knowledge and skills are evaluated is also critically important, because that's what competency-based education is all about. You teach, they learn, and they do it over and over again, and then you measure the outcomes. And competency-based education is the state of the art.
(30:58)
So let me give you an example, if I may. Playing a musical instrument, which I don't, just to be really clear, but let's say one wanted to learn how to play the violin. You can read all the textbooks and journal articles you want. You can watch the videos. You can go to any number of concerts and performances, meet even the best players in the world. But until you are guided and have independent practice, periodic recitals and assessment, it doesn't really stick and you never really become the true professional that you need to be.
(31:33)
So the process was to identify subject content experts, to have a burning platform, which we clearly do, a critical need, and then identify the long and short-term desired outcomes. So the short-term outcomes, of course, are to enhance knowledge and skill, to enhance diagnosis, treatment of malnutrition, and other lifestyle related illnesses, to identify curricular-based content that is foundational with quality, experience, and is evidence-based, to determine the best instructional modalities, because truthfully, medical students learn differently today than they did when I was a medical student, which was roughly when the dinosaurs roamed the earth. Some of us can reflect on this great podium today. And then to measure individual, institutional, community, and system-wide outcomes, and then to rinse and repeat, and repeat, and repeat, and to scale this from a single learner to a community to a national system of participation.
(32:45)
This process, given the complexity of a medical education, typically takes years to complete. It requires the partnership of the accrediting bodies of both the UME and the GME and the CME communities, and I'm proud to tell you that with the leadership of the secretaries and so many others, that this was done in a matter of months and will be implemented as early as this coming fall. So in sum, I would tell you that this is truly historic day, and I am incredibly honored to be standing with you and to play even a very, very small role in this process. Thank you very much for this opportunity. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
All right. Thank you to all of our incredible speakers. We will now be opening up for Q&A to our press here. Please keep your questions to the topic of today's announcement, and when you are called on, please stand, state your name and outlet, so we know who you are. And I also have some of our great advisors with me today as well, so we will get started. Let's start with Arthur. Thank you.
Arthur Jones II (34:03):
Arthur Jones II, ABC News. Secretary Kennedy, medical experts suggest that nutrition education coupled with physical activity is key to combating the chronic disease crisis. Are there any physical activity or education components to this framework? And since we're at an education event, Secretary McMahon, you've been in office for one year this week. President Trump has directed to move special education services to this agency, the Department of Health and Human Services. Has that started? And can you give us an update on that?
Robert F. Kennedy Jr (34:43):
I'll handle the second question.
Secretary McMahon (34:48):
Just for clarification, the president has not ordered that any particular part of the Education Department be put in any particular agency. Those are the things that we are working through as we look to see where there is a great fit, where there will be the best outcome for those programs. So that is not a mandate, just for clarification for you.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr (35:11):
In terms of we've developed a curriculum, which I think is very good here, but it's not a curriculum that is mandatory for the medical schools. It's an exemplar. It's a template that they can use or not. Each medical school will develop its own curriculum. And what we've all agreed on is that there should be 40 hours of learning. So I imagine some of them will have physical activity as part of that curriculum and some may not. We at this department are doing, and in the administration, a multi-pronged approach. We're focusing on diet here, relationship to what we eat to the chronic disease epidemic, and the prevention of chronic disease. But we also are very focused in this agency on
Robert F. Kennedy Jr (36:00):
I'm increasing the physical activity of our children. One of our projects that we're working on throughout the states is encouraging the states, I think 26 of them have already passed bell to bell legislation to reduce the use of cell phones in schools. And I've toured a number of these schools and it's really miraculous what happens to the kids. There's more physical activity and, probably as importantly, the kids are talking to each other now. I went into a cafeteria the other day in Loudoun County at the high school there, and there are 600 kids in there and they're all having conversations. None of them are looking at their lap. Our kids spend 5.5 hours a day on cell phones. And what the parents said when I asked them is they said the kids are coming home now, they're not using the cell phones in the car, and they're having dinner with their families and they're talking to them. Hopefully, they're getting outside more too.
(37:11)
We also have the Presidential Council on Physical Fitness, which will be in schools in over in 50 states by the autumn. And that is specifically focused on increasing physical fitness in our children.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
Perfect. All right. Thank you. Can we have Carmen right here? Thanks.
Carmen Paun (37:42):
Thank you so much for doing this. I'm Carmen Paun. I'm a health reporter with Politico. Secretary Kennedy, you've spoken recently about a new initiative to teach Americans how to cook. You've talked about how people have lost this practice at home that is so important for the family cohesion and, obviously, for their health. I was wondering if you can give us a bit more details about how that would work in practice. Would that be HHS? Would there be cooking classes? Can you give us more details of how that would be done in practice? Thank you.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr (38:13):
We've assigned that project to the Commission Court of Brian Christine, and I'm not sure exactly how he's going to carry it out, whether it's through contracts or through commission corps officers. But one of the problems that we have, we're figuring out ways to make sure that people can get their protein budget, even from food banks. We have a very, very good program that we're about to launch on that. But one of the big problems that we're running into, one of the big impediments is that Americans have forgotten how to cook. And a lot of them don't have basic skills.
