About Dr. John La Puma

John La Puma M.D. is the USA’s leading physician voice for healthy eating as part of health care, and for truly enjoying good-for-you food. His mission is to teach people to transform their lives with what they eat.   A board-certified specialist in internal medicine and a professionally trained chef, he taught the first Nutrition and Cooking Course for Medical Students in the US, at SUNY with Dr. Michael Roizen of the Cleveland Clinic. He has co-hosted over 100 episodes of Lifetime TV’s “Health Corner” (most recently with Joan Lunden), starred in the weekly ChefMD TV segment on Lifetime for nearly 5 years, and has authored and co-authored two New York Times best-sellers. Dr. La Puma is viewed by at least 250,000 viewers, 25-54, each week.

A nutritionist and practicing physician, he has pioneered the idea of food-as-medicine that’s tasty, including delicious eating plans for weight loss, cholesterol-lowering, anti-aging (with RealAge(R)) and childhood obesity. He is founder of Chef Clinic(R), inventor of GlutenFreeQuiz and co-founder of ChefMD(R). He blogs on JillianMichaels.com and intent.com and answers food and health questions on his blog (Paging Dr La Puma) and Fan page, and on AskDoctorOz.com, ChefMD.com and its fan page, ShareCare.com and ivillage.com.

Dr. La Puma has written six books: his most recent, ChefMD’s Big Book of Culinary Medicine: A Food Lover’s Roadmap to Losing Weight, Preventing Disease and Getting Really Healthy (Crown, 2008) became a Times best-seller list shortly after release. His first general audience book, with Michael Roizen MD, was also a Times best-seller: The RealAge Diet: Make Yourself Younger with What You Eat (HarperCollins, 2001); his first cookbook, also with Dr. Roizen, became an Amazon #1 Cookbook: Cooking the RealAge Way: Turn Back Your Biological Clock (HarperCollins, 2003). Dr. La Puma also developed recipes for Dr. Oz and Roizen’s Times #1 best-seller You the Owner’s Manual. He has written three professional books on medical ethics, managed care and business.

Dr. La Puma is a popular keynote speaker, and has given over 400 lectures to professional groups and 300 lectures to educationally-interested audiences. He has also been a consultant and spokesperson for companies such as CIGNA, Caremark, GSK and Kraft. He has appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, The 700 Club, Dr. Oz XM, Oprah.com, Martha Stewart radio, and on NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, PBS and CNN. 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 and Newsweek and hundreds of others have featured his work as well.

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 Le Cordon Bleu school) in Professional Cooking. 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 US, at the University of Chicago.

Dr. La Puma’s clinical trial designs and academic work has resulted in authorship or co-authorship 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 wellness approaches, Dr. La Puma is also a recognized expert in professionalism, medical ethics, CME, informed consent and patient safety, and has testified as an expert in legal cases.

Repeatedly named “One of America’s Top Physicians” by Consumers’ Research Council, and cited as a “Secret Weapon” by The Wall Street Journal, Dr. La Puma has been honored with the AMA/National Association of Medical Communicators “Award of Excellence”.  He is based in Santa Barbara, California. Contact Dr. La Puma.