Ron Weiss, M.D.

Primary Care Doctor for patients in New Jersey, New York, and beyond*

Dual Board-certified in internal medicine and lifestyle medicine, Ron Weiss, MD is a primary care  physician in New Jersey and New York, who serves as Executive Director of Ethos Primary Care and as Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. Dr. Weiss is not only a physician but also a botanist and farmer, and he offers an evidence-based,  food-as-medicine  approach to healing from chronic illness and optimizing wellness. He has been featured in top media, including The New York Times, The New York Post, The Today Show, New Jersey Monthly, and the feature-length documentary, "Eating You Alive."

A vegan-friendly plant-based doctor in New Jersey and New York, Dr. Weiss prescribes the Ethos Diet – an all-organic, ecologically-sustainable, and Whole Food Plant-Based (WFPB)  diet – as the cornerstone of his work with patients.  Not only has a growing body of research indicated that a whole food plant-based diet helps patients dramatically heal from chronic illness, but over the years, Dr. Weiss has found the Ethos Diet to have an exceptional success rate in reversing most chronic diseases. 

Raising the Standard of Care

Passionate about raising the standard of care in medicine, Ron Weiss, M.D. – a primary care physician for patients in New Jersey, New York, and beyond* – is the doctor you always wished you had.  He offers luxurious appointments that can be up to an hour in length, depending on your needs; he asks you thoughtful questions, not only about your medical history, but also about your life history – so as to identify and understand all the moving parts of your health concerns; and he listens deeply and compassionately to your answers, helping you connect the dots and design a customized healing action plan.  During your appointment, you will sense that Dr. Weiss is fully present with you, not only as your doctor, but also as a fellow human being who genuinely cares about your well-being.

As part of caring for the health of his patients, Dr. Weiss cares for the health of the planet.  For this reason, his primary care practice in New Jersey is located on a 342 acre farm.*  Dr. Weiss employs conscientious, chemical-free farming methods to restore the vitality of this historic land, and every week, the farm’s bounty is available to Dr. Weiss’ patients and the local community, through Ethos Farm Project’s Doctor's Farm Market.  This unique doctor’s farm market not only offers the highest quality of fresh produce but also provides education about which fruits and vegetables are most effective at healing which health conditions.  Come to The Doctor's Farm Market,  at the Ethos Farm, to get started on your path to excellent health!

*Providing primary care and lifestyle medicine for patients from all states, and telemedicine care for patients in NJ & NY only.

Practicing What He Preaches

Dr. Weiss’s personal journey from practicing conventional medicine to incorporating lifestyle medicine into his primary care practice in New Jersey began in 1991, when his own father was diagnosed with end-stage metastatic pancreatic cancer and was given between one and three months to live.  At the time, Dr. Weiss had finished all his conventional medical training and had completed his first year as an internal medicine resident. He knew nothing about a Whole Food Plant-Based (WFPB) diet, because it was not taught in medical school. 

Dr. Weiss moved back home to take care of his father, immediately taking his father to the premier medical institute for treating pancreatic cancer.  The doctors there informed Dr. Weiss that there was nothing they could do. Following his hunch that there must be a solution, Dr. Weiss headed to the local library in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, and scoured the shelves.  That’s where he came across information about Macrobiotics, a Whole Food Plant-Based (WFPB) diet. Immediately working with two nutritionists, Dr. Weiss put his father on a very strict version of this diet, and within one week, his father sprung to life – getting out of bed, going off all his pain medications, and even heading back to the gym!

Three months after going on this diet, Dr. Weiss’s father received a CT scan indicating that the tumor had shrunk by 33%.  Nine months later, he received another CT scan, indicating that the tumor had shrunk by 50%.  For end-stage metastatic pancreatic cancer, this kind of change was believed to be impossible.  Dr. Weiss’s father went on to live for another year and a half – working, exercising vigorously, and feeling better than he had for most his adult life.

Today there is ample scientific research explaining why a Whole Food Plant-Based (WFPB) diet is so powerful a tool for healing from chronic illness. In addition, there are an ever-increasing number of case studies of people who were able to reverse chronic illness through such a diet. Armed with this scientific data, Dr. Weiss not only prescribes the Ethos Diet – an evidence-based, organic, (WFPB) diet – to his patients, but he has been eating this way for years, making Dr. Weiss both an experienced guide and an inspirational role model for the Ethos lifestyle.

Passionate about Transformation

For Dr. Weiss' fourth birthday present, Dr. Weiss’ mother gave the young boy a pack of seeds, Four O'clocks, an old-fashioned flower that Victorians planted in their 19th century gardens.  Mrs. Weiss helped her son delicately deposit the seeds – tiny, inert, brown specs – into the top layer of soil.  Over the coming weeks, tiny green sprouts emerged and grew into bushy, green plants, covered with buds that opened into trumpet shaped flowers, each splashed with swirls of bright colors.  Better yet, they opened at 4:00 pm every day! The young Dr. Weiss was mesmerized by the magic of it all.

Decades later, Dr. Weiss remains in awe of the transformational power of nature – in particular, how replacing the standard American diet with the Ethos Diet  and lifestyle, addressing not only nutritional intake but also physical activity and emotional health – transforms someone’s life, ushering them from a state of debilitating chronic illness to one of optimized health. Like a good farmer, Dr. Weiss supports the process through mindful and patient nurturance. He recognizes, and he helps his patients recognize, that “as in the ground so in the body” – namely, that growth and transformation can take time.  A plant may take months or years to blossom, and similarly, depending on the severity of a health condition, optimal health may take months or years to achieve.  No matter how long it takes you, Dr. Weiss will be with you throughout the journey, providing customized guidance and heart-centered care.

Degrees and Additional Experience

Dr. Weiss is a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine and a diplomate of the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine. For two decades prior to founding Ethos Primary Care, Dr. Weiss served as an internist for The World Bank and The Medical Group of Beverly Hills, as an attending emergency room physician at UCLA Olive View Medical Center and The General Hospital Center of Passaic, and recently, as founder of a busy community medical center located in West New York, NJ.

Dr. Weiss received his medical degree from Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at George Washington University Medical Center.  He additionally holds a dual baccalaureate degree in botany and music, from Rutgers University, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa.