David Heber

David Heber

​​M.D., Ph.D., FACP, FASN – Chairman, Herbalife Nutrition Institute​

Biography

Dr. David Heber is the chairman of the Herbalife Nutrition Institute (HNI), which promotes excellence in nutrition education for the public and scientific community and sponsors scientific symposia. The HNI editorial board is made up of key scientific opinion leaders from around the world in the fields of nutrition, exercise physiology, behavioral medicine and public health. Editorial board members support the mission of the HNI through the provision of expert articles for the HNI website and participation in national and international scientific symposia.

Dr. Heber is the founding director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA),* where he has been on the faculty of the School of Medicine since 1978. He is currently professor emeritus of Medicine and Public Health and founding chief of the Division of Clinical Nutrition in the Department of Medicine of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.* His main research interests are obesity treatment and nutrition for cancer prevention and treatment.

Additionally, Dr. Heber directed both the National Cancer Institute-funded Clinical Nutrition Research unit and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) nutrition and obesity training grants at UCLA* for over 15 years. For five years, he also directed the NIH-funded UCLA* Center for Dietary Supplement Research in Botanicals. He is the former chair of the Medical Nutrition Council of the American Society for Nutrition, the largest scientific society in nutrition. Dr. Heber is a fellow of the American Society for Nutrition, the highest honor the society confers.

In addition to writing more than 240 peer-reviewed scientific articles and several professional texts, Dr. Heber has written four books for the public, including “Natural Remedies for a Healthy Heart,” “The Resolution Diet,” “What Color Is Your Diet?” and “The L.A. Shape Diet.” He is included in Thomson Reuters’ The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds 2014 list, and from 2002 to 2012, he was part of the top one percent of scientists whose work was cited by other authors of scientific papers in the field of agricultural sciences, as surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

Dr. Heber earned a B.S. degree in chemistry, magna cum laude, from UCLA* in 1969. He also received an M.D. degree from Harvard Medical School in 1973 and a Ph.D. degree in physiology from UCLA* in 1978. He is board-certified in internal medicine, endocrinology and metabolism by the American Board of Internal Medicine and is a certified physician nutrition specialist. In his spare time, Dr. Heber enjoys golfing, reading and painting. His favorite Herbalife products are Formula 1 Healthy Meal Nutritional Shake Mix, Personalized Protein Powder and the Herbalife SKIN® product line.

*The University of California does not endorse specific products or services as a matter of policy.