David S. Ludwig

Biography

David S. Ludwig, MD, PhD is an endocrinologist and researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital. He holds the rank of Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Ludwig is the founder of the Optimal Weight for Life (OWL) program, one of the country’s oldest and largest multidisciplinary clinics for the care of overweight children. He co-directs the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center.

For more than 25 years, Dr. Ludwig has studied the effects of diet on metabolism, body weight, and risk for chronic disease – with a special focus on low-glycemic index, low-carbohydrate, and ketogenic diets. He has made major contributions to the development of the “carbohydrate-insulin model,” an alternative perspective on the pathogenesis of obesity. In addition, he conducted some of the original studies linking sugar-sweetened beverages and fast food to obesity. Described as an “obesity warrior” by Time Magazine, Dr. Ludwig has fought for fundamental policy changes to improve the food environment.

Dr. Ludwig received the E.V. McCollum Award (2008) from the American Society for Nutrition, the Oded Bar-Or Award (2015) from The Obesity Society, and the Samuel J. Fomon Nutrition Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics (2019). He has been Principal Investigator on numerous grants with 20+ years of NIH funding and has raised over $50 million in philanthropic support. He co-authored over 250 scientific articles, many in the world’s leading medical and scientific journals. He was a Contributing Writer for JAMA and presently serves as associate editor at the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. He has written 3 books for the public, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Always Hungry? Conquer Cravings, Retrain Your Fat Cells, and Lose Weight Permanently (Grand Central Publishing, 2016). He appears frequently in national and international print and broadcast media.

Awards and Honors

• Samuel J. Fomon Nutrition Award, 2019
  American Academy of Pediatrics
• Oded Bar-Or Award for Pediatric Obesity Research, 2015
  The Obesity Society
• The E.V. McCollum Award for Clinical Research, 2008
  American Society for Nutrition
• First Incumbent, The John Fielding Crigler, Jr. Chair in Pediatric Endocrinology, 2007
  Children's Hospital Boston

Publications

• Arsenic exposure is associated with elevated sweat chloride concentration and airflow obstruction among adults in Bangladesh: a cross sectional study.

  Lee MS, North CM, Choudhuri I, Biswas SK, Fleisch AF, Farooque A, Bao D, Afroz S, Mow S, Husain N, Islam F, Mostafa MG, Biswas PP, Ludwig DS, Digumarthy SR, Hug C, Quamruzzaman Q, Christiani DC, Mazumdar M. medRxiv 2024 Sep 26

• Safety and tolerability of a low glycemic load dietary intervention in adults with cystic fibrosis: a pilot study.

  Scully KJ, Truex L, Brennan A, Fowler R, Sawicki GS, Uluer A, Ludwig DS, Ebbeling CB, Langlais L, Dziok A, Freedman SD, Putman MS. Front Nutr 2024

• Arsenic exposure and measures of glucose tolerance in Bangladeshi adults: A cross-sectional study.

  Mazumdar M, Wang X, Biswas SK, Biswas PP, Farooque A, Lee MS, North CM, Afroz S, Husain N, Islam F, Mostofa MG, Mow S, Liang L, Hug C, Ludwig DS, Quamruzzaman Q, Fleisch AF, Christiani DC. Environ Epidemiol 2024

• On the pathogenesis of obesity: causal models and missing pieces of the puzzle.

  Magkos F, Sørensen TIA, Raubenheimer D, Dhurandhar NV, Loos RJF, Bosy-Westphal A, Clemmensen C, Hjorth MF, Allison DB, Taubes G, Ravussin E, Friedman MI, Hall KD, Ludwig DS, Speakman JR, Astrup A. Nat Metab 2024

• Trapped fat: Obesity pathogenesis as an intrinsic disorder in metabolic fuel partitioning.

  Friedman MI, Sørensen TIA, Taubes G, Lund J, Ludwig DS. Obes Rev 2024