2025 Robert I. Levy Memorial Lecturer – Christopher Gardner, PhD, FAHA

Christopher Gardner, PhD, FAHA

Stanford University
Stanford, California

For more than 30 years, Christopher Gardner, PhD, Rehnborg Farquhar professor of medicine at Stanford, and nutrition scientist, has studied what to consume and to avoid for optimal health, and how best to motivate people to achieve healthy dietary behaviors. He recently completed a two-year term on the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee and is past chair of the American Heart Association’s Nutrition Committee.

He has conducted and published dozens of human nutrition intervention trials, including trials of Mediterranean, Ketogenic, Vegan, Low-Fat and Low-Carb diets and their effects on cardiometabolic health. Some of his current interests include Stealth Nutrition, Unapologetic Deliciousness and Institutional Food Settings.

He is currently working on personalized nutrition explorations with several colleagues, with particular focus on the gut microbiome. Professor Gardner’s work was featured in a Netflix docuseries (January 2024), You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment.