Dr. John La Puma
John La Puma is a board-certified internist and professionally trained chef. His patients, books, recipes and television episodes have changed the way people think about food, health and medicine. Three of his books–Cooking the RealAge Way, The RealAge Diet and ChefMD’s Big Book of Culinary Medicine–have been bestsellers around the world and have been translated into 8 languages.
The Wall Street Journal calls him a “Secret Weapon” against cholesterol and heart disease. He taught the first Nutrition and Cooking Course for Medical Students in the US, at SUNY-Upstate with Dr. Michael Roizen of the Cleveland Clinic.
Dr. La Puma is a renowned speaker. He spoke at the prestigious TEDx conference in October 2010, at Gel Health in October 2009 and is consistently rated among the very best speakers by the audiences he addresses. He has also been a consultant and spokesperson for some of the groups he has given talks to, such as CIGNA, Caremark, GSK and Kraft.
Dr. La Puma is in the media. He is scheduled to host a 90 minute PBS Pledge Special in 2011, has hosted a 30 minute PBS Pledge special in 2010, and has co-hosted 100+ episodes of Lifetime TV’s “Health Corner” (most recently with Joan Lunden and Leeza Gibbons). He starred in the weekly “Chef MD” TV segment on Lifetime TV for nearly 5 years. He has appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, The 700 Club, NPR, Dr. Oz XM, Oprah.com, Martha Stewart radio, and on NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, PBS and CNN, and in hundreds of print publications.
Dr. La Puma is Founding Editor of Alternative Medicine Alert, the leading evidence-based newsletter for clinicians on dietary supplements and integrative wellness approaches. He worked as a general internist at North Suburban Clinic before leaving to become a full time independent physician, writer, teacher and researcher.
His 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.
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.
Repeatedly named “One of America’s Top Physicians” by Consumers’ Research Council, Dr. La Puma has been honored with the AMA/National Association of Medical Communicators “Award of Excellence”. He is based in Santa Barbara, California.
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Speech Topics
Man Program™: How Men Can Lose the Gut, Stop Testosterone From Turning into Estrogen, and Supercharge Sex Naturally
Men’s wealth has been especially beat up by the recession, but men’s health has suffered even more. Most of the rise in U.S. obesity since 2002 has been in men, from 27% in 1999 to nearly 35% in 2010. Men’s testosterone is literally being turned into estrogen. And men--and women--need to stop it.
Enter Man Program™. A revolutionary 24 day program based on years of research and beta testing, Man Program™ relies not on willpower, but on an innovative 2 day per week schedule where the easy choice is the best choice. Because there's only so many hours in the day to create a healthy lifestyle that sticks.
Man Program™ is primarily about food, because it’s the area in which men can get the biggest bang for their buck. Attendees will learn the four pillars of power--food, fitness, mind-body control and sleep--and how to look and feel better, have more pleasure and build more testosterone and muscle, naturally. Attendees will see hear the stories of men on Man Program who who have rebuilt their lives and regained some of what they were missing: a little respect.
And attendees will walk away with a life-changing idea: once men do this, the women in their life will want to do it too. Because men who do so become so successful, so powerful, so awesome physically, mentally and nutritionally, that women are going to want what men have. In more ways than one.
Weight Loss for Women’s Families: How to Nudge Men to Get Healthy Without Nagging
Weight loss--permanent weight loss where you don’t gain back what you’ve lost--is achievable. Dr. La Puma has studied men and women who have done it, and helped his patients do it. Now he’ll help you too, without an appointment or travel to his office in Santa Barbara.
This talk has two parts: the first will focus on how to adopt the successful habits of those who have lost weight and are keeping it off…without drugs or surgery. The second will focus on the way that men and women talk together about health. And especially, the ways in which women try to help men get and stay healthy, and what those conversations are really like.
In the first part, Dr. La Puma will show that although we all know the formula for gaining and losing weight, we don’t know how to make it easy. You’ll learn how to recognize hidden calories, how to feel full and fully satisfied faster every time you eat, deliciously, and how to control the food cues around you. You’ll ramp up your motivation and get the tricks, tips and one-on-one coaching approach that Dr. La Puma gives to executive clients.
In the second part, Dr. La Puma will identify common scenarios in which women want to help men to get healthy--to go to the doctor for tests, for example--but often don’t know how to speak about it, for fear of offending.
Persistently asking about blood pressure, cholesterol or even back pain is commonly misinterpreted as nagging by men, and too often results in misunderstanding and tension. Yet there are key phrases and concepts that men and women in partnership can use which rely on the strengths of both partners, and on the goal of having a more pleasurable relationship, for both. Dr. La Puma will discuss these with the audience, and more than one woman will stand up and tell her story.
The talk will conclude with the idea that you can make immediate, powerful changes, in both areas, detailed again below. What’s most interesting—and exciting—is that as soon as you make small changes, your body starts seeing the effects: your body fat and weight go down, and female fertility goes up. Skin problems diminish. Your risk of breast, uterine, kidney, thyroid and colon cancer, diabetes, gout, and back pain all go down, as do asthma, arthritis and more. Confidence goes up. The same is true for the male relationships in your life you most want to change so that the man sees health as a priority, for both of you. You can start now, you can believe in yourself, and begin to take control in your life. You’ll look and feel better than you thought possible, and that’s how the talk will end.
ChefMD’s Culinary Medicine: Make Yourself Better with What You Eat
In the simplest form, we all suspect that we're not really control of our health: our genes are. But that’s not fated. 70% of all heart disease, stroke, diabetes, memory loss, premature wrinkling and impotence are preventable. 80% of all cancers are preventable.
Many of us, however, don’t know how to prevent and control common health conditions with what we eat, deliciously. But you can: you’re going to learn to believe in yourself—and your ability to unlock the healing power of irresistible foods and to add more pleasure, more energy and more vitality to your life. This talk will focus on that.
Dr. La Puma will describe how food works in the body, from the front lines of science. You’ll learn how you to absorb the best nutrition in what you eat, how to avoid the hidden toxins in food, and how to feel full and fully satisfied faster every time you eat, deliciously.
Dr. La Puma covers how to stock the medicine chest in your kitchen, and describes condition (constipation, diabetes, back pain, cholesterol and more)-specific easy recipes and meals with restaurant-quality flavor you’ll love. He shows you how to replace bad habits and prevent and control common conditions with what you eat, and how food can work within hours to start getting you healthy.
Dr. La Puma aims to inspire attendees, who go home with new ideas, new recipes and new excitement about how to make healthy choices the easy ones.
The Food Rx for Aging: Make Yourself Younger with What You Eat
The RealAge® program is adapted from Dr. La Puma's two New York Times best-selling books with RealAge® founder Dr. Michael Roizen, The RealAge Diet and Cooking the RealAge Way. RealAge has been translated into 22 languages and www.realage.com is the second largest medical web page in the world with 1.4 million hits per day. Dr. La Puma has been a Scientific
Advisor to RealAge® for over 10 years.
Dr. La Puma aims to inspire attendees to get younger with what they eat by showing them how easy it is to make better food, supplement and eating choices. Attendees go home with new ideas and new means to motivate themselves and their families.
