Culinary Medicine & Mindfulness with Chef Dr. Mike

In this episode, Chef Dr. Mike Fenster joins us to talk about developing a positive relationship with food. Chef Dr. Mike is one of a handful of physicians who hold both a culinary and medical degree, and he’s the only cardiologist with joint academic appointments in both the medical and culinary arts. Chef Dr. Mike has become the voice of culinary medicine and has made it a mission to empower others to take control of their health and happiness through food. During the episode, he shares what culinary medicine is, why how we eat is as important as what we eat, and the aspects of our health that lead back to the food experience. On this episode of the Live. Love. Engage. podcast: Why bringing together food and medicine isn’t as unusual as it seems. What inspired Dr. Mike to become a chef The quote that hits home for him. What nutrition has become a victim of today. The important foundations of culinary medicine. How the food industry changed post-World War Two. Why it’s important for everyone to be comfortable in the kitchen. How fermentation can improve the health and taste of food. The small, daily changes that can improve overall health. What it means to have a healthy food experience. What the research shows about gratitude and food. How implementing a family meal without distractions can support health. The role that positive relationships and strong social networks play in heart health. Why beating yourself up about making bad food choices is unproductive. Why culinary medicine is not one-size-fits-all. Connect with Chef Dr. Mike: Website: https://chefdrmike.com/ FB: https://www.facebook.com/ChefDrMike Twitter: @ChefDrMike IG: @RealChefDrMike TRANSCRIPT Quick Links: Join the Live. Love. Engage. Community Intuitive Business Coaching The Live. Love. Engage. Book Support the Podcast with BuyMeACoffee.com Enjoying what you're hearing on Live. Love. Engage.? Subscribe on Goodpods or your favorite podcast platform, and click here to leave a 5 STAR Review. You can also watch the conversation on YouTube. TRANSCRIPT You're listening to the live love engage podcast on today's show, we're gonna be talking with an expert about developing a positive relationship with food that goes beyond mere nutrition or fad diets. Stay tuned. I am Gloria Grace Rand, founder of the love method, and author of the number one, Amazon best seller live love, engage how to stop doubting yourself and start being yourself. In this podcast. We share practical advice from a spiritual perspective on how to live fully love, deeply and engage authentically. So you can create a life and business with more impact, influence, and income. Welcome to live love, engage Namaste and welcome to another addition of live love engage. And of course, this is my favorite, my favorite type of episode to do. And mostly once I've been doing lately, which is an interview and I am delighted to be able to welcome, uh, a guest today who, um, he's no slacker. Let me just say that. So I'll, I'm gonna tell you a little bit more about him in a second, but first of all, I want to welcome actually, Dr. Michael Fenster, otherwise known as chef Dr. Mike to live love and engage. Thank you, Gloria Namaste and, and so glad, delighted to be here. Um, I, I love these opportunities. I love your format, uh, to be able to talk about, uh, things that we don't always get to mention when we talk about food and medicine. So just as important and, and, and we'll, we'll throw that teaser out there for em Yeah. Is exactly yes. Cuz you, if you've you caught that, I called him chef Dr. Mike, that is because he is one of a handful of physicians worldwide to hold both culinary and medical degrees. And he's the only interventional cardiologist and professional chef to do. So he's also the only cardiologist with joint academic appointments in both the medical and culinary arts. And believe me, we're gonna be talking more about that in a second. But um, through his, he does culinary medicine, university courses, speaking events, articles, books, personal outreach, television, other media appearances, like like podcast. He has become the voice of culinary medicine, which is something I had never heard of, um, before, before meeting him. But he really is, uh, his message is to empower people, to take control of your health, wealth, and happiness, through a positive relationship with food and that, um, you know, just go beyond me nutrition or fad diets. So, um, I, I just, like I said, we met through a, a publicity summit and I was just totally intrigued, um, by the fact that you're a doctor, you're a cardiologist and then you're also a chef and I'm, you know, I'm a foodie. I love watching, like, you know, um, oh now my name, my mind is blanking on all the wonderful, uh, top chef, like, you know, shows like that on Bravo and things like that. And so how did you wind up merging these two distinctive