About me
Me!
I’m Dr. Atoosa Kourosh, MD, MPH. I’m a pediatrician and allergy and immunology specialist with a master’s degree in public health, a certified yoga teacher, and a trained disaster relief- and wilderness medicine practitioner.
My interests include:
US and international public health, and developing world medicine. Over the past two decades, I have traveled widely in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, engaging in volunteer medical service and health access advocacy, including grassroots public health programs with Texas Pediatric Society and Refugees Northwest in Seattle.
Holistic health. I believe that modern medical practices should include a depth and breadth of treatment modalities—from mainstream medicine to traditional healing practices to functional and integrative medicine philosophies—to treat the whole person in their environment.
Mentorship. I love to mentor trainees in clinical medicine and public health, on such topics as pediatric obesity, injury prevention, environmental health, international health, and strategic use of social media as a tool for health advocacy.
Beyond that, I love travel, dance, fitness and outdoor sports, healthy cooking and baking, and learning new languages.
Click here to learn more about my other medical endeavors.
My sweet journey
Although you can’t see it, I’m trying to grab some sweets off the coffee table
I don’t remember trying my first dessert (though I am told it was Persian rice pudding when I was around 4 months old) but one of my earliest memories is sitting in my high-chair as a toddler, eating peanut butter with my fingers and reveling in its creamy nutty sweetness. My sweet tooth was always dominant and, like many children, dessert was my favorite part of any meal.
When I was 7 years old, my family was forced to flee Iran due to the government’s systematic religious persecution of Baha’is, forcing the end of my carefree childhood. Though we were safe and able to practice our religion in peace in the U.S., so much was different and difficult. The Persian food and sweets my mother made reminded me of home—so often sweet treats have emotional resonance beyond how simply delicious they are.
In my early teens, my mother, who was studying for her master’s degree in nutrition, suddenly and completely changed our family’s diet. Gone were the kabobs and buttery white rice, replaced by steamed vegetables and whole grains as she transitioned us to unprocessed, mostly vegetarian fare. Those those Persian desserts I so loved were relegated to special occasions.
This was the beginning of retraining my palate as I became more attuned to the subtle sweetness of everyday whole foods.
With my nephew, pre-food-allergy diagnosis
As a young adult I was diagnosed with allergies to dairy and wheat, which explained many strange symptoms I had been struggling with since childhood. Removing these items from my diet made me noticeably healthier and consequently happier. Soon after, my nephews were also diagnosed with these same allergies—which meant no treats for us all! Because I enjoyed cooking and baking (and especially experimenting!), I began creating recipes for cookies and birthday cake and pies and homemade ice cream sans our common allergens. This was decades before gluten-free vegan treats were easily found; in the early 2000s, if you wanted a wheat-free vegan cake, you had to figure out how to make it yourself!
Bottom line: I am a pediatrician and have worked on obesity prevention my entire career and my nutrition research has shown me how much healthier a recipe could be with less sugar. As an allergist, I’ve advised families trying to live a normal life while avoiding allergens in their diet. And, due to my own allergies and dietary experiments, I tend to make healthy treats for parties and gatherings—for which people inevitably ask me for my recipes. Finally, a friend suggested I stop writing out my recipes on napkins at parties and write an actual cookbook instead.
And here we are today! This website (and hopefully soon to be book!) has grown from the seed of that idea.
At a walk to promote allergy awareness
Want to share a recipe?
Are you interested in guest posting to share your favorite healthy baked treat? Contact me here!