Leading
Preventive Cardiologist and Creator and Author of The South Beach
Diet
Dr. Arthur Agatston is a
preventive cardiologist and an associate professor of medicine at the
University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. A pioneer in the field of
noninvasive cardiac imaging, Dr. Agatston’s scientific work with Dr. Warren
Janowitz, first reported in 1991, resulted in the Agatston Score, a method for
screening for coronary calcium that is currently used throughout the world and
considered by many experts to be the best predictor of heart disease.
Dr. Agatston has
had published more than 100 scientific articles and abstracts in medical
journals, including the Journal of the American College of
Cardiology, Circulation, the American Journal
of Cardiology, and the Annals of Internal Medicine.
He is a frequent lecturer on diet, health, and the prevention of heart disease
both nationally and internationally and participates as a speaker, faculty
member, and organizer of numerous academic cardiology meetings and symposia.
Dr. Agatston has also served as an expert consultant to the Clinical Trials
Committee of the National Institutes of Health and has served on committees of
the American Society of Echocardiography, the American College of Cardiology,
and the Society of Atherosclerosis Imaging. He is currently on the board of
directors of the Society for Heart Attack Prevention and Eradication (SHAPE)
and the American Dietetic Association Foundation. Recently, Dr. Agatston
received the prestigious Alpha Omega Award from New York University Medical
Center for outstanding achievement in the medical profession.
Along
with his renown as a researcher, lecturer, and pioneer in clinical and
preventive cardiology, Dr. Agatston is best known publicly as the author of the
best-selling The South Beach Diet.
Where
It All Began
Raised on the
north shore of Long Island, Dr. Agatston's father and grandfather were doctors,
and Arthur Agatston knew from an early age that he also desired a career in
medicine. After graduating from New York University School of Medicine and
completing his cardiology fellowship at NYU, Dr. Agatston elected to combine
academics with clinical practice. He accepted a position at Mt. Sinai Medical
Center in Miami Beach, which was associated with the University of Miami Miller
School of Medicine.
Where
It's Led
In 1995, Dr. Agatston developed a diet
to help his cardiac and diabetes patients improve their blood chemistries and
lose weight. His eating plan worked so well that a Miami TV station asked if it
could offer the diet to its viewers. Hundreds of South Floridians went on the
diet and lost weight three years running, and its popularity eventually led to
the publication of Dr. Agatston’s first book,
The South Beach Diet,
in 2003. Today, the South Beach Diet is a lifestyle approach to healthy
eating for millions of people around the world. There are more than 23 million
copies of
The South Beach Diet and its companion
books currently in print worldwide, including:
The South Beach Diet
Cookbook (2004);
The South Beach Diet Good Fats/Good
Carbs Guide (2004);
The South Beach Diet Quick &
Easy Cookbook (2005);
The South Beach Diet Dining
Guide (2005);
The South Beach Diet Parties &
Holidays Cookbook (2006);
The South Beach Diet Taste
of Summer Cookbook (2007),
The South Beach Heart Health
Revolution (2008),
The South Beach Diet Supercharged
(2008),
The South Beach Diet Super
Quick Cookbook (2010), and his most recent book
The South Beach Wake-Up Call (2011). Today Dr. Agatston can also be found on
the Web at SouthBeachDiet.com and
EverdayHealth.com. He is also an advisor on heart health for
Prevention
magazine.
Where It's Going
In 2004, Dr. Agatston founded the
nonprofit Agatston Research Foundation for the purpose of conducting and
funding original research on diet, cardiac health, and disease prevention. The
Foundation is dedicated to improving the heart health and wellness of the
nation through research, education, and prevention. In the fall of 2004 the
foundation implemented the Healthier Options for Public Schoolchildren (HOPS)
initiative to provide nutrition and healthy lifestyle education programming,
including daily physical activity, to more than 50,000 elementary school
children nationally. Data from the initiative, presented at national
conferences including those of the American College of Cardiology, the American
Heart Association, the American Dietetic Association, and the American Academy
of Pediatrics, and published in 2010 in the Journal of the American
Dietetic Association, show that children in HOPS schools improved
their weight, blood pressures, and academic test scores more so than children
in non-HOPS schools. Today the foundation is also working with the University
of Pennsylvania on the Agatston Urban Nutrition Initiative to further pursue
better nutrition in public schools and with the Mayo Clinic and the University
of Miami on research projects dedicated to developing healthier lifestyles and
to the prevention of cardiovascular disease.
Dr.
Agatston lives in Miami Beach with his wife, Sari. They have two grown sons.