Walter Willett
Walter Willett | |
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Born | [1] | June 20, 1945
Nationality | American |
Citizenship | USA |
Education |
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Spouse(s) | Gail Pettiford Willett[2] |
Children | 2[3] |
Scientific career | |
Fields | nutrition, epidemiology, medicine, public health research |
Institutions |
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Walter C. Willett (born June 20, 1945,[1] in Hart, Michigan[4]), is an American physician and nutrition researcher. Currently, Willett is the Fredrick John Stare Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health and was the chair of its department of nutrition from 1991 to 2017.[5][6][7] He is also a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.[8]
Willett is the principal investigator of the second Nurses' Health Study (NHS2 or NHS II), a compilation of studies regarding the health of older women and their risk factors for major chronic diseases.[9] He has published more than 1,500 scientific articles regarding various aspects of diet and disease[10] and is the second most cited author in clinical medicine.[11]
Willett is perhaps best known for his 2001 book Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy, which presents nutritional information and recommendations based on what was then the consensus of nutrition scientists. His book is critical of many popular misconceptions about diet and nutrition, including ideas presented by guidelines from American organizations such as the USDA.[12] Willett is frequently quoted by the media in articles regarding nutrition.[13][14][15][16]
In 2016, Semantic Scholar AI program included Willett on its list of top ten most influential biomedical researchers.[17]
Education[]
![]() | This section is in list format but may read better as prose. (December 2017) |
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![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/72/7-person_nutrition_panel_a_6th_Annual_Ivy_League_Vegan_Conference_at_Harvard-03-26-2017_a_01.jpg/350px-7-person_nutrition_panel_a_6th_Annual_Ivy_League_Vegan_Conference_at_Harvard-03-26-2017_a_01.jpg)
- Diploma 1963, Okemos High School
- B.S. 1966, Michigan State University
- M.D. 1970, University of Michigan Medical School
- M.P.H. 1973, Harvard School of Public Health
- Dr.P.H. 1980, Harvard School of Public Health, Epidemiology
- Chair, 1991, Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health[8]
Influence on Harvard meal plans and cafeterias[]
Willett has been actively involved in helping Harvard University food services to update their offerings along current nutritional guidelines. While his work has influenced the menu choices, students and Willett have noted that the menus still have a long way to go to reflect the currently available nutrition science.[6][18]
Criticism[]
Willett's epidemiological research has been criticized by nutritionists and other researchers promoting an "obesity paradox" (Hughes, 2013). They believe he lacks a rigorous scientific base and often has contradictory findings.[19]
Willett has been a high-profile critic of research into the health risks of obesity by American epidemiologist Katherine Flegal and her colleagues at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics, going so far as to call it a "pile of rubbish ... No one should waste their time reading it."[19] In 2013, the journal Nature ran an editorial rebuking Willett for the style and manner of his criticism, saying it misrepresented the complexity of the science involved and used inappropriate language in doing so.[20]
In 2021, Flegal published an article in the journal Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases accusing Willett and some of his Harvard School of Public Health colleagues of being part of "an aggressive campaign that included insults, errors, misinformation, social media posts, behind-the-scenes gossip and maneuvers, and complaints to her employer."[21] Flegal wrote that the goal Willett and his allies "appeared to be to undermine and discredit her work," and that, "The controversy was something deliberately manufactured, and the attacks primarily consisted of repeated assertions of preconceived opinions." Flegal also questioned Willett's competence to criticize her team's statistical research, as he "was not a statistician and had no expertise in estimating the number of deaths associated with obesity."[21]
Published works[]
- Nutritional Epidemiology 1998 ISBN 0-19-512297-6
- Eat, Drink, and be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide To Healthy Eating 2005 ISBN 0-684-86337-5
- Eat, Drink, and Weigh Less 2007 ISBN 1-4013-0892-9
- The Fertility Diet 2008 ISBN 0-07-149479-0
- More than 1,000 scientific articles[10]
References[]
- ^ a b "LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies (Library of Congress)".
- ^ Boston.com Staff. Gail Willett’s recipe for lentil nut laof with red pepper sauce. July 29, 2013
- ^ Pioneering bookstore in Harvard Sq. to close. The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)January 21, 1996.
- ^ "Honda Worldwide | September 29, 2004 "Honda Prize Awarded to Dr. Walter C. Willet"". World.honda.com. Retrieved 2011-06-08.
- ^ Harvard School of Public Health, "Prof. Frank Hu assumes Chair of Department of Nutrition". Retrieved 14th April 2017.
- ^ a b Burros, Marian (2003-11-19). "EATING WELL; At a Harvard Cafe, Health for Lunch". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 February 2016.
- ^ "Walter Willett". Harvard University. Harvard University. Retrieved 27 February 2016.
- ^ a b "Walter C. Willett, MD, Dr.PH". BCRF: Breast Cancer Research Foundation. 2014-06-23. Retrieved 27 February 2016.
- ^ "The Nurses' Health Study". Harvard University. Harvard University. Retrieved 27 February 2016.
- ^ a b "NCBI search". Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. 2017-04-14. Retrieved 2017-04-14.
- ^ "First Bimonthly Period of 2007 - Top 10 Researchers In Clinical Medicine". in-cites. Retrieved 2011-06-08.
- ^ HPH NOW, August 24, 2001, Nutrition Book Author Willett Rebuilds USDA Food Pyramid Archived September 3, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ A reversal on carbs, Marni Jameson, Los Angeles Times, December 20, 2010.
- ^ Taking Diet Soda Study with a Grain of Salt, ABC News, February 8, 2011.
- ^ Interview: Walter Willett, M.D., PBS Frontline, April 8, 2004.
- ^ The truth on foods and fats, Amanda Spake, U.S. News & World Report, July 4, 2004.
- ^ ChawlaOct. 17, Dalmeet Singh; 2017; Pm, 4:20 (2017-10-17). "Who's the most influential biomedical scientist? Computer program guided by artificial intelligence says it knows". Science | AAAS. Retrieved 2020-09-22.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
- ^ At Harvard, Whole-Grain Concerns, Candy Sagon, Washington Post, March 8, 2006.
- ^ a b Hughes, Virginia (May 22, 2013). "The big fat truth". Nature. Macmillan. 497 (7450): 428–430. Bibcode:2013Natur.497..428H. doi:10.1038/497428a. PMID 23698426. S2CID 4407621.
- ^ "Shades of grey". Nature. 497 (7450): 410. 1 May 2013. doi:10.1038/497410a.
- ^ a b Flegal, Katherine M (May 22, 2013). "The obesity wars and the education of a researcher: A personal account". Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases. Elsevier. doi:10.1016/j.pcad.2021.06.009.
Further reading[]
![]() |
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Walter Willett |
![]() |
Scholia has a profile for Walter C. Willett (Q1133904). |
- Transcript - The search for Optimal Diets: A Progress Report presented at the Honda Foundation
- Information on Eat, Drink, and be Healthy
- Hughes, V. (2013). The big fat truth. Nature, 497, 428-430.
- 1945 births
- Living people
- American nutritionists
- American public health doctors
- Diet food advocates
- Michigan State University alumni
- University of Michigan Medical School alumni
- Harvard School of Public Health alumni
- Harvard Medical School faculty
- Highly Cited Researchers
- People from Hart, Michigan
- Harvard School of Public Health faculty
- People from Brookline, Massachusetts