20 Years Ago

In 1988, after four years of intense work as an emergency room attending physician at Cabrini Medical Center, I had made no future plans for my academic career. That January, I was working in a small clinic in Downtown Manhattan with several distinguished cardiologists, surgeons, and other specialists. One of the cardiologists told me that a famous doctor needed an excellent internist to join his practice and that I should apply; he gave me no details but kept recommending an interview. I refused several times.

Finally, more to appease my colleague, I offered to meet him at his office and then we would take a cab to this physician's office-I still had no idea where I was going. And on a snowy January afternoon, we indeed got into a cab, and my cardiologist colleague told the driver "400 East 56th Street" which was, in fact, my home. I assumed that the cardiologist had made a mistake--but as we pulled up my driveway, he told the cab to stop not at the front door but at the nearby medical practice--The Atkins Center.

At precisely 6 p.m. I met the person who had arranged the interview, someone I knew from books and television, the most famous "diet-doctor" ever. His offer to join his practice was certainly a surprise: I didn't accept immediately, and in fact it took several months of persistent phone calls by Dr. Atkins himself--and then a visit to Maimonides Medical Center, the hospital of my internship and residency. I asked Dr. David Grob, to this day the greatest physician and teacher I have ever met, what I should do. To my great surprise, he said "Take the job." I couldn't believe my ears, but because I felt that Dr. Grob was wise and brilliant, I followed his advice.

Twenty years later, I have handed in the draft manuscript for The Park Avenue Diet, a "diet" book unlike any other in publishing history, a veritable lifestyle manual. My thoughts have evolved considerably since 1988, especially about the relatively straightforward therapy we call weight loss. And the nutritional landscape has also changed, not for the better. We will be exploring topics of interest in this blog, following the latest scientific stories, and finding a pathway to better health and longer life. I hope you will be entertained, enlightened, and lightened!