Like the health and wellness movement he has come to personify, Dr. Andrew Weil is going mainstream.
The Harvard-educated, Santa-bearded healthful living expert has lent his name to more products in the first four months of this year than at any other time in his long career. Recent endorsements include Ito En teas; Lucini limited reserve organic olive oil; fruit and nut bars from Nature's Path foods; and a line of cookware and tabletop appliances.
“Andy believes we have to become as adept at building good health as we are at treating ill health, and that speaks to good nutrition,” said David Stoup, chairman of Weil Lifestyle, the Phoenix-based licensing arm responsible for vetting and developing products.
After-tax profits from the endorsements go, à la Newman's Own, to the Weil Foundation, a source of grants for causes that contribute in some way to Weil's philosophy of whole health.
A regular recipient is the Program in Integrative Medicine, a $4 million initiative Weil founded at the University of Arizona in 1994. Here, practicing physicians return to school for a whole-health curriculum emphasizing mind, body and spirit in the prevention and treatment of disease.