George A. Bray

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George A. Bray
Born (1931-07-25) July 25, 1931 (age 92)
Education Brown University, Harvard Medical School
Known for Obesity research
SpouseYes
Children4
Awards1988 Osborne and Mendel Award from the American Institute of Nutrition, 1994 Joseph Goldberger Award from the American Medical Association
Scientific career
Fields Endocrinology

George A. Bray (born July 25, 1931) is an American obesity researcher. As of 2016, he is a University Professor emeritus and formerly the chief of the division of clinical obesity and metabolism at Louisiana State University's Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge. [1] He is also a Boyd Professor emeritus at the Pennington Center, and a professor of medicine emeritus at the Louisiana State University Medical Center. [2]

Contents

Early life and education

Bray was born on July 25, 1931, in Evanston, Illinois. [3] He received his A.B. from Brown University in 1953 (Summa cum Laude and valedictorian), and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1957 (Magna cum laude). [3] He subsequently interned on the Osler Service of the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD, served as a research associate at the National Institutes of Health where his mentor was Robert W. Berliner, M.D., a fellow at the National Institute for Medical Research under mentor Rosalind Pitt-Rivers, Ph.D., and a fellow at New England Medical Center, in Boston, under mentor Edwin (Ted) Astwood, M.D., Ph.D. [3]

Academic career

Bray began his academic career at the Tufts-New England Medical Center, in Boston in 1964. In 1970, Bray became the director of the Clinical Research Center at the Harbor–UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, CA. [3] In between his time at UCLA and his move to the University of Southern California in 1982 as Chief of Diabetes, Bray served as the first nutrition coordinator in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health in the US Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C. In 1989, he became the first executive director of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, a position he continued to hold until 1999 when he returned to his research career. [3] In 1976, he founded the International Journal of Obesity with Alan Howard, and in 1982, he founded the North American Association for the Study of Obesity (since renamed The Obesity Society). [3] In 1993, he established the journal Obesity Research (now known as Obesity ), and served as its editor-in-chief from then until 1997. [3] He was also the founder of the journal Endocrine Practice , serving as its editor-in-chief from 1995 to 1996. [3]

Research work

Since he received his M.D., Bray has spent nearly all his time researching obesity. [4] One of his most cited papers published while at the National Institutes of Health was for a method of measuring radioactivity in aqueous solutions called "Bray's Solution". This work was conducted while in Boston and Los Angeles and focused on clinical and basic scientific studies relating to mechanisms for development of obesity. After moving to the Pennington Center in 1989 he began research focused on clinical studies. He proposed an endocrine and metabolic hypothesis for obesity. He also explored obesity in patients with hypothalamic injury and in patients with the Prader-Willi Syndrome. After moving to the Pennington Center in 1989 Bray began research which focused mainly on clinical studies. He has proposed that increasing fructose consumption may be a major contributor to rising rates of obesity. [5] [6] (F). He was co-investigator a clinical study which found that strict adherence to reduced consumption of all calories is more effective for weight loss than strict adherence to a reduced proportion of carbohydrates, fat, or protein. [7] [8] This study also showed a way to use genetic information to develop personalized dietary advice. Bray was one of the investigators who developed the DASH Diet which is now recommended by the Dietary Guidelines and U.S. News & World Report. He was actively involved in the Diabetes Prevention Program and the Look AHEAD clinical trial. Most recently he has explored the consequences of different levels of dietary protein during periods with excess calorie intake.

Memberships

Bray is a member of numerous professional organizations including The Obesity Society, The Endocrine Society, the American Diabetes Association, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, and the American Physiological Society. [2] He received the Goldberger Award from the American Medical Association, was elected to the Society of Scholars at Johns Hopkins University, received the Osborne and Mendel Award from the American Society for Nutrition, the McCollum Award from the American Society of Clinical Nutrition, the Mead-Johnson Award and the Tops Award, Friends of Mickey Stunkard Award and Presidential Medal from the Obesity Society as well as the Wilbur O. Atwater Award from the Agricultural Research Service of the USDA in 2019.

Selected publications

References to original Articles are cited with alphabetical listings.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carbohydrate</span> Organic compound that consists only of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen

A carbohydrate is a biomolecule consisting of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms, usually with a hydrogen–oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 and thus with the empirical formula Cm(H2O)n, which does not mean the H has covalent bonds with O. However, not all carbohydrates conform to this precise stoichiometric definition, nor are all chemicals that do conform to this definition automatically classified as carbohydrates.

