Dr. Peter Attia

Peter Attia is a co-founder along with Gary Taubes of the Nutritional Science Initiative (NuSI) that seeks to improve the quality of science in nutritional and obesity research. He was previously with McKinsey & Company where he worked on corporate risk and healthcare issues. Prior to that he was a general surgery resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital and a surgical oncology fellow at the National Cancer Institute of National Institutes of Health.  He attained his medical degree from Stanford University after having earlier graduated from Queens University with a degree in mechanical engineering and applied mathematics.  

Attia's shift to medical research from medical surgery is a result of  growing disenchantment with what he saw as the poor state of preventative medicine and the observation that doctors seemed mainly effective as a last line of defense against death.  As an avid swimming enthusiast who has crossed the San Pedro Channel off Santa Catalina Island,  Peter Attia was also dissatisfied with his weight gain despite following all the standard medical advice related to diet and exercise.  Through self-experimentation he found he was able to lose weight by dramatically lowering carbohydrate intake while increasing fat intake despite an overall increase in calories which goes against the standard medical advice.

More Information

• Peter Attia: Is the obesity crisis hiding a bigger problem? (2013). TED.
• Rainey, James. (October 18 2005). 30,000 strokes to go. Los Angeles Times.
• Speakers – Peter Attia: Surgeon. (2013). TED.

Links

• The Eating Academy
• Nutrition Science Initiative (NuSI) website