Dr. David Ludwig - 'The Carbohydrate Insulin Model of Obesity'

David S. Ludwig, MD, PhD, is a practicing endocrinologist, researcher, and professor at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health. He received a PhD and an MD from Stanford University School of Medicine and completed an internship and residency in pediatrics and a fellowship in pediatric endocrinology at Boston Children's Hospital.

Dr. Ludwig also directs the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children’s Hospital. His research focuses on the effects of diet on hormones, metabolism and body weight. He developed a novel “low glycemic load” diet (i.e., one that decreases the surge in blood sugar after meals) for the treatment of obesity-related diseases. In addition, his group has done some of the original studies linking sugar-sweetened beverages and fast food to excessive weight gain, heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Described as an “obesity warrior” by Time magazine, Dr. Ludwig has fought for fundamental policy changes to restrict junk food advertising directed at young children, improve the quality of national nutrition programs, and increase insurance reimbursement for obesity prevention and treatment.

Dr. Ludwig is Principal Investigator on numerous grants from the National Institutes of Health, has published over 150 scientific articles, and served for 10 years as Contributing Writer for JAMA. He has also written several books for the public, including 'Ending The Food Fight' (2007), 'Always Hungry?' (2016) and the cookbook 'Always Delicious' (2018).

[MrLeebooher]

Excellent way to get the message across! 👍 Tired of people looking at me like I'm an idiot when I try to explain why I lost 50 lbs and feel like a teenager of the 1970's and I'm in my 50's ! Wake up America !

[elisafrye]

Every word of this is a perfect outline of my life story. Age 29, hiker, back-packer, weight 129 at 5’6” perfect blood work, ”perfect health” I became a research subject for a family friend, INSULIN PIONEER Researcher University of Michigan Endocrinology Prof Stefan Fajans. Steve told me after our first session that the results of my 5 hr GTT GUARANTEED THAT I WOULD BECOME DIABETIC SOONER OR LATER. 6 months later, and pregnant, , I had Gestational Diabetes. Several years later, I went on the Atkins diet for weight control...I’m sure that my ignorant choice of a low carb diet saved my life. I’m almost 88, healthy and controlling my T2D with diet. ( Keto.). 🥇Dr Ludwig IS BRILLIANT—AND HE IS RIGHT! 🥇. ( It was my insulin all along!)

[RealMonoid]

I am a Type 1 Diabetic and i was becomming fatter and sicker over the years, and my endo never said a word about restricting carbs. These videos helped my immensly not only with loosing weight, but also with bringing my blood sugar in a normal range (last Hba1c 5, 2%).

Whats wrong with these doctors who just watch their patients health detoriate, and never even try to intervene? This destroys a lot of trust, if youtube and google are more helpful than these 'health professionals'.

[hackman]

Someday this research will be considered a landmark in changing the understanding of obesity. Thank you Dr. Ludwig!

[mpoharper]

As someone who has been very low carb since July 2019, I can attest that it is a sustainable lifestyle and if anything I had to focus on not losing too much weight. My fasting insulin and glucose are nice and low and I feel quite well.

[MrDavidknigge]

No wonder there was a lot of criticism, although undeserved. You really rocked the boat with this study.

[bgregg]

The food manufacturers discovered a long time ago that sugars & refined starches are physically addictive. They are no different than the cigarette manufacturers that spent incredible sums of money to make cigarettes as addictive as possible.

[skeptigal]

The fact that medical authorities have perpetuated these myths for so long now makes me question everything else I hear on other subjects.

[Jefferdaughter]

23:23 - What happens when we shut off the supply of glucose from the diet (via sugars and starches) and switch to a LCHF diet, how dies the brain get fed while ketone levels are still low? Dr. Ludwig says that one can expect to lose about a pound of 'lean mass'. Yet muscle is not the only lean mass in the body. Dr. Jason Fung's presentations on YouTube, and those by his partner in Intensive Dietary Interventions, Megan Ramos, both cover this in more detail.

[akanecortich]

Eating something quite sweet, like chocolate, I notice for me creates an Immediate strong hunger for more, so much so I can eat the whole block of chocolate immediately. That first bite seems to create a ravenous hunger for more of it. The beauty of the Keto diet is that there is no volume of food restriction, but eventually you lose your appetite and end up eating quite a lot less calories in the day. I planned to lose 9kg and ended up losing 18kg and had to find a way to put weight back on.

[KJC]

Dr. David Ludwig needs to do a presentation at USDA before they release their next "food pyramid"

[akanecortich]

I noted the previous lectures information that Gluten vastly increased the creation of fat as opposed to no gluten, or insulin alone. Likewise the recent idea that ketosis caused coupling in muscle cells, and uncoupling in fat cells and thus fat cells burned more energy,

[shelly]

That last slide was awesome. They’ve always known. Great stuff, Dr !

[adrianlaussermayer]

Why would you choose to add fructose to the medium GI meal, yet dextrose (=glucose) to the high GI meal? Should this not be a confounder as to the role of instant oats vs. steel cut oats ?? (table of various GI-meals at time 10.30)

[timskold]

The processed food company grows a lot of extra wheat and corn and potatoes. The junk food is getting sweeter and softer. Even if you don't have good teeth, you can eat it. The processed food in the supermarket is much more than meat and vegetables because it is easy to store.

[adorinadorin]

That was great. It means I can effectively lower my energy intake by 3xx kcal only changing macro proportion from carbs most to fat most!

[loganwolv]

I knew this model was actually correct! Not many low carb/keto people talk about this model for some reason.

[EmilEngholmSrensen]

Potatos has the highest satiety index, and very high GI as well. Can you link to these studys?

[banparlous]

Some laws of thermodynamics aren’t possible when applied in outer space. Gravity is a law as well. The environment of such laws count a great deal. The human body doesn’t actually “burn” energy like a calorimeter in a lab does. A calorimeter doesn’t have hormones either.

[espacetime]

the only criticism of Dr. Ludwig's study he covers at the end of this talk is we need to know the estimated body fatness of his participants before he has them eating the measured foods he provided & the "heavy water" he gave them. Clearly they could have drank water from the tap & diluted their consumption of heavy water. There is no perfect research study. I wanted to know the estimated "body fatness" of the participants due to old information I acquired that lean people burn more calories at rest than heavier people because reportedly muscle tissue has a higher metabolic rate than fat tissue. I think the work of Dr. Herman Pontzer with the Hadza shows some interesting results with folks that are very thin & very physically active.