Dieting is the practice of eating food in a regulated way to decrease, maintain, or increase body weight, or to prevent and treat diseases such as diabetes and obesity. As weight loss depends on calorie intake, different kinds of calorie-reduced diets, such as those emphasising particular macronutrients, have been shown to be no more effective than one another. As weight regain is common, diet success is best predicted by long-term adherence. Regardless, the outcome of a diet can vary widely depending on the individual.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Obesity</span> Medical condition in which excess body fat harms health

Obesity is a medical condition, sometimes considered a disease, in which excess body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it negatively affects health. People are classified as obese when their body mass index (BMI)—a person's weight divided by the square of the person's height—is over 30 kg/m2; the range 25–30 kg/m2 is defined as overweight. Some East Asian countries use lower values to calculate obesity. Obesity is a major cause of disability and is correlated with various diseases and conditions, particularly cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, obstructive sleep apnea, certain types of cancer, and osteoarthritis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atkins diet</span> Low-carbohydrate fad diet devised by Robert Atkins

The Atkins diet is a low-carbohydrate fad diet devised by Robert Atkins in the 1970s, marketed with claims that carbohydrate restriction is crucial to weight loss and that the diet offered "a high calorie way to stay thin forever".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Low-carbohydrate diet</span> Diets restricting carbohydrate consumption

Low-carbohydrate diets restrict carbohydrate consumption relative to the average diet. Foods high in carbohydrates are limited, and replaced with foods containing a higher percentage of fat and protein, as well as low carbohydrate foods.

Calorie restriction is a dietary regimen that reduces the energy intake from foods and beverages without incurring malnutrition. The possible effect of calorie restriction on body weight management, longevity, and aging-associated diseases has been an active area of research.

Specific dynamic action (SDA), also known as thermic effect of food (TEF) or dietary induced thermogenesis (DIT), is the amount of energy expenditure above the basal metabolic rate due to the cost of processing food for use and storage. Heat production by brown adipose tissue which is activated after consumption of a meal is an additional component of dietary induced thermogenesis. The thermic effect of food is one of the components of metabolism along with resting metabolic rate and the exercise component. A commonly used estimate of the thermic effect of food is about 10% of one's caloric intake, though the effect varies substantially for different food components. For example, dietary fat is very easy to process and has very little thermic effect, while protein is hard to process and has a much larger thermic effect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Very-low-calorie diet</span> Diet with very or extremely low daily food energy consumption

A very-low-calorie diet (VLCD), also known as semistarvation diet and crash diet, is a type of diet with very or extremely low daily food energy consumption. VLCDs are defined as a diet of 800 kilocalories (3,300 kJ) per day or less. Modern medically supervised VLCDs use total meal replacements, with regulated formulations in Europe and Canada which contain the recommended daily requirements for vitamins, minerals, trace elements, fatty acids, protein and electrolyte balance. Carbohydrates may be entirely absent, or substituted for a portion of the protein; this choice has important metabolic effects. Medically supervised VLCDs have specific therapeutic applications for rapid weight loss, such as in morbid obesity or before a bariatric surgery, using formulated, nutritionally complete liquid meals containing 800 kilocalories or less per day for a maximum of 12 weeks.

A diabetic diet is a diet that is used by people with diabetes mellitus or high blood sugar to minimize symptoms and dangerous complications of long-term elevations in blood sugar.

The DASH diet is a dietary pattern promoted by the U.S.-based National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to prevent and control hypertension. The DASH diet is rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy foods. It includes meat, fish, poultry, nuts, and beans, and is limited in sugar-sweetened foods and beverages, red meat, and added fats. In addition to its effect on blood pressure, it is designed to be a well-balanced approach to eating for the general public. DASH is recommended by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as a healthy eating plan. The DASH diet is one of three healthy diets recommended in the 2015–2020 US Dietary Guidelines, which also include the Mediterranean diet and a vegetarian diet. The American Heart Association (AHA) considers the DASH diet "specific and well-documented across age, sex and ethnically diverse groups."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Low-fat diet</span> Diet that contains limited amounts of fat

A low-fat diet is one that restricts fat, and often saturated fat and cholesterol as well. Low-fat diets are intended to reduce the occurrence of conditions such as heart disease and obesity. For weight loss, they perform similarly to a low-carbohydrate diet, since macronutrient composition does not determine weight loss success. Fat provides nine calories per gram while carbohydrates and protein each provide four calories per gram. The Institute of Medicine recommends limiting fat intake to 35% of total calories to control saturated fat intake.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western pattern diet</span> Modern dietary pattern

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References

  1. Consumer Reports (January 20, 2014). "Tapping the power of protein". Washington Post. Retrieved July 13, 2015.
  2. 1 2 "Dr. George Bray". American Board of Obesity Medicine. Retrieved July 13, 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "George A. Bray CV" (PDF). Retrieved July 13, 2015.
  4. "What Makes Us Fat?: Calories In vs. Calories Out". Men's Journal. Retrieved July 13, 2015.
  5. Schuster, Larry (August 29, 2002). "Obesity expert cites fructose, soft drinks". UPI. Retrieved July 13, 2015.
  6. Warner, Melanie (July 2, 2006). "A Sweetener With a Bad Rap". New York Times. Retrieved July 13, 2015.
  7. de Souza, RJ; Bray, GA; Carey, VJ; Hall, KD; LeBoff, MS; Loria, CM; Laranjo, NM; Sacks, FM; Smith, SR (March 2012). "Effects of 4 weight-loss diets differing in fat, protein, and carbohydrate on fat mass, lean mass, visceral adipose tissue, and hepatic fat: results from the POUNDS LOST trial". The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 95 (3): 614–25. doi:10.3945/ajcn.111.026328. PMC   3278241 . PMID   22258266.
  8. Fontenot, Beth (February 17, 2012). "A Calorie Is a Calorie Is a Calorie: All Diets Work if You Stick to Them". The Atlantic. Retrieved July 13, 2015.