Arthur Agatston, M.D.

Arthur Agatston, M.D., is Medical Director of Wellness and Prevention for Baptist Health South Florida, a professor at Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, 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 resulted in the Agatston Score, a method for screening for coronary calcium that is now used throughout the world and considered by many to be the best predictor of heart disease. While he is known publicly as the author of the best-selling book, The South Beach Diet, Dr. Agatston actually created his balanced approach to healthy eating to help his patients whose weight and blood chemistries were not improving on a standard low-fat diet. Today, the South Beach Diet is a lifestyle approach to healthy eating that has helped millions, and there are more than 23 million copies of The South Beach Diet and its companion books in print worldwide. Dr. Agatston’s most recent book, The South Beach Wake-Up Call, published in October 2011, is an urgent call to action and a life-saving program for reversing the toxic lifestyle that is making Americans fatter and sicker than ever before. Dr. Agatston can be found on the Web at SouthBeachDiet.com and EverdayHealth.com and he is also an advisor on heart health for Prevention magazine. He lives in Miami Beach, Florida.