On September 4, the Coalition for Metabolic Health (CMH) officially launched in Washington, D.C., with an extraordinary $50 million seed commitment from the Baszucki family. This new alliance brings together leading scientists, clinicians, advocates, and policymakers to put metabolic health squarely at the center of America’s fight against chronic disease.
The coalition was conceived by Jan Ellison Baszucki, co-founder of Baszucki Group and Metabolic Mind, and her husband, David Baszucki, founder and CEO of Roblox. Their commitment is both professional and deeply personal — their family has witnessed firsthand the power of dietary and lifestyle interventions to transform health.
Why does this matter? Because poor metabolic health underlies much of today’s health crisis. Six in ten Americans live with at least one chronic condition, and more than 90% show signs of metabolic dysfunction. This dysfunction — when the body struggles to efficiently convert food into energy — drives obesity, diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and also contributes to depression, anxiety, and other mental health disorders.
CMH is committed to changing this trajectory by:
- Driving policy change so that nutrition science and metabolic health are prioritized in federal guidelines, research, screenings, and insurance coverage.
- Supporting independent research that advances our understanding of how metabolism affects both physical and mental health.
- Educating clinicians, policymakers, and the public about the critical role of metabolic health.
- Integrating therapeutic nutrition into medical care so that dietary strategies proven to stabilize blood sugar and improve insulin sensitivity — including low-carbohydrate and ketogenic approaches — become more accessible.
The coalition’s advisory committee includes many of the world’s leading voices in metabolic and mental health research and practice, from cardiology and endocrinology to psychiatry and nutrition science. Their combined expertise and the Baszuckis’ vision set the stage for lasting, systemic change.
For me, this moment feels especially meaningful. At the end of Brain Energy, I called for a movement to make metabolic and mitochondrial health central to our approach to mental and physical illness. Now, less than three years later, that movement is happening. With the launch of CMH, we are beginning to see the infrastructure, funding, and leadership coalesce to drive change at scale.
The Coalition for Metabolic Health is more than an initiative — it’s a turning point. With leadership, funding, and collaboration at this scale, we now have a real opportunity to reverse the tide of chronic disease and improve both physical and mental health for millions.
To learn more or join the effort, visit coalitionformetabolichealth.org.
Dr. Christopher Palmer is a Harvard psychiatrist and researcher working at the interface of metabolism and mental health. He is the Founder and Director of the Metabolic and Mental Health Program and the Director of the Department of Postgraduate and Continuing Education at McLean Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. For almost 30 years, he has held administrative, educational, research, and clinical roles in psychiatry at McLean and Harvard. He has been pioneering the use of the medical ketogenic diet in the treatment of psychiatric disorders—conducting research in this area, treating patients, writing, and speaking around the world on this topic. Most recently, he has proposed that mental disorders can be understood as metabolic disorders affecting the brain, which has received widespread recognition in both national and international media outlets.
