WSJ: Gourmet health food – chefs and doctors team up.

WSJ: Chefs and doctors are teaming up to create healthy dishes you might actually crave. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304704504579431133752897634
Dr. Eisenberg co-founded the program as “a place where nutrition scientists could teach medical providers what they need to know about which foods we should eat more of, or less of, and why,” he said. “And, based on scientific evidence, chefs [translate] that into demonstrations on how to prepare healthy, delicious, affordable, easy-to-make dishes.” For him, the continuity between food and medicine is obvious and practical. “It is not my view that the right question is ‘How do we replace drugs with foods?’ The premise of this conference is ‘How do we help people move in the direction of a healthier lifestyle and diet, to prevent illness or manage illness that’s already occurred?'”

Though connecting food and health has a long history, this collaboration between doctors and chefs represents a newer approach—studying and sharing how certain foods can prevent diseases or help manage them. In May, the Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine at Tulane University will debut the nation’s first teaching kitchen affiliated with a medical school. Located in New Orleans, it will be a place for students, doctors, chefs and the local community to investigate the role food can play in managing obesity and related diseases.

The Goldring Center’s Executive Director and Assistant Dean for Clinical Services, Timothy Harlan, is both a chef and a doctor, having owned restaurants before attending medical school. He said the program’s goal is to school doctors-in-training in “some very simple techniques they can use to change the dialogue with their patients, change the way their patients think about food and nutrition.” Classes integrate nutrition with biochemistry, physiology and anatomy.