David Ludwig

Who is David Ludwig?

David Ludwig is an American physician in Boston, Massachusetts. He is a Professor of Pediatrics at the Harvard Medical School and a Professor of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Ludwig is also the Director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center Boston Children's Hospital. He has published several widely publicized studies about the causes of obesity in children and adults, and has attracted attention for his recommendation that severely obese children be removed from the custody of their parents as a last resort if all other intervention methods fail.

A summary of his research findings include:

The kind of calories consumed affects how efficiently the body can utilize those calories. A low glycemic and low carbohydrate diet resulted in more calories being burned than a low fat diet. While the low glycemic diet burned fewer calories than the low carbohydrate diet it did not increase the level of disease causing stress markers in the body.

Improvements in dietary quality and body weight in adolescents following a one year intervention to reduce the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages.