Lifestyle Medicine & Food as Medicine Essentials Bundle
Lifestyle Medicine & Food as Medicine Essentials Bundle is organized by American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM).
Term of approval: September 15, 2022 – September 14, 2025
Description
The Lifestyle Medicine & Food as Medicine Essentials Course Bundle provides a foundational, evidence-based introduction to the field, and focused nutrition education for the prevention and treatment of chronic disease.
This course bundle consists of three modules, four presentations, and 5.5 hours of content.
Introduction to Lifestyle Medicine Description:
Lifestyle change, as an essential treatment intervention for addressing chronic disease, is increasing among physicians and health professionals internationally. Lifestyle, once recognized as an essential prevention strategy, is now acknowledged as a foundational and efficacious treatment approach for a redesigned healthcare system for improved outcomes, lower costs, and improved patient satisfaction. In this course, the 2020-2022 ACLM President, Cate Collings, MD, MS, FACC, DipABLM, defines lifestyle medicine, discusses the evidence base, explains six key interventions, and demonstrates how lifestyle medicine has the power to treat and often reverse disease and provide a solution for real health care reform.
Learning Objectives
At the conclusion, participants will be able to:
- Define lifestyle medicine.
- Discuss the importance and timeliness of lifestyle medicine.
- Review evidence and current endorsements and guidelines for lifestyle medicine.
- Illustrate six key interventions to treat lifestyle-related chronic conditions.
- Explore unique components of a lifestyle medicine practice.
- Describe opportunities to train and certify in lifestyle medicine.
- Discuss the emerging priorities for lifestyle medicine.
Food as Medicine: Nutrition for Prevention and Longevity Description:
Diet has been identified as the single most important risk factor for morbidity and mortality in the United States, yet most healthcare providers spend relatively few hours learning about nutrition during their formal training. The limited nutrition education that is offered in medical and health professional programs is often primarily 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.
Learning Objectives
At the conclusion, participants will be able to:
- Review the current challenges in nutrition research and the challenges of disseminating accurate nutrition information to the public.
- Explain national and global nutrition recommendations and basic nutrition principles.
- Distinguish differences between health-promoting and health-harming foods.
- Describe the dietary pattern recommended by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine for disease prevention, treatment, and reversal.
- Apply the concept of the dietary spectrum when making nutrition recommendations.
- Apply nutrition therapy scope of practice.
- Review the scientific evidence of popular diets.
Food as Medicine: Nutrition for Treatment and Risk Reduction Description:
This Food as Medicine course session will provide 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.
Learning Objectives
At the conclusion, participants will be able to:
- 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.
