Nutritional and metabolic health education will soon become mandatory for Texas physicians and medical students, as the state implements new CME requirements to stress healthy eating and medical schools respond to a state curricular mandate.
Several Texas medical schools have also voluntarily joined a federal pledge to add more education in these areas to their curricula this fall.
Passed during the 2025 state legislative session, Senate Bill 25 implemented new requirements for physicians to complete CME related to nutrition and metabolic health beginning Jan. 1, 2027, and requires medical schools to teach these topics by July 1, 2027. The legislation also created a new state-appointed committee to examine Texans’ eating habits and establish guidelines to improve them.
The Texas Nutrition Advisory Committee (TNAC) set up under the law is assigned four areas of responsibility: examining the impact of nutrition on human health; independently reviewing scientific studies on the effects of ultra-processed foods on human health and developing education on these effects; and establishing dietary and nutritional guidelines from scientific studies and information on diet and nutrition.
SB 25 directed the Texas Medical Board (TMB) to adopt rules by the end of 2026 that define the required CME content, including a focus on TNAC’s dietary and nutritional guidelines. This legislation indicates physicians will need to complete this CME as part of each license renewal.
“We don’t talk about nutrition enough,” said Brandon Altillo, MD, an associate professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at The University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School. “The fact that more attention is being paid to it, just to mention it at all, is really important.”
Dr. Altillo and Marissa Burgermaster created a CME course titled “Nutrition Communication for Diabetes Prevention” through the UT Austin Center for Health Communication. The course addresses how physicians play a vital role in patient outcomes while acknowledging the limited time and training when discussing diets with patients. Until the TMB-related rule on this type of CME is adopted, it is not known whether this course will meet the new CME requirement for physicians.
“Just saying ‘eat better’ is vague,” Dr. Altillo said. “People often have a general idea of what that means. But what I try to do is come up with a specific goal that’s really well defined that they can achieve.”
TNAC’s state nutritional guidelines report is due by Sept. 1 and every two years thereafter summarizing these activities and offering recommendations. Texas Medicine Today will provide updates on eligible courses as they become available.
The seven-member committee, led by a physician, is composed of metabolic, functional, and integrative medicine physicians. Other members include a representative from the Texas Department of Agriculture, a rural community, and an urban community.Strict conflict-of-interest rules bar anyone from the food and beverage or pharmaceutical industry from serving on the committee.
All U.S. medical schools teach nutrition, but there are inconsistencies in how it is integrated into their curricula. In June, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Education announced the Trump administration’s pledge to incorporate 40 hours of nutritional education, or its competency equivalent, into medical school graduation requirements starting this fall.
A 2022 survey in the Journal of Wellness found that medical students receive just 1.2 hours of formal nutritional education each year.
The number of pledge signees has grown to 73 schools nationwide across 36 states, including the Sam Houston State University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine in Lubbock and Foster School of Medicine El Paso, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, UTMB John Sealy School of Medicine, the Texas A&M University Naresh K. Vashisht College of Medicine, and the University of the Incarnate Word School of Osteopathic Medicine.
Keep up with evolving CME with the Texas Medical Association Education Center. Courses are free to members thanks to TMA Insurance Trust.
And don’t forget: State-mandated CME reporting requirements also begin soon. As of Sept. 1, physicians are required to record CME credits through CE Broker.