Feb 9, 2026

ACLM releases updated dietary position statement 

By Micaela Karlsen, PhD, MSPH ACLM Senior Director of Research

By Micaela Karlsen, PhD, MSPH ACLM Senior Director of Research

The new statement aligns with growing national interest in nutrition and incorporating dietary interventions more deeply into healthcare.

For more than 20 years, the American College of Lifestyle Medicine has championed the critical connection of food to chronic disease treatment and prevention. As ACLM continues to grow—now representing more than 15,000 members—we are proud to be a leading voice in the Food as Medicine (FAM)/Food Is Medicine (FIM) space. Our members play a critical role in translating evidence from nutrition research and public health into concrete medical interventions that meaningfully improve the quality of healthcare.

Building on this work, ACLM is pleased to announce our newly updated dietary position statement. This update coincides with a key time of increased national attention on nutrition.

The panel of experts who developed the position statement included clinicians (RDs, MDs/DOs), ACLM leadership including Board of Directors members and senior staff, chefs, health coaches, and PhD researchers. After more than one year of work, agreement on four key points was reached:

1. Food as Medicine, also referred to as Food is Medicine, is the use of food and nutrition interventions, guided by trained healthcare professionals, to improve health outcomes and nutrition security across the lifespan. These initiatives are supported through person-centered, culturally tailored, and collaborative decision-making. FAM may include nutrition education and counseling, culinary medicine education, behavioral support, and, in some cases, the provision of healthy food and related resources, particularly to underserved populations.

2. Healthy dietary patterns exist along a continuum of food-based interventions that span from health promotion and prevention to treatment and reversal of lifestyle-related chronic disease, with variation in intensity and therapeutic dosing.

3. For the treatment, reversal, and prevention of lifestyle-related chronic diseases, an optimal dietary pattern has two key elements. First, the core diet should be centered on a wide variety of whole and minimally processed plant foods including vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, mushrooms, nuts, and seeds while meeting but not exceeding energy requirements. Second, it should minimize red and processed meats, foods high in saturated fat, and ultra-processed foods containing added sugars, sweeteners, unhealthy fats/oils, refined carbohydrates, and excess sodium.

4. Effective implementation of Food as Medicine in clinical practice is best achieved with an interprofessional healthcare team all working within their scope of practice and trained in nutrition-related lifestyle medicine competencies. An optimal team includes registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs) certified in lifestyle medicine.

This position aligns with growing national interest in nutrition and incorporating dietary interventions more deeply into healthcare. Currently a keyword search in Pubmed for either “food as medicine” or “food is medicine” finds only about 430 results, almost all of which were published in the last five years. This new activity focused on the application of food as a medical intervention is founded on numerous clinical dietary recommendations and decades of evidence demonstrating that various plant-forward dietary patterns are associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, type 2 diabetes and cancer, and all-cause mortality, while greater consumption of ultra-processed foods is associated with higher risks of a variety of adverse health outcomes, such as cardiometabolic disease, common mental disorders, and mortality outcomes.

The therapeutic use of nutrition includes a range of dietary patterns that is identified by the second statement – “a continuum of food-based interventions that span from health promotion and prevention to treatment and reversal.” While recommendations for a generally healthy population aiming to prevent disease can be less intensive, type 2 diabetes remission has been achieved using a high-fiber, low-fat, plant-based diet and the DiRECT Trial found that over the long term, maintaining a weight loss of 10-15 kg produced the highest rates of remission of type 2 diabetes in a primary care context.

Defining the dietary pattern appropriate for treatment, reversal, and prevention of chronic disease is not just about what it includes – whole and minimally processed plant foods including vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, mushrooms, nuts, and seeds – but also, very importantly, what it limits or excludes, including red and processed meats, foods high in saturated fat, and ultra-processed foods. In real-world settings, reducing consumption of certain foods typically means increasing consumption of others. Clinicians can amplify dietary improvements when working with patients to set goals by focusing on both these aspects of the diet simultaneously.

The final point of the position statement relates to the execution of FAM interventions – they are “best achieved with an interprofessional healthcare team… trained in nutrition-related lifestyle medicine competencies,” optimally including an RDN. Interdisciplinary collaborations are known to producebetter patient care, lower costs, and higher perceived quality of care. Since lifestyle medicine certification began in 2017, the number of certified clinicians and health professionals in the U.S. and Canada has grown to almost 7,000, and worldwide to almost 10,000 physicians and health professionals from 96 countries. This growing pool of qualified health professionals means delivery of care from trained interdisciplinary teams is more feasible than ever, and we can expect continued growth in the future.

Overall, this new position statement frames the advancing scope of activity and influence led by ACLM to deepen the integration of food into clinical care, as part of our mission to make lifestyle medicine the foundation of all health and healthcare.