John Yudkin

For the American session musician, see Jonathan Yudkin.

John Yudkin
Born(1910-08-08)8 August 1910
London, England
Died12 July 1995(1995-07-12) (aged 84)
London, England
EducationBSc (London) 1929[citation needed]
BA (Cambridge) 1931
PhD (Cambridge) 1935
MB, BChir (Cambridge) 1938[citation needed]
MD (Cambridge) 1943[citation needed]
Alma materChrist's College, Cambridge
Occupation(s)Professor of Physiology, Queen Elizabeth College, London, 1945–1954.
Professor of Nutrition, Queen Elizabeth College, 1954–1971.[1]
Notable workPure, White and Deadly

John Yudkin FRSC (8 August 1910 – 12 July 1995) was a British physiologist and nutritionist, and the founding Professor of the Department of Nutrition at Queen Elizabeth College, London.

Yudkin wrote several books recommending low-carbohydrate diets for weight loss, including This Slimming Business (1958). He gained an international reputation for his book Pure, White and Deadly (1972), which warned that the consumption of sugar (sucrose, which consists of fructose and glucose) is dangerous to health, an argument he had made since at least 1957.[2][3] Specifically, he wrote that sugar consumption was a factor in the development of conditions such as dental caries, obesity, diabetes, and heart attack.[4]

Yudkin's failure to incorporate possible confounding factors in his case-control designs was an area of heavy criticism at the time; apart from other unmeasured known risk factors that might affect cardiovascular disease (CVD), data had emerged soon after, suggesting that sugar intake was associated with smoking, a big risk factor for CVD.[5] Yudkin's failure to account for confounding factors led to harsh words from Ancel Keys at the time.[6]

From the late 2000s, there was a resurgence of interest in his work, following a 2009 YouTube video[7] about sugar and high-fructose corn syrup by the pediatric endocrinologist Robert Lustig, and because of increasing concern about an obesity epidemic and metabolic syndrome.[8][9][10] Pure, White and Deadly was republished in 2012, with a foreword by Lustig.[11]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Davies24July1995 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Yudkin1957 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ For sucrose, "Sucrose", PubChem, National Center for Biotechnology Information.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Patterns was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ [1] "sugar consumption and cigarette smoking"
  6. ^ Keys, A. (1971). "Sucrose in the diet and coronary heart disease". Atherosclerosis. 14 (2): 193–202. doi:10.1016/0021-9150(71)90049-9. PMID 4940760.
  7. ^ Sugar: The Bitter Truth on YouTube
  8. ^ Lustig, Robert H. (July 2009). Sugar: The Bitter Truth on YouTube. University of California Television.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Taubes13April2011 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Watts15Jan2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Leslie, Ian (7 April 2016). "The sugar conspiracy". The Guardian.