dr. ruthie harper

Food is both inspirational and transformational. It inspires us to enjoy our lives as we relax, socialize, and celebrate with those we love, sharing our favorite foods and recipes.

Food transforms us by changing the way our underlying biochemistry works and holding the ability to improve our health and well being.

Ruthie Harper, MD

Despite being a traditionally trained medical doctor, Ruthie Harper, MD, has found nothing more powerful than combining the inspirational power of food with its transformational ability to help change people’s lives. Dr. Harper’s career journey began in 1989 in New Orleans, first as an emergency room resident and then as an ER doctor at Charity Hospital. She was quickly promoted to emergency department director, and it looked as though her medical future was set. But her desire to change people’s lives through health drove her in a different direction.

Dr. Harper recalls, "I loved the ER and found it exhilarating to use the latest advancement in drugs and medical technology to save lives, but as I continued to practice, I began to see the limitations of traditional medicine. Philosophically, traditional medicine is a science that accepts the brokenness of the body once a disease takes hold. Rather than addressing what’s broken, resolving the innate cellular function, and giving the body back the ability to repair, traditional medicine instead uses drugs and technology to band-aid issues."

To solve these limitations, Dr. Harper began to explore a science that would allow a person’s body to regain its original function. She found the powerful world of nutritional medicine, which fundamentally teaches that all cellular function occurs through the food we eat as it turns into the fuel that makes our bodies work. It was the science she had learned in basic biochemistry but had never applied to the practice of medicine.

"As I began applying these fundamentals, using food to resolve underlying biochemical deficiencies, patients began to enjoy the positive, transformational effects on their health."

Although Dr. Harper saved many lives in the ER, she was instrumental in changing patients’ lives through nutritional medicine. In 1999, she founded a small boutique practice in Austin, Texas, called Nutritional Medicine Associates. Patient success stories spread quickly, and within just a few months and without any advertising, Dr. Harper’s business exploded from a part-time practice into a full-time passion. The practice’s overnight success confirmed what Dr. Harper already believed—people want an alternative approach to traditional medicine to help them achieve health and wellness.

"My career in nutritional medicine has been nothing short of spectacular. I have helped thousands of people achieve the health and wellness they deserve by developing specialized food and supplement programs to address the underlying biochemical deficiencies that drive the disease process."

Dr. Harper’s medical journey continues today as she helps patients from all over the world regain the health, wellness, and happiness they deserve through the transformational benefits of nutritional medicine.