Faculty and Researcher Directory

Iris Shai

Adjunct Professor of Nutrition

Department of Nutrition

665 Huntington Avenue
Building 2, Room 305
Boston, MA 02115
ishai@hsph.harvard.edu; irish@bgu.ac.il

Other Affiliations

Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology, BGU, Israel
Honorary Professor, Dep. of Medicine, University of Leipzig, Germany

Education

B.Sc.Nut, Hebrew University, Israel
Residency, Soroka Medical center, Beer Sheva, Israel.
M.Med.Sc., BGU, Israel
Ph.D. BGU, Israel
Postdoctoral fellowship, Fulbright scholar Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA

Research Focus

Diet, Body fat composition, cardiometabolic risk, omics, microbiome, brain, (epi) genetics, aging, polyphenols

Main dietary RCTs (PI) and cohort

Selected Publications

[Full list of publications via PubMed]

  • Normal fasting plasma glucose levels and type 2 diabetes in young men. N Engl J Med 2005
  • Weight Loss with a Low-Carbohydrate, Mediterranean, or Low-Fat Diet. N Engl J Med 2008
  • Adolescent BMI Trajectory and Risk of Diabetes versus Coronary Disease. N Engl J Med 2011
  • Four-year follow-up after two-year dietary interventions. N Engl J Med 2012
  • Effects of Initiating Moderate Alcohol Intake on Cardiometabolic Risk in Adults With Type 2 Diabetes: A 2-Year Randomized, Controlled Trial. Ann Intern Med 2015
  • Effect of distinct lifestyle interventions on mobilization of fat storage pools: the CENTRAL MRI Randomized Controlled Trial. Circulation 2018
  • The beneficial effects of Mediterranean diet over low-fat diet may be mediated by decreasing hepatic fat content. Journal of Hepatology 2019
  • Visceral and ectopic fat, atherosclerosis, and cardiometabolic disease: a position statement. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol 2019
  • Waist circumference as a vital sign in clinical practice: a Consensus Statement from the IAS and ICCR Working Group on Visceral Obesity. Nature Reviews Endocrinology 2020
  • Effects of Diet-Modulated Autologous Fecal Microbiota Transplantation on Weight Regain. Gastroenterology 2020
  • Effect of green-Mediterranean diet on intrahepatic fat: the DIRECT PLUS randomised controlled trial. Gut 2021
  • The effects of the Green-Mediterranean diet on cardiometabolic health are linked to gut microbiome modifications: a randomized controlled trial. Genome Med 2022
  • The effect of a high-polyphenol Mediterranean diet (Green-MED) combined with physical activity on age-related brain atrophy: the Dietary Intervention Randomized Controlled Trial Polyphenols Unprocessed Study (DIRECT PLUS). Am J Clin Nutr 2022