Christopher Gardner

Christopher D. Gardner, PhD, Rehnborg Farquhar Professor, Department of Medicine, Stanford Prevention Research Program, Stanford University School of Medicine

Research Description: Dr. Gardner’s research program over the last 25 years has made important contributions to our understanding of dietary strategies to improve risk factors for diabetes and other chronic diseases. He has conducted over a dozen human trials involving over 2,000 participants. Dietary strategies have included antioxidants, omega-3 fats, soy food products, garlic, and various weight loss diets, in the form of whole foods or dietary supplements. Study outcomes have included weight, insulin and glucose dynamics, body composition, and immune function parameters. Dr. Gardner’s group specializes in adherence to study diets and assessment of adherence, among free-living, community dwelling, study participants. His group has long-standing, productive collaborations with many SDRC members. Dr. Gardner is current Director of the Clinical & Translational Research Core in the SDRC.

Selected relevant publications (Stanford DRC members in BOLD):

  1. Evert AB, Dennison M, Gardner CD, Garvey WT, Lau KHK, MacLeod J, Mitri J, Pereira RF, Rawlings K, Robinson S, Saslow L, Uelmen S, Urbanski PB, Yancy WS Jr. Nutrition Therapy for Adults With Diabetes or Prediabetes: A Consensus Report. Diabetes Care. 2019 May;42(5):731-754. doi: 10.2337/dci19-0014. PMID: 31000505; PMCID: PMC7011201. 

  2. Oppezzo MA, Stanton MV, Garcia A, Rigdon J, Berman JR, Gardner CD. To Text or Not to Text: Electronic Message Intervention to Improve Treatment Adherence Versus Matched Historical Controls. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2019 Apr 9;7(4):e11720. doi: 10.2196/11720. PMID: 30964436; PMCID: PMC6534047. 

  3. Gardner CD, Trepanowski JF, Del Gobbo LC, Hauser ME, Rigdon J, Ioannidis JPA, Desai M, King AC. Effect of Low-Fat vs Low-Carbohydrate Diet on 12-Month Weight Loss in Overweight Adults and the Association With Genotype Pattern or Insulin Secretion: The DIETFITS Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2018 Feb 20;319(7):667-679. doi: 10.1001/jama.2018.0245. PMID: 29466592; PMCID: PMC5839290. 

  4. Grembi JA, Nguyen LH, Haggerty TD, Gardner CD, Holmes SP, Parsonnet J. Gut microbiota plasticity is correlated with sustained weight loss on a low-carb or low-fat dietary intervention. Sci Rep. 2020 Jan 29;10(1):1405. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-58000-y. Erratum in: Sci Rep. 2020 Jul 1;10(1):11095. PMID: 31996717; PMCID: PMC6989501.