He has led clinical trials of nutritional interventions designed to improve burnout, obesity, hypertension, osteoarthritis, insomnia, and diabetes, and pioneered culinary medicine. His mission is to help you get measurably healthier with what you eat and how you live.
Dr. La Puma guest taught the first medical lecture on Nature Therapy at Harvard University’s Lifestyle Medicine course, and at Stanford University Wellness and taught the first Nutrition and Cooking course for medical students in the US, at SUNY-Upstate with Dr. Michael Roizen of the Cleveland Clinic, and the first Culinary Medicine clinical course for medical students in the US, at DMU. He has authored over 50 peer-reviewed scientific papers and three medical books, including a CME book and the first peer-reviewed article about culinary medicine. His work has been published by the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and the British Medical Journal.
Four of his books–Refuel, ChefMD’s Big Book of Culinary Medicine, Cooking the RealAge Way and The RealAge Diet–have been bestsellers around the world, been translated into 8 languages and sold over a million copies.
Dr. La Puma is a renowned speaker and demonstration cook. He delivered the first lectures at Harvard and at TEDMED on Culinary Medicine, and at the University of Chicago on Comfort Food. He has also presented at the prestigious TEDx and Gel Health conferences and is consistently rated among the very best speakers by the audiences he addresses. He has been a consultant and spokesperson for CIGNA, Caremark, GSK, and Kraft, among other partners, and founded Alternative Medicine Alert, an evidence-based monthly newsletter for clinicians on dietary supplements and integrative medical approaches.
Dr. La Puma is in the media. He hosts the national PBS series “Dr John La Puma’s ChefMD Shorts”; the 90 minute PBS Special “Eat and Cook Healthy with Dr. John La Puma”; and the 13 part YouTube Series “Refuel Minute for Men”.
He co-hosted 100+ episodes of Lifetime TV’s “Health Corner”, most recently with Joan Lunden and Leeza Gibbons, and hosted weekly “Chef MD” TV segments on Lifetime TV for nearly five years. He has appeared on Dr Oz, The Today Show, Good Morning America, The 700 Club, NPR, Dr Oz XM, Oprah.com, Martha Stewart radio, and on NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, ESPN, PBS, LIFETIME and CNN, and in hundreds of print and online publications.
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 became 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 graduated with honors from the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago (now a Le Cordon Bleu school) in Professional Cooking. He completed a Permaculture Design Certificate course through Santa Barbara City College and is a University of California Certified Naturalist. He has transitioned an abandoned orchard into a certified organic teaching and demonstration farm, raising Haas avocados, rare citrus, and over 100 other fruits and nuts.
Repeatedly named “One of America’s Top Physicians” by Consumers’ Research Council, Dr. La Puma has been honored with the American Medical Association/National Association of Medical Communicators “Award of Excellence”. He is based in Santa Barbara, California.