Engy › Who's who in longevity › Frank Hu
At a glance
- Frank Hu is a Chinese-American nutrition and diabetes researcher. He chairs the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and is a professor at Harvard Medical School.
- He uses large, long-running cohorts such as the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study to examine how diet and lifestyle relate to diabetes, cardiovascular disease and mortality.
- A well-known analysis (Circulation, 2018) showed that Americans with five healthy habits — not smoking, healthy weight, enough exercise, moderate alcohol and a healthy diet — had a life expectancy at age 50 more than ten years longer.
- He has published widely on red and processed meat, sugary drinks, whole grains and plant-based eating patterns.
- He served on the advisory committee for the 2015 US Dietary Guidelines and wrote the textbook Obesity Epidemiology.
- For longevity, his work shows how much can be gained from ordinary lifestyle choices that add up.
- Takeaway: don’t chase one superfood; focus on an overall pattern of healthy habits you can keep for years.
Recent
- Study Nutrition transitions, obesity and T2DM in the Middle East and North Africa
- Study Fatty Acids, Their Food Sources, and Cardiovascular Disease: Current Evidence and Controversies Surrounding the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans
- Study Dietary Patterns and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease and All-Cause Mortality in Adults with Untreated or Uncontrolled Hypertension