STEM-Talk: Dave Feldman on the Citizen Science Foundation, ketogenic diet research

How did the son of two Bohemian graphic designers become a citizen science advocate who built his knowledge to turn his own health around?

It’s a journey worth listening to, and in this episode of STEM-Talk, Dave Feldman shares that story. The episode is available now wherever you listen to podcasts.

Feldman is the founder of the Citizen Science Foundation and is known for his research into the ketogenic diet. Dave is a software engineer by training who embraced a ketogenic diet to avoid his progression toward type 2 diabetes.

After undertaking the high-fat/low-carbohydrate diet, Dave’ LDL cholesterol spiked. Dave’s experience as an engineer provided an unusual conceptual framework as he immersed himself in learning everything he could about cholesterol and lipids. What he learned led him to create the website Cholesterol Code, a research hub for information and emerging data on cholesterol, particularly in the context of a low-carbohydrate lifestyle.

The Citizen Science Foundation is designed to support projects and research that promote collaborative efforts across multiple disciplines, both in and outside formal scientific institutions.

The conversation covers a lot of ground, including:

• How self-directed learning became a theme of Dave’s life, beginning in his youth in the 1980s.
• How the idea of being a “lean mass hyper-responder” came into Dave’s vernacular, what that phenotype means, and the research surrounding it.
• Dave’s 2022 paper on the Lipid Energy Model, titled: “Lipid Energy Model: Reimagining Lipoprotein Function in the Context of Carbohydrate Restricted Diets,” asking him to expound on the concept and its significance.
• The challenges Dave has faced in his journey to self-fund research through crowdfunding, for which he founded a 501c3 non-for-profit, which in 2019 was named the Citizen Science Foundation.

IHMC is a not-for-profit research institute of the Florida University System where researchers pioneer science and technology aimed at leveraging and extending human capabilities. IHMC researchers and staff collaborate extensively with the government, industry and academia to help develop breakthrough technologies. IHMC research partners have included: DARPA, the National Science Foundation, NASA, Army, Navy, Air Force, National Institutes of Health, IBM, Microsoft, Honda, Boeing, Lockheed, and many others.