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Laura A. Schmidt, PhD, MSW, MPH

Professor

UCSF School of Medicine

Laura A. Schmidt, PhD, MSW, MPH, is a professor in the UCSF School of Medicine. She has dedicated her career to intervening on the social determinants of health and to understanding how lifestyle risk factors, such as alcohol and poor diet, influence chronic disease and health inequality. She holds a joint appointment in the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies and the Department of Anthropology, History and Social Medicine. Dr. Schmidt is also co-director of the Community Engagement and Health Policy Program for UCSF’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute. She received her PhD training in sociology at UC Berkeley and, while there, completed doctoral coursework in public health. She also holds a master's degree in clinical social work.

Publications:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Schmidt

Recent Blogs:

State Preemption: An Emerging Threat to Local Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Taxation

Transnational corporations, obesity and planetary health

Can "Healthy Foods" Make You Sick?

A Critical Step in the Right Direction

The Science on Sports Drinks

Diet Soda and Belly Fat: A Growing Concern

6 Ways To Kick Added Sugar Out

 

Added sugar

Any sugar added in preparation of foods, either at the table, in the kitchen or in the processing plant. This may include sucrose, high fructose corn syrup and others.

SugarScience Glossary

Fat

One of the three major groups of nutrients we eat. Much of this website is related to problems associated with too much fat storage in the body. Each gram of fat produces 9 calories of energy if burned by the body as fuel. Fat can be stored in many places in the body. We generally think of fat as under the skin (subcutaneous), but the fat that may be most damaging to us is the fat stored in the liver and around the organs of the abdomen (intrahepatic and visceral or abdominal or intra-abdominal)

SugarScience Glossary
Meet the Scientists

SugarScience Facts

Too much fructose in added sugar can damage your liver just like too much alcohol.

SugarScience Facts

Today, 31% of American adults and 13% of kids suffer from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

SugarScience Facts

Growing scientific evidence shows that too much added sugar, over time, is linked to diabetes, heart disease and liver disease.

Healthy Beverage Initiative
Toolkit

Learn more about how organizations are
eliminating the sale of sugar sweetened beverages.

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