The Dr. Yum Project

The mission of The Doctor Yum Project is to reduce childhood obesity and diet-related illness by partnering with families to raise children who eat a healthy, whole food diet.

Frustrated by the nutrition issues she repeatedly saw in her patients, in 2011, pediatrician Nimali Fernando was inspired to launch doctoryum.com, a website that helps show families a variety of ways to incorporate healthy eating into their lifestyles. With its growing collection of kid-tested recipes, videos and posts on parenting kids who eat healthy food, doctoryum.com is also used by health care providers around the country to counsel families on nutrition.

The Doctor Yum Project is expanding the reach of the website by spreading the word about childhood nutrition and teaching families to cook through educational programs, including cooking classes and camps, shopping classes, public health campaigns and advocacy. Since starting the website, along with the classes, Dr. Fernando reports that she has seen “remarkable results in my patients.”

“Families need hands-on information about nutrition and cooking. It helps to see another mom who does it, day after day for their own family,” explains Dr. Fernando. All the recipes featured on the doctoryum.com website are tasted by a panel of kids called “Tiny Tasters” and scored using a unique “YUM score.” “The idea is to show parents that other kids can enjoy real food with enough exposures and a low-key approach. I have seen that my time as a doctor teaching families to think about food differently really can make a difference,” says Dr. Fernando.

Visit Doctor Yum for kid-tested recipes and tips for teaching kids to love good foods and check out The Doctor Yum Project to learn how communities are learning to cook together, eat nourishing food and develop healthier lifestyle choices.