ABOUT
Meet Laura Burak, RD
Laura began her career in clinical nutrition and private practice before expanding into media, education, content creation, and brand partnerships. Today, in addition to her private practice Laura Burak Nutrition, she works as a national nutrition expert, speaker, recipe developer, and wellness content creator, helping busy moms simplify healthy eating in a realistic, relatable and fun way without diets, extremes, or overwhelm. Through relatable content, humor, coaching, and speaking, she pokes fun at the chaos of wellness culture while making healthy eating feel simple and actually doable in real life.
Why I Do This Work
I’ve been a dietitian for over 23 years, since the Ice Age, or as I like to say, “BSM” (before social media). My background spans clinical settings, private practice, academia, media, and digital education.
My love of food, cooking, fitness and science began when I started reading health magazines at a young age so I knew as early as middle school that I wanted to help people improve their lives through health education. I sought out the few nutrition programs in the country at the time and attended Penn State University. Happy Valley was certainly a very happy time for me although while I was studying nutrition, I was ironically struggling with the typical unhealthy habits that come along with college life. I managed to get through all the chemistry and biology classes and participate in several national nutrition research studies, while also having the time of my life with my sorority sisters who are still my closest friends. I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in nutrition and a minor in Spanish. Hola amigos!
After graduation, I moved to New York City to complete New York University’s Dietetic Internship and Master’s Degree Program in Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health. I began my career as a Clinical Dietitian at Beth Israel Medical Center, where I worked across nearly every department, including the ICUs. While working full-time, I also expanded my experience through private practice with Joy Bauer’s nutrition team, teaching as an adjunct professor back at New York University, freelance food writing for the James Beard Foundation, and editorial work for Topics in Clinical Nutrition, a peer-reviewed journal. I’ve remained in the New York area ever since and now live on Long Island with my husband and two teenagers.
A few fun facts about me:
I went into this field because I am a foodie first. You can love food AND still be healthy (aka balance/my whole philosophy).
I have 2 Goldendoodle dogs that are both named after Grateful Dead songs.
Baked goods, especially warm choc chip cookies, are my love language. But so are avocados and peanut butter. See.. balance!
I published a smoothie book and named all 100 recipes after people, places and things in my life at the time. It was released during covid so we naturally made a lot of smoothies at home.
During the covid years, I was forced to close my physical office and have been running a virtual practice ever since. I can see anyone from anywhere and it’s great for client success.
I believe the best nutrition coaching is built on a true partnership, which is why I’m highly accessible and deeply invested in my clients’ day-to-day lives. Food, health, and habits show up every single day, so real support should too, not just during scheduled appointments. That hands-on, real-life approach is one of the biggest things that sets my work apart.
I always promise to keep nutrition real, relatable, and judgment-free.