Rani Polak, MD, Chef, MBA

Dr. Rani Polak is the founding director of both the Culinary Healthcare Education Fundamentals (CHEF) coaching program at the Institute of Lifestyle Medicine, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, and the Center of Lifestyle Medicine at Sheba Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel; as well as a research associate at the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Harvard Medical School. Prior to this position he completed a research fellowship in lifestyle medicine at Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School; and a residency in family medicine at the Hebrew University Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel. His book, Delicious Diabetic Recipes, is a best seller.

Dr. Polak’s focus, along with clinical care, is on nutrition education, and on clinical and translational research relating to culinary medicine and medical education. His current work is concentrated on the Culinary Coaching approach, which aims to improve nutrition through culinary training combined with health coaching principles. This was implemented in the Yale Preventive Medicine/Internal Medicine residency program, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, and was recently approved by Harvard Medical School for Continuing Medical Education credits. Dr. Polak’s work has been featured in many media outlets including Scientific American, Herald Tribune, Jerusalem Post, and USA Today.