---
title: "Dr. Mark Hyman, MD: Researcher Cited by RealFoods"
url: https://realfoods.app/authors/mark-hyman
description: "Dr. Mark Hyman, functional medicine physician and author, writes on blood sugar and insulin. RealFoods cites his work but is not affiliated with him."
---

Researcher we cite

# Dr. Mark Hyman, MD

Functional Medicine Physician, Author

> Mark Hyman is not affiliated with RealFoods and has not reviewed or endorsed the app or the Weight Impact Score.
>
> RealFoods cites Mark Hyman’s published work as one of its sources. RealFoods articles are written by [Dino Pohilj](https://realfoods.app/authors/dino-pohilj).

Dr. Mark Hyman is a functional medicine physician and founder of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine whose work frames food as hormonal medicine rather than a collection of macros. He writes on blood sugar regulation, ultra-processed food, and metabolic root-cause medicine.

Hyman's functional medicine approach starts from a different question than most nutrition advice. Instead of asking how many calories are in a food, he asks what that food does to the body's hormones and systems over time. Blood sugar regulation sits at the center of that approach, which is why The Blood Sugar Solution frames insulin resistance as the root cause to address, not a lab number to watch on its own.

Eat Fat, Get Thin makes an argument that runs directly against decades of low-fat advice: the low-fat, high-carbohydrate pattern it replaced calls in more insulin than eating healthy fats does. RealFoods cites Hyman's published work on blood sugar and food among its sources. Hyman has not reviewed or endorsed the app or the Weight Impact Score.

Food: What the Heck Should I Eat? extends the same myth-busting approach to a wider set of everyday foods, sorting them by how much insulin they call in rather than by fat or carbohydrate content alone. Hyman also writes about ultra-processed food as a driver of type 2 diabetes. The RealFoods articles below cover blood sugar regulation and insulin resistance in general terms.

Hyman founded the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine in 2014, which placed his root-cause approach inside a major academic medical system rather than outside it. His broader argument is to treat the metabolic cause rather than the downstream lab result.

## Key works

- The Blood Sugar Solution (2012)
  Hyman's food-first lifestyle program for improving insulin resistance and lowering the risk of type 2 diabetes.
- Eat Fat, Get Thin (2016)
  Hyman's argument that a low-fat, high-carbohydrate pattern calls in more insulin than eating healthy fats, and why he links that to weight loss.
- Food: What the Heck Should I Eat? (2018)
  A myth-busting guide to which foods call in more or less insulin, and why he argues official nutrition advice gets it backwards.

## Areas of expertise

- Functional Medicine
- Blood Sugar Regulation
- Type 2 Diabetes
- Ultra-Processed Food
- Insulin Resistance
- Metabolic Root-Cause Medicine
- Nutrition Science

## Official profiles

- [drhyman.com](https://drhyman.com/)
- [www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15429430](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15429430)

## Continue exploring the science

- [Prediabetes: What to Eat for Steadier Blood Sugar](https://realfoods.app/prediabetes-diet)
- [Blood Sugar and Weight Gain](https://realfoods.app/blood-sugar-and-weight-gain)
- [What is Insulin Resistance?](https://realfoods.app/what-is-insulin-resistance)
- [How RealFoods Works](https://realfoods.app/how-it-works)