Chef Dr. Mike on Merging Culinary and Medical Expertise to Improve People’s Health
Article first posted on New York Weekly, May 31, 2021
Although choosing to engage in activities like physical exercise or sports play a vital role in our well-being, the food and drinks we must consume to simply exist are just as important. As a matter of fact, it is no secret that an individual’s diet has a significant impact on their overall health, wellness, and happiness. Fortunately, Chef Dr. Mike has dedicated his career to helping people adopt a healthy lifestyle filled with tasty meals that nourish both body and soul.
Through his expert practice and evidence-based understanding of food and health, Chef Dr. Mike brings a cutting-edge approach to the dated concept of “diet;” a fresh look that gets people beyond mere nutrition-centric regimens and fad health trends.
Over the years, what has been offered as so-called healthful food choices have been associated with bland, unappetizing, and just plain unattractive cuisine. This misconception about healthy meals has made it even more difficult for people to stay on the right course. For this reason, Interventional Cardiologist, Professional Chef, and Professor of Culinary Medicine, Chef Dr. Mike has dedicated himself to the challenge of shedding light on what the word “diet” really means.
With his take on modern and delicious cuisine, Chef Dr. Mike shares just how hearty and healthful eating can look and taste, almost like a forbidden food-porn binge. As one of the foremost advocates of a balanced lifestyle, he wants to show everyone that eating healthy does not mean giving up delicious food. Quite to the contrary, his approach is all about having the best of both worlds.
His unique perspective and singular viewpoint masterfully integrate the Culinary Arts and the Medical Sciences into one practice; giving people a plate both salubrious and sumptuous.
“Culinary medicine is a relatively new discipline based on applying evidence-based data to ancient teachings,” Chef Dr. Mike explained. He added that mainstream medicine has failed to provide people with diets that offer good-tasting meals that are actually good for the body. Culinary Medicine shifts from failed perspectives focusing on 19th century concepts of calories, unintelligible guidelines around percent sat fats and RDAs, and useless palate profiling categories like “dairy” or “red meat,” to focus upon the quality of the ingredients we choose. With Chef Dr. Mike’s targeted approach to the complete food experience, not just the what we eat, but the how, why, where, when, and with whom, we choose to dine, this revolutionary vision is breaking new ground.
Chef Dr. Mike wholeheartedly knows that Culinary Medicine is the answer to the questions: Is there a lifestyle approach to food that sustains the individual in body, mind, and spirit? Is there a satisfyingly delicious way to find health, wellness, longevity, and happiness? Can we sustain the planet as we sustain ourselves?
“I don’t believe in setting boundaries when it comes to food,” he said. “The idea that healthy food can’t be flavorful, and that tasty food can’t be good for you, or that a one-size-fits-all healthy diet exists are all myths,” he further clarified., Bite by bite, this Truth-seeker is challenging and debunking health myths and misconceptions all across the world.
Chef Dr. Mike has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business, The Doctors and countless other media both national and local. He has been featured in Men’s Health, Muscle and Fitness, Shape, The Atlantic, Variety, The Huffington Post and countless other publications. In addition, he has authored four books — Ancient Eats: The Greeks & The Vikings, The Fallacy of The Calorie: Why the Modern Western Diet Is Killing Us and How to Stop It, Eating Well, Living Better: The Grassroots Gourmet Guide to Good Health and Great Food, and Food Shaman: The Art of Quantum Food. He is currently preparing his latest offering on mindfulness and eating: The Ordinary Meal.
Chef Dr. Mike has also launched a commercial kitchen Culinary Medicine program in partnership with the American Culinary Federation; The American Culinary Federation Culinary Medicine Approved (ACF-CMA) Kitchen Program. Successful applicants receive a seal and listing with the ACF, America’s largest culinary certifying body to let patrons and customers know the food they serve adheres to Chef Dr. Mike’s Culinary Medicine principles and practices. He has expanded the outreach of the University of Montana’s College of Health graduate program, Introduction to Culinary Medicine, to everyone by offering through the University an on-line version of the popular course. This gives anyone aspiring to learn Culinary Medicine an initiation into the breakthroughs of this new and quickly growing field.
“It is, in the end, about re-establishing our relationship with the food we eat through our individual food experience,” Chef Dr. Mike said. In the coming years, he hopes that his inspirational teachings will continue to help guide people to find their own health, wellness, longevity, and happiness through Epicurean enlightenment!
