Professor Robert Lustig MD

Research Interests:

Professor Lustig has developed a strong international following in the nutrition and health world with his warnings about the dangers of consuming too much sugar.

Over the years, he has developed a unified hypothesis centered on the etiology, prevention and treatment of the obesity epidemic that has plagued the US for many years, and has spread to all countries adopting modern, western-type diets.

Dr Lustig's research and campaigning on sugar first arose from his work in pediatric endocrinology, caring for many children whose hypothalami had been damaged by brain tumors, radiation, chemotherapy and/or surgery. Most patients who survived had very serious obesity problems - and Lustig theorized that the damage to the hypothalamus caused an inability to sense the hormone leptin, leading to a 'starvation response' that prevented normal satiety and appetite control.

Repairing the hypothalamus was not possible, but he noted that patients had excessive vagus nerve activity, which boosted insulin secretion. Lustig found that treatment with octreotide - an insulin suppressive agent - enabled these patients to lose a great deal of weight, and also boosted their ablity to exercise a great deal more.

This work led him to develop his unified theory on obesity - and also to investigate the role of fructose in the development of obesity and related chronic diseases.

Lustig remains a world-leading researcher in this area, and he also leads the public relations fight in the US and elsewhere against the excesssive consumption of sugar - and particularly fructose - that is so prevalent in diets rich in ultra-processed foods.

Background

Dr Lustig is from Brooklyn, NY, graduated from MIT in 1976 and earned his MD in 1980 from Cornell University Medical College. Following a pediatric residency at St. Louis Children’s Hospital in 1983, his clinical fellowship was performed at the University of San Francisco in 1984, where he is still based.

Over the years, Lustig has written hundreds of peer-reviewed articles and reviews. He also has been active in these organizations over his long career:

• Chairman – Ad hoc Obesity Task Force of the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society
• Member – Obesity Task Force of the Endocrine Society
• Member – Pediatric Obesity Devices Committee of the US Food and Drug Administration
• Member – Steering Committee of the International Endocrine Alliance to Combat Obesity

Books

Dr Lustig has written several best-selling books, explaining how to beat disease and obesity by cutting out sugar and processed food from your diet, including: 

Metabolical: The truth about processed food and how it poisons people and the planet

Fat Chance:  The bitter truth about sugar.

Dr Lustig lives in San Francisco with his wife and two daughters. Spare time (what little there is) is spent cooking, theater-going, and traveling.