YUDKIN, JOHN

YUDKIN, JOHN (1910–1995), British physician and nutritionist. The son of Russian Jewish parents who fled from pogroms to London, Yudkin was born in London and educated   at Cambridge University. He was professor of physiology at Queen Elizabeth College, London, from 1945 to 1954 and then professor of nutrition – the first such appointment in Britain – at the same institution from 1954 to 1971. Yudkin became internationally known for his attacks on sugar as a leading cause of obesity and disease and for his pioneering emphasis on a proper diet and lifestyle as an antidote to disease. He is the author of such well-known works as Pure, White and Deadly: The Problem of Sugar (1972) and This Nutrition Business (1977). His works drew concerted attacks from the sugar lobby but were significant in the contemporary emphasis on a healthy lifestyle. Yudkin was a member of the board of governors of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. (William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)