(38:50)
They don't have the pots and pans. They don't have the cutting boards. They don't have the cutlery. And they don't really know how to shop. You can eat a lot cheaper at home than you can eat with fast food. A Big Mac meal now costs $12 to $14. We're now filling this new program that we have in the military that Pete Hegseth has. We've gotten the budget for the military is $18.15 a day per soldier for three meals a day. And Chef Robert Irvine, who's been retained by the Pentagon, is feeding our soldiers very, very high quality food, which they're lined up now to get, at $10 a day. And what he says is it doesn't cost any more money. We don't need more money to make sure people can eat well. We just need to buy smarter.
(39:48)
The problem is Americans have forgotten how to cook and they don't know how to shop. And a part of what we're trying to do is to reeducate them in those skills. And it's important not only so that they can get access to affordable high quality food, but also it's one of the things that brings people together. It shapes communities. And we have a spiritual malaise in this country. Suicide is now for certain groups of kids the highest cause of death. We have children who are lonely, who are isolated. We have a crisis of fragmentation and isolation around the country. And we need to start bringing people together and give them a sense of connection, give them a sense of community.
(40:41)
And one of the ways to do that is to encourage them to go through this ancient ritual of making a meal with their family and then eating a meal with a family. And that is the basic core for reestablishing connection in the community. And President Trump understands that we're engaged right now in spiritual warfare and that the malevolent forces want to drive us apart and our connection to each other. And one of the ways that we can remedy that is by, again, re-instituting this sacred ritual of eating with each other and cooking with each other.
Dr. Bobby Mukkamala (41:27):
Thank you for that question. And I guess I want to echo exactly what Secretary Kennedy said. So in my hometown of Flint, Michigan, when we go to the north side of Flint, it's hard to find a grocery store that isn't loaded with products on the shelves that have a bunch of preservatives in it. So part of it is just access to the healthy food, but then what do you do with it? Putting that in our kitchen is one thing, but learning how to cook it in the right way so it's healthy is something that we do in our own Flint Farmers Market, a brand new facility that has a beautiful kitchen in it.
(41:57)
And it's when the community gets together and there's excitement about doing it. So it's not happening in our individual kitchens, but it's a cool thing to do in Flint, Michigan. It can be a cool thing to do everywhere. So access to it, knowing what to do with it, and changing the culture I think are critical ways to get us healthier. So thank you for that.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
Okay. Next, we have Mike here.
Mike Bender (42:23):
Hey there. Mike Bender with the New York Times. Secretary, you've mentioned before that schools without sufficient nutrition education may face funding cuts. I'm wondering if that is still on the table. And if you would like to propose similar changes to the medical curriculum, medical school curriculum, as it relates to vaccinations.
Speaker 4 (42:48):
I can take this question. Today's announcement is purely about a celebration. So this is purely highlighting the leadership of the schools and putting a megaphone behind their efforts.
Speaker 5 (43:03):
Just to add, the issue of medical education, this is 100% issue in polls. This is something that was clearly a discussion from MAHA voters that we felt very compelled to push. I want to say what this event represents today is the result of hundreds and hundreds of conversations and good faith dialogue with people on the stage. And something I think that's become very clear to HHS is there's big, dramatic things that we can work together across the medical system between Secretary Kennedy, the administration, and leaders of the medical industry on areas of common agreement.
(43:38)
And everyone on this stage, and frankly, everyone we have talked to in the medical industry, medical schools, AMA, AAMC, they agree, as they've said today, that the medical system has produced absolute miracles that's contributed to the innovation over the past 100 years that we could have never dreamed of, life expectancy increases, but we have an issue today where there has been a cascade of chronic disease where 90% of this building's budget, and this building oversees the largest budget of any government in human history, is chronic disease that are tied to preventable lifestyle factors to a large degree.
(44:12)
And that has been a lesson for us and it's been a learning experience. There's real areas of common agreement. So there's no coercion coming from here who are outside of the political campaign arena. We are rolling up our sleeves, working together. This is the start. And what we hope and I think everyone on this stage hopes is the result of additional impactful initiatives that we can work on together. And that is the energy that HHS and the White House is bringing to this.
Speaker 3 (44:39):
Okay. Great. We'll take one more, if we have any. Right here in the corner. Thanks.
Emily Rodriguez (44:50):
Hi. Emily Rodriguez with the Center Square. So I was just wondering how much of the money being put into the nutrition program is coming from taxpayer money.
Speaker 5 (44:58):
The NIH commitment?
Emily Rodriguez (45:06):
The nutrition [inaudible 00:45:08].
Speaker 5 (45:16):
The NIH is taxpayer money. Bhattacharya oversees a significant amount of medical research and money that's committed to preventing and reversing disease and making Americas healthy. So that's one tier of a commitment that Director Bhattacharya has made to steer the NIH and work with the medical community, I think who strongly agrees with this message, to use the NIH, those taxpayer appropriated dollars, to prevent and reverse disease. So yes, it's taxpayer money. And I think it's very clear from the administration and another example of, I think, great alignment with people on the stage that we want to figure out how to use that money to spur curiosity and spur solutions to reverse the root cause of chronic disease.
Speaker 3 (46:00):
Great. Thank you everyone for coming and thank you to all of our incredible speakers. Have a great day. Thank you. Okay. If everyone can actually stay in their seats, we're going to do a picture this way with you all in it. You can just hang tight.