Research paper
Friedman JM. Modern science versus the stigma of obesity. Nature Medicine. 2004;10(6):563-569. doi:10.1038/nm0604-563. PMID: 15170194.
Why we cite it
Friedman's authoritative perspective piece arguing that obesity stigma is scientifically indefensible. Provides the clearest articulation of the lipostat model — leptin as a negative feedback signal from fat mass to brain — and places it alongside heritability data (0.7-0.8) to frame obesity as a biological condition comparable to height in its genetic determination.
About the author
Jeffrey M. Friedman, MD, PhD is the Marilyn M. Simpson Professor and head of the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics at The Rockefeller University and an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He discovered leptin in 1994. Awards include the Lasker Basic Medical Research Award (2010), the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2020), and the Wolf Prize in Medicine (2019).