About Christopher Gardner
Christopher Gardner holds a PhD in Nutrition Science and is the Rehnborg Farquhar Professor of Medicine at Stanford. For the past 25 years his research has examined the potential health benefits of dietary components such as soy, garlic, antioxidants, ginkgo, omega-3 fats, vegetarian diets, and weight loss diets in the general population. He has completed more than a dozen randomized human trials, involving more than 2,000 study participants. The most current continuation of this work includes an NIH funded weight loss trial among 609 overweight and obese adults that examined insulin resistance, genotype and microbiota as potential predictors of differential weight loss on different diets (DIETFITS-JAMA 2018). Recently his nutrition interests have expanded to two new areas. The first is to explore motivators other than health for making positive dietary changes, linking to ongoing social movements around animal welfare, climate change, social justice, and their relationships to food stealth health. The second is to focus on a food systems approach to dietary improvements that addresses the quality of food provided by schools, worksites, senior centers, hospitals, food banks and other institutional food settings, and considers a range of stakeholders including farmers, marketers, parents, chefs, dining operators, CEO’s and consumers. He is one of the founders of the Menus of Change University Research Collaborative, where he served as the Chair of Research for the first 3 years.
For several decades the public health community has encouraged individuals to better align their eating behaviors with optimal health. A major challenge in achieving meaningful behavior changes has been the competing influences of convenience, cost, and taste. Different strategies are needed. For the last 10 years, Nutrition Scientist and Professor of Medicine Christopher Gardner has taught a class at Stanford University – Food and Society - that intentionally avoids “health” issues, and focuses instead on animal rights and welfare, food and climate change, and food and social justice issues. He finds that at least one of these topics usually resonates with most students, and all are consistent with healthier eating behavior choices – which he refers to as Stealth Nutrition. In addition, for the past 8 years he has been involved with chefs, scientists, and business leaders (Culinary Institute of America and the Menus of Change program), reframing the narrative to focus on the unapologetic deliciousness of food, while maintaining a parallel focus on the inte section of human health and the health of the environment. A specific example of this has been the Protein Flip, which involves moving plant-based proteins to the center of the plate and using animal-based proteins in smaller proportions. Professor Gardner will share a recent review he and his colleagues have published on protein recommendations and intake in the U.S., and the projected beneficial impact on human health, greenhouse gasses and water usage of decreasing total protein intake and shifting to more plant-based proteins.
Christopher Gardner is interested in changing social norms by making the default choice of food unapologetically, nutritious, and environmentally sustainable. For the past 10 years, Christopher Gardner has taught a course at Stanford University, Food and Society, which intentionally avoids “health” issues and focuses instead on the link between animal rights and welfare, food and climate change, and food and social justice issues. He has found his students resonate with one of these topics which are all consistent with healthy eating or eating behaviors, which he refers to as Stealth Nutrition. He has since had an article published based on the findings of his students: Effects of a College Course About Food and Society on Students’ Eating Behaviors. By being able to analyze and motivate his students through resourceful information, Gardner has found having an external motivator of societal and global health (e.g., sustainability) may be more powerful and effective than the motivation of personal health for choosing the same healthier diet.
Through the paradigm shift of Stealth Nutrition, Gardner’s findings sought to have an impact when it was chef-driven by implementing unapologetic deliciousness through the protein flip. This new perspective on protein was seen as maximizing the intersection of human health and the health of the environment. Upon speaking with Greg Drescher, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Industry Leadership at the Culinary Institute of America, he pushed the idea of making food unapologetically delicious because food is meant to taste great if it is going to be successful in everyday diets. The Harvard School of Public Health collaborated with chef’s who were interested in being environmentally sustainable and ethical, which in turn would be healthy for humans and good for the economy. The 24 principles of Healthy, Sustainable Menus included 12 Operational Principles on the left and 12 Nutrition Principles on the right. Combining all principles made business sense for operators in universities, hospitals, and worksites. The Menus of Change Conferences (MCURC) has held annual conferences since 2013 which has since come together to improve the diets of students through the work between academics and chefs.
By leading with unapologetic deliciousness, we must be ready to lead with healthfulness and environment sustainability. By citing The Lancet Commissions, Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems, Christopher Gardner has used the article's findings to explain the benefits of behavior factors for societal and environmental health through the Great Food Transformation: Planetary Health Diet. In progress for the past three years, The Lancet Commission shows Americans are inputting an unnecessary substantial amount of animal protein into their systems, which exceeds the Recommended Daily Allowances (RDA’s) recommendations. Inputting an excess of protein into our systems has led to excess protein converting into carbs and fat because all protein is functional in our bodies and has led to environmental degradation. By altering our diets through variations of the protein shift, Christopher Gardner pushes for the belief in substantial room to eat less protein and shift to a higher proportion of plant protein for human health and for the sustainability of the environment.
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