occupations into one? Well, you know, it's, it's interest thing. Um, in, in the context of things, you know, they become distinctive, but for most of the history, humanity, they were really tied to tightly tightly together. When we look at some of the very first cookbooks that we have, you know, from ancient Greece, for example, a number of them were actually written by physicians, uh, because dietetics was just so integral and we understood the importance and the relationship between what we eat, how we eat and our overall health. So it's kind of commonplace. And then really it's probably been within the last century or so that, that this division, you know, has really come about me personally, you know, it was food first, actually. So, um, you know, I grew up, uh, I was very fortunate, had a mom who's a great home cook, loved to cook when I'd come home often, you know, she was trying to do the latest things she'd seen on Julia child or the galloping gourmet. The cookbook were out. The kitchen was a very welcoming place. And so I really learned, uh, the essence of the craft and really the passion for it, with her. And so it was natural when I went to college to help, you know, pay for going through college, uh, to get a job in the food industry. And back then there was no food network, you know, Julia was the celebrity chef and really nobody wanted to do that job, especially in college. Cause like you're working Friday night to 2:00 AM and you get out, you're covered in dishwater and you're like, Hey, let's go have a good time. They're like, thanks, Mike, we'll catch you next week. Um, and, and I actually started as a dishwasher cuz there were no cooking jobs, worked then as a line cook worked my way up by the time I finished, I was what we'd call today an executive chef running the back of the house. So I was in charge of, of the kitchen. I eventually, uh, after going to medical school and fellowship and, and whatnot, I eventually actually did go back to culinary school, uh, and have a degree in, gourmet cooking and catering from Ashworth University. Uh, but I really learned to cook, you know, being out there and doing it and, and there's no substitute for that. Um, and then eventually these passions of food and health kind of came back full circle. So it's, to me, it's, it's kind of like that little bit of DNA where, you know, they start together and then they separated then you know, the points come back and really, I would say today, you know, Mark Twain has a quote that always sticks with me. He said, the two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you discover what you were born for. And you know, so, um, this is what I was born to do and I just gotta sing a little louder. So everyone hears the voice of culinary medicine and knows what it is. I love that you, and you mentioned so many great things there and wow. Galloping Gourmet boy that brought back memories. Cuz I do remember watching that as a kid for sure. And, and Yan Can Cook. That was another PBS one for, for like Asian cooking. Yep. Um, I, I, and, and, and I kinda relate also to the, um, you know, working in college, I worked at McDonald's actually through all the way through college and yeah, I did dishes too and, and I would clean out those lovely grease traps. Oh, oh yes. You really, you know, come home smelling great after that. So I, I can, I can relate. Um, and it's also interesting that you talk about that. It really is this ancient history. Why do you, why do you think, um, medicine got away from focusing on, on diet and why did they separate? What do you think? Yeah. You know, I think it's, it's one of those, uh, instances that we could sort of trace back really it's, it's sort of the history of nutrition as a science if we think about it. And so I think in a way it's because nutrition is almost become a victim of its own success. And by that, I mean that, that we can date nutrition roughly. I mean, you could argue back and forth, but it's rough roughly about a hundred years ago is a reasonable starting point to say, Hey, here's where the science of nutrition started. Cuz in 1912, Casimir Funk discovered the first, uh, vitamins, which he called vitamin-means and which became short in as vitamins. And, and so that really spurred nutrition because we were able to then identify these deficiency diseases like scurvy and say, “Hey, you know, you get this disease it's because you don't have this vitamin. We give you vitamin C and boom, it goes away.” And within about a half a century. So we're talking, you know, by the 1950s, 1960s, we'd identified these vitamins, their deficiency diseases. And in many cases around the globe eradicated them. And so that was powerful, powerful, uh, science and, and medicine. And that worked really great for deficiency diseases. But when we look at things like the chronic disabilities and diseases that are multifactorial and origin, this idea of,...