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Honest and Hungry

True Food Kitchen founder Andrew Weil on health, nutrition and life

Between juice cleanses and celebrity diets, intermittent fasting, and removing gluten, milk or carbs from your diet, it’s hard to know the right way to eat for your health.

Dr. Andrew Weil, co-owner and founder of True Food Kitchen, felt the same way. The intersection of medicine and nutrition enticed him. From a young age, he was interested in science, biology and anatomy, and quickly determined he could combine these interests in a career in medicine.

“When I was in medical school, I was very struck by the absence of any information about nutrition and, actually, about health in general,” Weil says. “I heard very little about health or healing in my medical studies, so I was just determined to find out for myself, to learn about things that I didn’t get enough information on in medical school.”

After graduating from Harvard Medical School with his medical degree, he began to realize his chosen path, integrative medicine, wasn’t as widely accepted by traditional Western medical practitioners, so he set his sights on the horizon and traveled across the world, seeking out practitioners of other kinds of medicine.

“I learned about Chinese medicine, for example,” he says. “I also traveled widely for a number of years in North and South America, then in Africa and Asia, looking at healing practices and other cultures about foods and things about health. So, it was from several years of travel and meeting people that I’d rather gradually put together my own system.”

Throughout his travels, he learned food is often an integral part of healing in certain cultures, which began to shape his philosophy on food being medicinal.

“That’s very much a part of Chinese medical philosophy,” says Weil. “They really don’t distinguish between foods and medicines. A lot of ingredients in Chinese food are there primarily for their perceived health benefits, as well as for tastes or textures.”

His interest in food and his passion for cooking and growing fresh produce at home coincided.

“I’ve always been a very good home cook. I’m not a chef, but I’m a good home cook,” he says. “Over the years, many people who ate my food said, ‘You ought to open a restaurant.’”

Weil didn’t want to open a restaurant, though. It wasn’t until a friend of his introduced him to a successful restaurateur, Sam Fox, that he began to change his mind.

“I suggested to him the idea of a restaurant that would serve delicious food that was also healthy,” says Weil. “(Fox) didn’t get it. He said health food doesn’t sell. I think he thought I meant tofu and sprouts. So, I invited him and his wife to my home, and I cooked for them.”

As luck would have it, they liked Weil’s food and Fox decided to give it a try despite his initial skepticism. The first True Food Kitchen opened in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2008, and now there are 37 locations across the country – including the newly opened location at Easton Town Center in Westerville’s back yard.

“It was an amazing success. (Fox) could not believe it,” Weil says. “It’s been wonderful to see people eating food of the sort that I liked all my life.”

Some of Weil’s favorite foods and even his own recipes have made the menu, including nutritional yeast which serves as the base for the restaurant’s umami sauce, a twist on the classic BLT subbing bacon out for tempeh, Korean sweet potato noodles and a Tuscan kale salad.

To no surprise, many of Weil’s favorite ingredients and flavors come from his travels.

“I love Japanese food,” he says. “The variety of the ways it’s prepared, I think it’s fantastic. Italy, also, with the quality of produce and ingredients and freshness. So those are my two favorite places.”

Between traveling the world and collaborating with fellow health and nutrition practitioners, Weil has heard just about every piece of health advice out there. For Weil, one stands out above the rest as particularly impactful.

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Health, nutrition and wellness are all related and often overlap. The 4-7-8 breathing technique, which Weil is credited for making popular in the U.S., is a relaxation method focused on breath. • To begin, breathe in through your nose for a count of four seconds. • Then, hold your breath for a count of seven seconds. • Finally, exhale through your mouth for a count of eight seconds. • Repeat this for four breath cycles. • The practitioner of the breathing exercise should be relaxed and calm by the end of this exercise.

Fulford was a pioneer in the field of osteopathic medicine and is a source of immense inspiration for Weil.

“I met him when he was in his 80s,” Weil says. “He (was) the best, most impressive healer that I ever met. His whole treatment was very gentle, hands-on manipulation. He was just a master of cranial therapy, and that technique, it’s fantastic.”

While Fulford serves as a source of inspiration for Weil, Weil is that icon of inspiration for many of today’s students of integrative medicine.

Weil says his work with the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona is the success that’s closest to his heart.

“We’ve trained people of all ages and all specialties, and it’s great to see so many people whose careers have been influenced by this philosophy,” he says. “It just feels wonderful.”

Westerville Magazine: What’s your favorite food?

AW: That’s really hard! I’m tempted to say pizza because I have recently learned how to make really, really good pizza. I’m very picky about what kind of pizza I eat, but that’s one of my favorite foods. WM: What are your favorite three countries you’ve visited?

AW: I’ve been briefly to Bhutan, and that was wonderful. It just had a great feel to it. The air was clean, the people were happy. I loved being there. And some years ago, this was quite a while ago, I was in Ethiopia, and the culture is just so incredibly rich, so that was another favorite. And then another one is Colombia, where I actually lived for about three years, and I know very well. I love that place. WM: Do you speak any other languages?

AW: I’m fluent in Spanish. I can speak “restaurant Japanese” (Weil can speak the language well enough to order from a restaurant, but not enough to be conversational). I think if I lived in Japan for a couple of months, I would pick it up. I used to know German, which I studied in high school, and when I was in Germany after that, I was able to speak pretty well. But I haven’t had a chance to practice since. WM: What are your hobbies?

AW: Gardening is a big one for me, and cooking. And being with my dogs!

Sarah Robinson is an associate editor. Feedback welcome at srobinson@cityscenemediagroup.com. Contact us today!

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