Not red. Not blue. ACLM is committed to improving health for all

ACLM will always be on the front lines advocating for clinicians and patients and working with those on both sides of the aisle in Washington, D.C. to transform healthcare.

We often say that the American College of Lifestyle Medicine is not red, it is not blue, it is purple—firmly rooted in the bipartisan “purple” lane, fiercely committed to the field we represent being for the benefit of ALL people. 

During the Biden administration, ACLM applauded and was recognized as one of the largest supporters of the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health: We made an initial commitment of complimentary continuing medical education valued at more than $24M—an investment that, in the following year, was doubled! More than 50,000 clinicians have already taken advantage of this 5.5-hour CME/CE-accredited Lifestyle Medicine and Food as Medicine Essentials online course, with the opportunity to engage in this free offer—a $220 savings—now extended through September 2025. Just this week, a published research study showed the significant positive impact this course has made on those who have completed it. 

Also, in support of this White House Conference, ACLM, in collaboration with the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine, committed 50% scholarships for lifestyle medicine training and the opportunity for certification to PCPs who are delivering care through federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and community health centers, thereby infusing lifestyle medicine into our nation’s most underserved communities. We call this our National Training Initiative, deployed to address lifestyle-related chronic disease health disparities. 

We have been championing the urgent need to integrate nutrition into medical education, recognizing Rep. Jim McGovern as a 2022 ACLM Special Recognition Award winner for his Capitol Hill leadership in this area. ACLM was pleased that many of our “food as medicine” educational resources were showcased in the new online Food is Medicine Toolkit, recently unveiled by the Department of Health and Human Services under Secretary Xavier Becerra’s leadership. 

With a new incoming administration, we look forward to actively engaging to advance ACLM’s mission, on behalf of our 13,000 members and for the benefit of all physicians, medical professionals, all patients, and on behalf of our nation, as we work together to turn the tide on the unsustainable trajectory of chronic disease and its associated costs.  

ACLM has been sounding the alarm about the epidemic of chronic disease and the looming pandemic of type 2 diabetes—in adults and children alike—since its 2004 inception. Our 18-hour Remission of Type 2 Diabetes and Reversal of Insulin Resistance Certificate course is just one example of ACLM not simply stating the problem—but taking action! We stand ready to partner with both Democrats and Republicans who are committed to addressing our nation’s chronic disease crisis. 

ACLM is a transformation catalyst—a magnet for purpose-, passion-driven medical professionals who are ALREADY on the front lines “being the change” our nation’s healthcare system so desperately needs. A disruptor of the status quo, ACLM has been calling for REAL healthcare reform and has been leading the charge to shift our disease and disability care system to one of true HEALTH care. This is only possible when the standard of care begins with identifying and eradicating the root cause of disease, with the clinical outcome goal of health restoration. ACLM is committed to empowering clinicians across this country to achieve both the Quintuple Aim and whole person health, with lifestyle medicine root cause treatment as the foundation. 

We also know that global sustainability is at stake, which is why our board issued the following statement a few years ago: 

ACLM acknowledges that the leading cause of chronic disease and the leading cause of so many of our most pressing global sustainability issues is one and the same: our Western pattern diet. Shifting to a whole food, plant-predominant dietary lifestyle is optimal in order to protect human health and fight disease; this dietary lifestyle pattern is also what is best for the planet, enabling us to preserve our precious natural resources, rein in greenhouse gas emissions, and feed what soon will be over nine billion people on the face of the earth. 

Our commitment is to be on the front lines advocating for clinicians and their patients, working with those on both sides of the aisle in Washington, D.C. and across the country. We are on the front lines of filling the gaping void of lifestyle medicine—including food as medicine—in medical education, doing so across the entire education continuum, from UME and GME to CME. We are addressing misaligned and missing quality measures, knowing that we need measures that reward outcomes over process. We are advocating for reimbursement, so that health restoration is incentivized and rewarded equal to or greater than diagnosing the ill and prescribing the pill. 

We stand united, without fear, with a shared sense of excitement and anticipation about what lies ahead.