George A. Bray
I am the Principal Investigator for 3 NIH-funded clinical trials (Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study; Look AHEAD; Vitamin D and Type 2 Diabetes). Central to my work is why do we get fat? Is it nature, nurture or both? This questions has been addressed in studies of human beings and in animals that eat high fat diets or are born to be fat.
Subjects: Medicine
Biography
After graduating from Brown University summa cum laude in 1953, Bray entered Harvard Medical School graduating magna cum laude in 1957. His post-doctoral training included an internship at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD fellowship at the NIH, the University of Rochester, the National Institute for Medical Research in London and at the Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston.In 1970, he became Director of the Clinical Research Center at the Harbor UCLA Medical Center, and the organizer of the First Fogarty International Center Conference on Obesity in 1972. Dr. Bray also Chaired the Second International Congress on Obesity held in Washington DC in 1977.
In 1989 he became the first Executive Director of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he is now a Boyd (University) Professor and Professor of Medicine at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge His principal research grants have included several NIH-funded trials: The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension which showed that a diet with high fruits and vegetable and low fat dairy products (the DASH Diet) lowered blood pressure; The Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study which showed that weight loss and metformin will reduce the risk of developing diabetes; the Look AHEAD study which showed many benefits of weight loss in diabetics; The POUNDS Lost study which found no difference in weight loss over 2 years with 4 different macronutrient diets; and the Vitamin D and Prevention of Diabetes Study which is still on-going.
He is a member of numerous professional societies. In 1982 he founded the North American Association for the Study of Obesity (NAASO now The Obesity Society), and was the founding editor of Obesity Research, as well as co-founder of the International Journal of Obesity and the founding editor of Endocrine Practice.
His awards have included the Goldberger award from the AMA, The Willendorf Award from the IASO and the Osborne-Mendel Award from the American Society of Nutrition and the Johns Hopkins University Society of Scholars.
Areas of Research / Professional Expertise
-
Obesity and diabetes are the center of my academic research interests.
Books
Articles
Obesity Myths
Published: Jun 18, 2014 by The Epidemic of Obesity Myths
Authors: George Bray
Subjects:
Medicine
George Bray is a leading obesity researcher and is the former director of a CORE facility. He is also Director Emeritus of AOA. Bray has been described by author Ellen Ruppel Shell as a "tireless proselytizer for obesity drugs."
Calories count, but not where they come from: study
Published: Jan 31, 2012 by The Raw Story
Authors: Reuters
Subjects:
Medicine
Dr. George Bray, who worked on the new study, said earlier research had found certain diets — in particular, those with very little carbohydrate — work better than others. Diet books also often guide consumers to adopt a particular type of meal plan, such as low-fat or low-carb-high-protein diets.
The Epidemic of Obesity
Published: Feb 01, 2000 by PMC: US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health
Authors: George A. Bray and Jennie Macdiarmid
Subjects:
Medicine
A chronic disease that governments worldwide must take seriously. The worldwide epidemic of obesity is reaching critical proportions.1,2,3 An estimated 250 million people in the world are obese, and this number is predicted to reach 300 million by 2025.
Videos
Published: Apr 11, 2014
Dr. George Bray discusses the global obesity epidemic.
Published: Oct 31, 2012
Conference on Hyperphagia (2012) "Etiology and Pathophysiology of Obesity" George A. Bray, M.D., MACP Pennington Biomedical Research Center Baton Rouge, Louisiana © Copyright 2012 Pennington Biomedical Research Center