Instructions: Many doctors in todays medical establishment do their best work in an operating room, with scalpel and scissors in hand. But alternative-medicine pioneer Dr. Andrew Weil does his best knife-wielding in his kitchen, at his ranch home outside Tucson, Ariz.

There, he slices and dices, prepping nutritious dishes that he suggests we can - indeed, should - eat for health. The good news is that while he embraces

"food as medicine," it doesnt have to taste like medicine.

"The knife and fork are powerful tools. We use them at least three times a day. (Food) is something over which you as a patient have total control, and its a major factor in your health," says Weil, a Harvard Medical School graduate and clinical professor of medicine at the University of Arizona, who just might be Americas best-known physician, if not its most controversial.

He brings to the kitchen table the notion of "integrative medicine," which purports to marry the best of conventional medical approaches with nutritional and other lifestyle remedies.

Certainly, traditional methods such as drugs and surgery occupy a crucial place in medicine, Weil wants you to know right away. But to prevent and treat many diseases, he also wants you to eat your fruits and vegetables.

Weils newest nod to nutrition will be "The Better Body Cookbook: Delicious Recipes for Healthy Living" (Knopf, due out in early 2002), co-written with Rosie Daley, Oprah Winfreys former chef.

Earlier came Weils "Eating Well for Optimum Health" (Knopf, 2000), in which he recommends feasting on fresh fruit and vegetables for ills ranging from prostate conditions to heart disease, cancer, cholesterol problems and cataracts.

Weils treatment plans are accompanied by recommendations for dietary supplements, exercise and stress reduction, as well as conventional medical therapies.

Rainbow on the plate

Make your choice of fruits and vegetables a "rainbow mix" for a variety of benefits, Weil says.

For instance, red- or purple-colored berries, cherries, red grapes, plums, pomegranates and red cabbage have pigments that protect the heart, lungs and blood vessels from degenerative changes, he says. Those fruits and vegetables have antioxidant effects, and so does the yellow and orange group, including carrots, pumpkins, squash, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, cantaloupes and peaches.

Also make room for broccoli, which, if you follow "Eight Weeks to Optimum Health" (Fawcett, 1997), youll start eating for its nutrients, protective compounds and fiber.

A taste of the doctors own medicine also includes drinking daily up to four cups of Japanese or Chinese green tea, instead of coffee. Green tea appears to protect against many kinds of cancer, as well as help the heart and arteries, says Weil, who has never eaten a McDonalds hamburger but likes drinking an occasional Coke in front of people just for shock value.

Weil isnt the first to praise "food as medicine" - Hippocrates beat him to the punch in the fifth century B.C. And "You are what you eat" was a mantra of the 60s.

Now this contemporary food guru, bald and bushy-bearded, often can be found in his kitchen, on the job in jeans and a T-shirt printed with a mushroom motif

(organic, of course), plus woolen L.L. Bean clogs by winter and Birkenstocks by summer.

"I feel like a master of my kitchen," Weil says from his ranch at the tranquil foot of the Rincon Mountains. "I really feel competent in there." This is a kitchen that suggests a high level of owner expertise.

You cant miss the cavernous walk-in refrigerator, formerly a cooler. Earlier residents likely "had whole sides of beef hanging in this thing," says Weil, a fish-eating vegetarian.

Weil keeps busy here, perfecting prep skills, going head-on with a pineapple or whole cabbage. "Im good with a knife," he says. "I do like that stuff of slicing and cutting. Rarely do I cut myself. Its advanced knifework."

Particularly after a demanding day, theres something about chopping that Weil finds transcending, as it creates order from chaos.

"Its relaxing, it centers my mind," he says. "Having to cut a lot of vegetables, I get in a particular state of concentration. Its very meditative."

Love him or hate him

Good thing, too. After all, it isnt easy being an American icon. Fans send Weil letters proposing marriage or less lasting intimacies. Others open with,

"You are my last hope." Critics dismiss him; magazines run stories like, "Why so many doctors hate Andrew Weil" (Discover magazine, August 1999).

Still, his last three books have been million-copy sellers.

He also is director of the Arizona universitys Program in Integrative Medicine; founder of the Foundation for Integrative Medicine in Tucson, and editorial director of the "Ask Dr. Weil" Web site (www.drweil.com).

Everyday eating is meant to be enjoyable, he says. "The whole point of my philosophy is that eating in a healthy manner does not mean giving up the pleasure of food.

"Often, people have been served food they have been told is healthy but tastes awful. Ive had things I have called hippie cookies that are leaden - you know what I mean - or whole-wheat pasta so gritty its nothing like the pleasure of eating pasta. Or vegetarian stew that looks gray and unappetizing.

Weve all had bad health food."

So, what do you do with tofu?

"You can crumble and brown it and use it in spaghetti sauce, or make chocolate tofu pie - and people wouldnt even suspect its tofu," he says.

Chocolate? Thats right.

"I like high-quality dark chocolate and encourage people to eat some," Weil says. "It has very strong antioxidant activity. For me, it satisfies all my dessert cravings. I believe in following cravings and not making things forbidden. That only sets you up for bingeing on them."

Heres another surprise: "I think spa cuisine is ultimately boring and leaves a lot of people wanting more fat and more flavor," Weil says.

He encourages people to eat nuts, preferably unsalted, natural, often raw.

You might not expect it, but he also advocates olives and natural cheeses in moderation. "These can all be part of a healthy diet, but are all taboo in spa mentality," he says.

When youre in doubt about what to toss into the shopping cart, "I tell people we are lucky to live in a culture where its all listed on the food label," Weil says.

"Its a shame not to take advantage of it. Try to eat foods in their more natural forms, not with a host of additives and processed ingredients. When you look at a label, think, if you were going to make this food at home, what would go into it? How much is there that you wouldnt put into it?"

Food can convey something besides just calories and nutrition, he says. If you have any doubt, consider the comfort provided, when you were sick, by a bowl of mothers soup, rather than a similar soup straight from a can.

"When it is prepared with care and love, it feeds you on some level other than just the physical."

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