John La Puma

Dr. La Puma is a board-certified specialist in internal medicine, a nutritionist and a professionally trained chef. He has championed the idea of food-as-medicine that's tasty, including delicious eating plans for weight loss, cholesterol-lowering, anti-aging and childhood obesity. An expert in healthy aging, lifestyle change, stress and stress management, he hosts "Eat and Cook Healthy with Dr John La Puma" on PBS, and hosted the weekly TV segment "What's Cooking With ChefMD?" Sundays on Lifetime Television for 120+ episodes over nearly 4 years on Lifetime's "Health Corner."

Dr. La Puma is a popular keynote speaker, and has spoken at the prestigious TEDx and Gel Conferences. He has given over 400 lectures to professional groups, including 300 lectures as a keynote speaker to groups such as AARP.

He has also been a consultant and spokesperson for companies such as CIGNA, Caremark and Kraft. He has appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, The 700 Club, NPR, ESPN and on NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX and CW outlets nationwide. The New England Journal of Medicine, the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times have published his work. USA Today, Prevention, Reader's Digest, Parade, Newsweek and hundreds of others have featured his work as well. His work with RealAge has also been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The View, The Dr. Oz Files and hundreds of other TV and radio shows.

Dr. La Puma is a New York Times best-selling author. His most recent book reached the New York Times list within 6 months of its hardcover release, in October 2008.

In ChefMD's Big Book of Culinary Medicine, Dr. La Puma describes the art and science of culinary medicine, blending the art of cooking with the science of medicine to offer restaurant quality food that works like medicine, for 40 different conditions. Dr. La Puma also developed recipes for Dr. Oz and Roizen's New York Times best-seller You the Owner's Manual. His first general audience book with Dr. Roizen became a New York Times best-seller: The RealAge Diet: Make Yourself Younger with What You Eat. His first cookbook, also with Dr. Roizen, became an Amazon #1 Cookbook: Cooking the RealAge Way: Turn Back Your Biological Clock.

Formerly a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago, Professor of Nutrition at Kendall College's School of Culinary Arts and cook at James Beard-award winning Chef Rick Bayless' Topolobampo in Chicago, Dr. La Puma also graduated from the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago (now a Cordon Bleu school) in Professional Cooking and taught the first Nutrition and Cooking Course for Medical Students in the U.S., at SUNY with Dr Roizen.

He performed his residency in internal medicine at West Los Angeles Veterans Administration Medical Center and UCLA, and completed the first postgraduate fellowship in general internal medicine and clinical medical ethics in the U.S., at the University of Chicago. Dr. La Puma is the author or co-author of over 50 peer-reviewed scientific papers, 150 other contributions to the medical literature and 3 medical books, including a CME book.

Founding Editor of Alternative Medicine Alert, the leading evidence-based newsletter for clinicians on dietary supplements and integrative approaches, Dr. La Puma is a recognized expert in CME, informed consent and wellness practices, and is considered to have pioneered hospital ethics consultation in the U.S.

Repeatedly named "One of America's Top Physicians" by the Consumers' Research Council, and called a "Secret Weapon" by The Wall Street Journal, Dr. La Puma was honored with the AMA's National Association of Medical Communicators "Award of Excellence". He is based in Santa Barbara, California.