Dr. Michael Dansinger is an internal medicine physician who completed a research fellowship at Tufts University. He serves as the Director of Clinical Studies and Obesity Research for the Atherosclerosis Research Laboratory within the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism at Tufts-New England Medical Center. He also holds positions with the Lipid Metabolism Laboratory at the Jean Mayer US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, and with the Tufts University School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor of Medicine.

Dr. Dansinger is principal investigator of the Tufts Popular Diet Trial, which examined the effects of the Atkins, Zone, Weight Watchers, and Ornish diets for weight loss and heart disease prevention. This study, published in JAMA in January 2005, generated widespread media attention, and Dr. Dansinger has been interviewed by CBS News, CNN, National Public Radio, Time magazine, USA Today, Consumer Reports, and many other media outlets. He lectures about popular diets and weight loss to medical and nonmedical audiences throughout the United States. He also serves as a nutrition and weight loss consultant for the NBC prime-time television show The Biggest Loser. His clinical practice is devoted exclusively to matching patients with personalized eating strategies for obesity-related disease prevention and treatment. His current research projects include developing methods for matching individuals with their best diet options, and testing alternative versions of the USDA food pyramid. He is also the lead author of a congressional report on the cost-effectiveness of weight loss programs.

Dr. Susan E. Carlson is the Midwest Dairy Council Professor of Nutrition at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City. She obtained her doctorate degree from Iowa State University and did postdoctoral work in the Department of Pathology at the University of Wisconsin and in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of South Florida. She has held faculty positions in Pediatrics at the University of South Florida, University of Mississippi and University of Tennessee, and is currently a Professor in the Departments of Dietetics and Nutrition and Pediatrics at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Dr. Carlson proposed that docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) was a conditionally essential nutrient for human infants, and has been actively involved in experimental trials of the effects of postnatal intake of DHA on development of preterm and term infants since 1983. More recently, she has been interested in the effect of intrauterine DHA accumulation on infant development. She and her collaborators study timing of DHA accumulation and behavior in animal models of reduced brain DHA and in infants of women supplemented with DHA during pregnancy.

She is a member of the American Society of Clinical Nutrition, American Society of Nutritional Sciences, American Oil Chemists' Society, American Pediatric Society, and the International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids. She is a currently a consulting editor for the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and a member of the Institute of Medicine/Food and Nutrition Board Committee on Nutrient Relationships in Seafood Selections to Balance Benefits and Risks.

Morgan Downey has been the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the American Obesity Association (AOA) since July 1, 1997. For 25 years he has specialized in the representation of healthcare clients before Congress and federal agencies and in the administration and management of nonprofit organizations. In this capacity, Mr. Downey has represented the AOA before Congress, the US Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, the Health Care Financing Administration, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His accomplishments include Medicare's recognition of obesity as a disease, changing the Internal Revenue Service policy to allow individuals to deduct obesity treatments under the medical deduction, a 4-fold expansion of NIH research funding on obesity, improvement in the standards for determining disability for persons with morbid obesity, and expanding the role of the federal government in obesity education, prevention, and treatment. He also serves as the director of the Washington, DC, office of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery. He has been appointed as a member of the Medicare Coverage Advisory Committee of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Mr. Downey is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center (JD, 1971) and of Fairfield University (BA, 1968).

Dr. Timothy Garvey is Professor of Medicine and Chair of the Department of Nutrition Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and staff physician and GRECC Investigator at the Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He obtained his MD degree from St. Louis University, Internal Medicine residency at Barnes Hospital/Washington University, and Endocrinology and Metabolism fellowship at the University of California, San Diego. He subsequently held faculty posts at Indiana University School of Medicine, and served as the Director of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Garvey has achieved international recognition for his research in the metabolic, molecular, and genetic pathogenesis of insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. His studies have involved the cellular and molecular biology of cell and animal models, metabolic investigations of human subjects on metabolic research wards, and the genetic basis of diseases in Gullah-speaking African Americans, Pima Indians, and national cohorts of diabetes patients. His studies have addressed the pathogenesis and optimal diagnostic criteria for the metabolic syndrome.

He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, the Endocrine Society, the North American Association for the Study of Obesity, and the American Diabetes Association.

Dr. Carol S. Johnston received her doctorate in Biological Sciences from the University of Texas, Austin, and is Professor of Nutrition at Arizona State University. Dr. Johnston teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses and has an active research program. She has published over 60 research articles and book chapters on topics ranging from the effects of vitamin C nutriture on health and disease to the efficacy of high-protein diets for weight loss and the use of vinegar to help manage blood glucose levels in diabetics. She is an expert in vitamin C metabolism and testified before the Panel on Antioxidants and Related Compounds of the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine regarding the safety of high-dose vitamin C. She is an elected member of the 2005-2010 Dietary Supplements: Non-Botanicals Expert Committee of the US Pharmacopoeia, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the American College of Nutrition. She recently received the Grace A. Goldsmith Award from the American College of Nutrition in recognition of her research that has advanced the knowledge and application of nutrition to the prevention and treatment of disease.

