American College of Lifestyle Medicine Launches Third Installment of its Online CME/CE 'Food as Medicine' Course to Fill Physician and Clinician Nutrition Knowledge Gap

The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM), a PCC Executive Member and the medical professional society that has championed food as medicine since its inception in 2004, has announced the availability of the third installment of its “Food as Medicine” course, titled “Calorie Density--A Simple Yet Powerful Concept.” The entire CME- and CE-accredited course is designed around healthful eating as an approach to help prevent, treat and mitigate many chronic diseases.

Lead faculty for this third course installment is Anthony Lim, MD, JD, DipABLM, medical director of the McDougall Health and Medical Center and lecturer at Kaiser Permanente Medical Group in Santa Rosa, CA.

Calorie density is an effective tool and concept that, when understood, can effectively support weight loss and achievement of optimal health. This Food as Medicine installment defines calorie density and demonstrates the benefits of this approach with patients. The session will also cover some of the most common "pitfalls" or mistakes that patients make when it comes to calorie density. Lastly, it reviews the application of calorie density principles to daily life for the purpose of achieving weight control and optimal health.

“Food as Medicine: Calorie Density--A Simple Yet Powerful Concept” consists of 1.25 hours of accredited content and this third installment of the course will:

• Apply nutrition therapy principles that address both overall health and healthy weight
• Demonstrate application of food as medicine for overall health and healthy weight
• Review the concept of calorie density and the benefits of eating a low-calorie-dense diet
• Help ameliorate common pitfalls that patients fall into when it comes to calorie density
• Discuss principles for how to apply calorie density in daily life

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, “Food as Medicine: Nutrition for Prevention and Longevity,” launched in March 2021 and 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 is Kayli Anderson, MS, RDN, ACSM-EP, DipACLM.

The second installment of the course, “Food as Medicine: Nutrition for Disease Treatment and Risk Reduction,” launched in May 2021 and provides 1.5 hours of CME- and CE- accredited content on the scientific evidence for food groups and dietary patterns in treatment and risk reduction of common lifestyle-related conditions. Lead faculty for the second course installment is Michelle McMacken, MD, DipABLM, Associate Professor of Medicine, NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

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 healthcare 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 faces over-nutrition due to high intake of ultra-processed, calorie-dense, high saturated fat-laden foods.

“As partners with our patients in treating chronic disease, we need to provide the best possible guidance on dietary lifestyle,” said ACLM President Cate Collings, MD, MS, FACC, DipABLM. ” A full understanding of calorie density and the best methods of counseling patients in this regard is crucial to providing dietary guidance, particularly in patients with weight management challenges. This next part of our new “Food as Medicine” course for medical professionals addresses this void in medical nutrition education. ACLM is proud to add this course segment as to our growing resources for medical professionals to learn how to prevent, treat and even mitigate lifestyle-related chronic disease.”

Click here to learn more or to register.