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Hana Kahleova, MD, PhD

Director of Clinical Research

Hana Kahleova, M.D., Ph.D., is the director of clinical research at the Physicians Committee and directs research studies analyzing the effect food choices have on insulin resistance and the regulation of a healthy body weight. Her current research includes analyzing the thermic effect of food in response to a 16-week dietary intervention.

Dr. Kahleova has published more than a dozen nutrition studies. She is the author of Vegetarian Diet in the Treatment of Diabetes (Maxdorf, 2013). She also wrote the chapter about using a plant-based diet to treat diabetes in Vegetarian and Plant-Based Diets in Health and Disease Prevention (Academic Press, 2017). 

Her favorite research topics include testing the effect a plant-based diet has on metabolism, insulin function, fitness, and mental health, as well as studying the impact meal timing and meal frequency have on metabolism and body weight.

Dr. Kahleova earned her doctorate in nutrition and diabetes and her medical degree from Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. As a postdoctoral research fellow at Loma Linda University in California, Dr. Kahleova analyzed data from 50,000 Adventist Health Study-2 participants. She analyzed data on meal frequency and timing in relationship to changes in body weight. She finds two to three meals a day, without snacks, are optimal for body weight control. This led to her recommendation to eat breakfast regularly and to make it the largest meal of the day.

Dr. Kahleova’s favorite prescription for optimal health and wellness is to eat a whole-food, plant-based diet and to be physically active.

Read more about Dr. Kahleova’s research in PubMed and view recent news articles online.