“The power of plants to nourish and heal our body is simply amazing.”
Amy Zacharias, MD is board certified in both family medicine and lifestyle medicine. From a young age, she always knew she wanted to be a physician. She grew up on a farm in central Illinois, where the typical diet included meat at almost every meal. She was very active in sports, so she always had an interest in healthy eating and physical activity. She thought she ate better than most by consuming lean meats and very little processed food. It was not until later in her career that she realized the most important aspect of being a physician was preventing disease, and that a whole food plant-based diet along with other lifestyle changes is the best way to achieve optimal health.
She attended Loyola University of Chicago for undergraduate studies and then Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine in Maywood, Illinois. She then moved back to central Illinois where she completed her residency training in family medicine at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Methodist Medical Center. Upon completion of residency, she practiced traditional family medicine in a small town for several years. She also enjoyed serving as the Employee Health physician for her local hospital and the occupational medicine physician for several local employers. With these roles, she was asked to develop wellness programs to help keep employees healthy. She realized that educating patients about lifestyle changes to prevent and reverse disease was what she enjoyed most about being a physician.
After several years of family practice, she saw an opportunity to treat the patients she saw daily afflicted with chronic diseases. She also noticed that despite eating healthy and exercising regularly all of her life that she too began to struggle to maintain a healthy weight. Determined to find a better way to prevent and treat disease, she became board certified in lifestyle medicine.
In addition to her lifestyle medicine practice, Dr. Zacharias teaches medical students at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria. She is passionate about teaching patients and students how to cook and eat better in order to prevent and reverse disease. She has a love for cooking and has completed the Rouxbe Plant-Based Professional cooking certification. She has a special interest in helping patients achieve their ideal weight and helping athletes reach peak performance by following a whole food plant-based diet.