CEO/Founder
TheChefDoc
Lake Forest, California, United States
Dr. Colin Zhu is double Board-Certified in Family Practice and Lifestyle Medicine. Driven by his passion for the intersection of medicine, food, and nutrition, he trained as a plant-based chef and health coach at the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health & Culinary Arts and the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, respectively. Having worked in general practice, he quickly observed the inefficiencies of the modern healthcare system. Therefore, in 2017, he launched TheChefDoc, an online wellness and lifestyle education platform that has now been featured in several publications to impact the general public more broadly and deeply.
Dr. Zhu is an international keynote speaker, the author of “Thrive Medicine: How To Cultivate Your Desires and Elevate Your Life,” and the host of the Thrive Bites Podcast, in which he interviews health and wellness experts on living a plant-powered lifestyle, enhancing emotional wellness, and creating a thriving mindset. He also created The THR5 Formula™, a self-educational masterclass series that combines inspiration, education, and practical tools on how to thrive, with its 5 To THR5™ Pillars: Food As Medicine, Functional Fitness, Relationships, Community, & Emotional Resilience.
He is currently on the Board of Directors of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM), a professional organization galvanized to make Lifestyle Medicine the foundation of all healthcare. He is also Chair of the Food As Medicine/Culinary Medicine Member Interest Group at ACLM. Dr. Zhu’s main mission is to help connect the dots between individual well-being, community, and environmental sustainability, and how our life choices create a dynamic ripple effect. Look for his upcoming collaborative cookbook, Empowered Kitchen, tentatively set for 2026.
Currently based in Southern California, Dr. Zhu is available to consult and speak worldwide.
Planted to Plated: A Lifestyle Medicine Culinary Experience
Tuesday, November 18, 2025
7:15 PM - 9:15 PM CT