Christopher Gardner

At a glance

• Christopher Gardner is an American nutrition scientist and professor at the Stanford Prevention Research Center at Stanford University.
• He is known for the DIETFITS study (JAMA, 2018): more than 600 adults followed a healthy low-fat or healthy low-carb diet for a year. Average weight loss was similar, and neither genes nor insulin levels predicted who did better on which diet.
• In the SWAP-MEAT study he compared plant-based meat alternatives with animal meat in the same participants.
• In a study of 22 pairs of identical twins (JAMA Network Open, 2023), one twin ate vegan for eight weeks and the other a healthy omnivorous diet; the vegan group had lower LDL cholesterol.
• That study was the basis of the Netflix series You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment (2024).
• For longevity, his message matters: the quality of what you eat counts more than the label on the diet.
• Takeaway: choose a way of eating you can sustain, rich in vegetables, legumes and whole grains, with little added sugar and refined grains.