Biography
David Ludwig, head of the obesity program at Children's Hospital in Boston, complains of an "invasion of our diet by soft drinks, fast foods and high calorie, poor quality snack food." He attended the 2003 conference "intended to encourage and support litigation against the food industry" hosted by the Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI). Ludwig's work supports efforts like those of PHAI, as he has made a science out of releasing banal studies with flashy (and unjustified) calls for extra taxes and restrictions on soda and fast food.
Ludwig's M.O. is simple: publish a study that documents mere common sense, and, in the pages of respected medical journals such as the Journal of the American Medical Association, make wild policy recommendations (unsupported by his own data) that range from nuisance to borderline unconstitutional.
Ludwig first gained notoriety in 2001 when he co-authored an attack on soda with fellow PHAI speaker Steven Gortmaker. In 2004 he headed up research that found overweight kids ate more calories from fast food than did their lean counterparts. Not exactly a Copernican medical moment. But that didn't stop Ludwig from concluding: "Public health measures to limit fast food consumption in children may be warranted," including "legislation to regulate marketing of fast food to children."
Ludwig doesn't stop there. He's also called for an extra "tax on fast food and soft drinks" and he would even "regulate political contributions" from food makers.
Perfecting his Chicken Little impersonation, Ludwig co-authored a 2003 Boston Globe op-ed with "Twinkie tax" creator Kelly Brownell, ominously warning: "The obesity epidemic threatens the foundations of our society as would a massive SARS outbreak."
Associated Organizations and Foundations
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