A new state committee has less than a year to produce a report that could have an effect on continuing education requirements for medical providers.
The Texas Nutrition Advisory Committee is required to submit a report by September that includes its nutritional guidelines and recommendations. During the 2025 session, the state legislature established the TNAC to examine how nutrition affects health and how “ultra-processed foods” are connected to chronic diseases.
The committee’s report would also establish educational requirements around nutrition across all stages of education, from kindergarten to medical education.
“Texas is going to be setting a national momentum around addressing these issues with intention,” Dr. Jaclyn Albin, associate program director for UT Southwestern’s Internal Medicine-Pediatrics Residency and TNAC chair said Wednesday. “We want to engage as many fellow Texans who are passionate about this work as possible.”
The committee’s first meeting this week highlighted the significant tasks they’ve been asked to complete. In addition to developing dietary and nutritional guidelines, it also has to provide education and an “independent review of scientific studies” analyzing the effects of ultra-processed foods on human health.
Federal health agencies announced an effort to “address the health risks” of ultra-processed foods last year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Health and Human Services released new dietary guidelines earlier this month that encourage people to “eat real food” and avoid processed food.
Albin said there are some existing “systematic reviews” that analyze studies on ultra-processed foods to understand how the data is evolving – but for the committee to develop its own will be challenging.
“We could definitely focus in on areas where we think there are gaps and relook at the literature thoroughly,” she said. “The process of that is extremely rigorous and time intensive and requires a lot of research expertise to ensure there's no bias in the approach.”
Albin said she would like to have several established partners, like larger academic and research institutions or groups, to help facilitate the review. However, the committee doesn’t have any funding available to develop the report, which could limit the organizations that are able to contribute.
Kathleen Davis, associate professor of nutrition at Texas Women’s University and vice chair of the committee, said an evidence review can take one or two years.
“This is a small group for what seems like a really large project,” she said.
Davis said the committee should ensure it’s making solid recommendations because they will be used to inform continuing education for many professions, including doctors and dietitians.
“If it's very delayed then there are a lot of groups waiting for guidance,” Davis said.
Albin said lawmakers expect those guidelines for medical education to be implemented “beginning this fall,” and for the committee to work with the requirements that have come from the federal government within the past few months. That means a very short timeline for the committee.
While many committees meet quarterly, Albin said the group should try to meet within a month – especially if it needs to pursue external support for the review of research.
“We don't necessarily have to meet that often going forward, but it would help us keep the initial momentum, because we're really looking at six months as a deadline for our first report,” Albin said.
The committee created two workgroups to achieve their goals: one focused on defining “ultra-processed food” and the other identifying where existing research is strong and where it has gaps.
“I would love for us to take an approach that feels very resource rich that we're able to share the evidence-based resources and even create some of those resources for our state,” Albin said.
Because of the possible implications of the committee’s work, Albin said she wants the report to not be overly burdensome to the state’s education systems – while still making the report meaningful for Texans.
“It's very much part of the mission of what we're doing that we're able to better equip Texans to make sense of the science,” Albin said. “But also to be able to take steps towards change, whether it's in a school setting, in the home environment, in medical education.”
Abigail Ruhman is KERA’s health reporter. Got a tip? Email Abigail at aruhman@kera.org.
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