ACLM Announces Online CME “Food as Medicine: Nutrition for Treatment” Course
The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM), the medical professional society that has championed 
food as medicine since its inception in 2004, has announced the availability of the second installment of its “Food as Medicine” course, titled “Nutrition for Treatment and Risk Reduction.” The entire CME- and CE-accredited course is designed around the belief that healthful eating has the power to help prevent, treat and mitigate many chronic diseases.
Lead faculty for the second course installment is Michelle McMacken, MD, DipABLM, associate professor of medicine, NYU (New York University) Grossman School of Medicine.
This installment provides an overview of the scientific evidence on food groups and dietary patterns for treatment and risk reduction of common lifestyle-related conditions, with a focus on cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance, cancer prevention and obesity. The session also includes a brief review of carbohydrates, fats, and protein in relation to chronic disease, as well as a discussion of practical approaches to nutrition counseling.
“Food as Medicine: Nutrition for Treatment and Risk Reduction” consists of one lecture and 1.5 hours of content. Specifically, this second installment of the course will:
- Describe dietary patterns that have been shown to be effective in the treatment and risk reduction of common lifestyle-related chronic diseases
- Discuss how diet behaviors impact chronic disease development and progression
- Identify ways in which different macronutrient sources may contribute to disease progression or improvement
- Explore basic counseling strategies for dietary behavior change
The course is targeted to a variety of clinicians with an interest in food as medicine: physicians, registered nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, registered dietitians, physical therapists, occupational therapists, pharmacists other health professionals working with chronic disease prevention or treatment, certified health coaches and clinicians in training.
The first installment of ACLM’s “Food as Medicine” course, launched in March 2021, provides three hours of CME- and CE- accredited content on the dietary patterns shown to prevent chronic disease and support longevity. Lead faculty for the first installment was Kayli Anderson, MS, RDN, ACSM-EP, DipACLM.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation identified in its 2019 Global Burden of Disease report that the leading cause of disease and death is a result of what we are, and are not, eating. Yet most physicians and medical professionals receive few hours of clinical nutrition education throughout their formal training. ACLM is committed to filling this void, supporting health care providers in their ability to prescribe food as medicine, empowering patients to make the evidence-based dietary lifestyle changes needed to protect health and fight disease, with health restoration as the clinical outcome goal.
The limited nutrition education customarily offered in medical and health professional programs is often didactic and focused on the biochemistry of nutrients and health consequences of deficiency states—content that is of limited use in a clinical setting where the majority of the population are overfed but undernourished due to high intake of ultras-processed, calorie-dense, high saturated fat-laden foods.
“Building upon the first installment focused on food for prevention and longevity, the second installment focuses on the therapeutic use of food to treat lifestyle-related chronic disease,” said ACLM President Cate Collings, MD, MS, FACC, DipABLM. “This equips physicians and other clinicians with the scientific evidence and resources to confidently use food as medicine with their own patients and in their own health systems. ACLM is proud to add this course segment to our growing resources for medical professionals to learn how to prevent, treat and even mitigate lifestyle-related chronic disease.”
For more information, visit www.lifestylemedicine.org/ACLM/Education/Continuing_Education/Food_as_Medicine/ACLM/Education/Food_as_Medicine/Food_as_Medicine.aspx?hkey=c94d5d7e-78ea-4d50-a389-6f28188b1c4a.