Dr. Laura Kettel Khan is the Deputy Chief for Chronic Disease Nutrition for the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She obtained her doctorate degree from the University of Arizona and did postdoctoral work at Cornell University. Originally in the Division of International Nutrition at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health, where she maintains an adjunct appointment, Dr. Kettel Khan joined the Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity at CDC in 1994. The Division is the primary public health agency working to prevent obesity and chronic diseases related to nutrition in the United States. Its programs focus on state health departments, communities, schools, worksites, and medical care systems. Dr. Kettel Khan has received international recognition for her contributions in the area of weight-control practices, obesity treatment, dietary and nutritional assessment, and food-fortification monitoring and surveillance. She represents the CDC on numerous federal advisory boards, such as the US Food and Drug Administration Forum on Childhood Obesity, the Federal Trade Commission Partnership for Healthy Weight Management, the Department of Health and Human Services Committee on Dietary Guidelines as well as the Steering Committee for Dietary Reference Intakes, the US Department of Agriculture Food Guide Program, and the Nutrition Working Group for the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Dr. Kettel Khan currently is the Senior Scientific Advisor for CDC's Overweight and Obesity Management Team.

Dr. Manny Noakes is the senior research dietitian and research scientist at the Commonwealth Industrial and Scientific Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Adelaide, Australia, involved in the management of clinical dietary trials that aim to explore the effects of different foods, diets, supplements, or pharmaceuticals on health.

Dr. Noakes obtained her bachelor of science degree at the University of Adelaide and was one of the first graduates in Dietetics at Flinders University, Adelaide, in 1976. Her initial experience was as a clinical dietitian for a number of years at both the Royal Adelaide Hospital and Flinders Medical Centre. In the late 1980s she was the divisional dietitian for the National Heart Foundation in Adelaide and was actively involved in the Foundation's Tick program. She obtained her doctorate degree from Flinders University on the effect of different fats on cholesterol metabolism, and is particularly interested in the area of diet composition and weight loss and how weight-loss diets may affect cardiovascular risk. She has focused particularly on the role of higher-protein diets on appetite regulation and metabolic outcomes in people with insulin resistance.

Communication of research outcomes is a high priority, and this has been achieved through invited and submitted presentations at national and international conferences as well as the popular media. Dr. Noakes has authored over 80 scientific papers. She is also the current Chair of the National Heart Foundation's Nutrition and Metabolism Advisory Committee and Coordinator of the Substantiation Cluster of the National Centre of Excellence for Functional Foods in Australia.

Dr. Fred Pescatore is a traditionally trained physician who practices nutritional medicine. He's also a best-selling author. His latest New York Times best-seller, The Hamptons Diet, weds the health benefits of a Mediterranean-type diet to a belief in optimized balanced nutrition with an exciting breakthrough -- macadamia nut oil, the most healthful cooking oil.

Dr. Pescatore had been the Associate Medical Director at the Atkins Center for 5 years before starting his own practice in New York City. He is also author of Thin for Good, The Allergy and Asthma Cure, and the #1 best-selling children's health book, Feed Your Kids Well.

He is seen at the forefront of clinical nutrition and is called upon by major television reporters, radio hosts, and print journalists to be the medical expert on the latest nutrition trends. He has been featured on such programs as The View, The Today Show, The O'Reilly Factor, Extra, among others. Recent print interviews include The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Women's Health and Fitness, Let's Live, as well as cover stories in Women's World and First for Women. Dr. Pescatore lectures around the world and is actively involved in clinical research. He is the author of numerous papers and magazine articles and is internationally recognized as a health, nutrition, and weight-loss expert.

He is the President of the AHCC (Active Hexose Correlated Compound) Research Association, President of the International and American Association of Clinical Nutritionists, and a member of the National Association of Physician Broadcasters, as well as other professional organizations.

Dr. Barry Sears is President of the Inflammation Research Foundation, a nonprofit medical research foundation. He obtained his doctorate degree at Indiana University and his postdoctoral training at the University of Virginia Medical School and Boston University Medical School. Dr. Sears is considered a leading authority on the dietary control of hormonal response. He holds 13 US patents in the areas of intravenous drug-delivery systems and dietary hormonal regulation for the treatment of cardiovascular disease.

The impact of Dr. Sears' revolutionary work in the dietary control of hormonal responses in the inflammatory response began with the publication of his landmark book The Zone, which became a #1 best-seller on the New York Times book list. Dr. Sears has written 11 books on his dietary technology that have sold more than 5 million copies in 22 different languages.

In addition to continuing research on the hormonal effects of food on the inflammatory process, and in particular on eicosanoid control, Dr. Sears has expanded his clinical research at the Inflammation Research Institute to investigate the role of diet in affecting inflammation in a wide variety of clinical conditions, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and neurologic disorders.

Dr. Jack A. Yanovski is Head of the Unit on Growth and Obesity in the Developmental Endocrinology Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. He obtained his MD degree in 1986 at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also obtained a PhD in Physiological Psychology. After completing his residency in Pediatrics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and fellowship training in Pediatric Endocrinology at the NIH, Dr. Yanovski became a senior clinical investigator at the NIH in 1992. Dr. Yanovski became Head of the Unit on Growth and Obesity at the NIH in 1997. At the NIH, he has carried out a series of clinical studies related to the evaluation and treatment of obesity in children and adults, as well as laboratory investigations of the molecular etiology of obesity.