Robert Pritikin is director of the Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa. He has a BS in biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, an MBA from UCLA, and a lifetime of experience in helping people overcome heart disease and other serious ailments with lifestyle changes in diet and exercise.
In his mid-20s, Pritikin conducted the first clinical trial of the Pritikin Program in 1974 at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Long Beach, Calif., under the direction of his father, Nathan Pritikin, creator of the The Pritikin Program for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular-related illnesses. The positive results of the trial led to the opening of the first Pritikin Longevity Center in Santa Barbara, Calif., in 1976.
Since then, more than 65 published studies in peer-reviewed journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation, Archives of Internal Medicine, and Diabetes Care have documented the changes in risk factors such as cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, and insulin in patients attending the Pritikin Longevity Centers.
In addition to his commitment to research, Pritikin is an enthusiastic educator on the benefits, the life-restoring value, of nutrition and exercise. He has several best-selling books, including The New Pritikin Program: The Easy and Delicious Way To Shed Fat, Lower Your Cholesterol, and Stay Fit (1991), The Pritikin Weight Loss Breakthrough: Five Easy Steps To Outsmart Your Fat Instinct (1999) and The Pritikin Principle: The Calorie Density Solution (2000).
Pritikin teaches several classes at the Pritikin Longevity Center in Aventura, Fla., where he offers solutions for maintaining healthy habits in the "real world" of traveling, socializing, and dining out.