…In the early 1950s, the American Medical Association Council on Food and Nutrition recognized the lack of support for nutrition education in U.S. medical schools. A comprehensive report prepared by the National Academy of Science – National Research Council in 1985, Nutrition Education in U.S. Medical Schools, recommended that medical schools incorporate into their curricula a separate course in nutrition of at least 25 hours and reinforce this in the clinical clerkships. This recommendation was followed in 1989 by the National Research Council publication, Diet and Health: Implications for Reducing Chronic Disease Risk that required physicians to acquire counseling skills on diet, nutrition, and healthy lifestyles….
from: The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston