How Different Diets Impact Your Health | Dr. Christopher Gardner

Huberman Lab

Scicomm Media

Science, Health & Fitness, Life Sciences

4.8 • 26.2K Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2025

⏱️ 170 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

My guest is Dr. Christopher Gardner, Ph.D., professor of medicine and director of nutrition studies at Stanford. He is known for his pioneering research on the impact of dietary interventions on weight loss and health. We compare ketogenic, vegetarian, vegan and omnivorous diets—and why there is no one-size-fits-all approach. All agree, however, that eliminating or dramatically reducing processed foods is best for health. We discuss the protein needs controversy; plant vs. animal proteins; the importance of fiber and low-sugar fermented foods for gut health and inflammation; and how diet affects gene expression. We also review food allergies—including gluten, wheat, dairy and soy—as well as raw dairy. The episode offers data-supported advice for healthier eating. Read the episode show notes at hubermanlab.com. Thank you to our sponsors AG1: https://drinkag1.com/huberman Eight Sleep: https://eightsleep.com/huberman Mateina: https://drinkmateina.com/huberman BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/huberman LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/huberman Levels: https://levelshealth.com/huberman Timestamps 00:00:00 Christopher Gardner 00:02:32 Is there a Best Diet?, Individual Needs, Geography & Diet, Lactose 00:11:02 Sponsors: Eight Sleep & Mateina 00:13:49 Raw Milk, Lactose Intolerance 00:20:33 Wheat Allergies, Gluten Intolerance; Celiac Disease 00:25:12 Processed Foods, Food Dyes, Research Outcomes, NOVA Classification, GRAS 00:33:44 Processed Foods, Economic & Time Considerations, US vs European Products 00:39:59 Food Industry Funding, Investigator Influence, Equipoise, Transparency 00:50:10 Sponsors: AG1 & BetterHelp 00:53:11 Industry Funding, National Institute of Health (NIH) 00:56:41 Whole Food, Plant-Based Diet; Diet Comparison, DIETFITS, A TO Z Study 01:10:24 Nutrition Naming, Omnivore, Meat, Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) 01:17:14 Transforming American Diet; Taste, Health & Environment 01:22:26 Sponsor: LMNT 01:23:43 Food Preparation, Chefs, Improve School Food 01:29:54 Scalability, Mega-Farms, Small Farm & Farmer Loss 01:34:25 Protein Requirements, Dietary Protein Recommendations, Standard Deviations 01:45:33 Protein & Storage 01:52:12 Plants & Complete Proteins?, Legumes, Bioavailability 02:01:58 Sponsor: Levels 02:03:17 Beyond Meat, Impossible Meat, Ingredients, Sourcing Meat, Salt 02:09:18 Vegan vs Omnivore Diet, Twin Study, Cardiometabolic Markers, Genes, Microbiome 02:20:24 Health Science Communication, DEXA; “Protein Flip” Diet; Food Patterns, Caloric Intake 02:31:29 Microbiome, Inflammation, Fiber, Tool: Low-Sugar, Fermented Food 02:45:32 Acknowledgements 02:47:55 Zero-Cost Support, YouTube, Spotify & Apple Follow & Reviews, Sponsors, YouTube Feedback, Protocols Book, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter Disclaimer & Disclosures

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Huberman Lab podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.
0:08.6	I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine.
0:14.8	My guest today is Dr. Christopher Gardner. Dr. Christopher Gardner is a professor of medicine and director of
0:20.4	nutrition studies at Stanford University. Dr. Gardnerner is a professor of medicine and director of nutrition studies at Stanford
0:21.8	University. Dr. Gardner has conducted groundbreaking research on dietary interventions for over
0:26.9	25 years, focusing on what dietary interventions reduce weight and inflammation, and for
0:32.9	generally improving physical health. He is known for doing extremely well-controlled studies of nutrition,
0:38.5	where calories, macronutrients, so protein, fat, and carbohydrates, and food quality are matched
0:44.1	between the different groups and not simply comparing one intervention to the so-called
0:48.0	standard American diet, as so many other nutrition studies do. As such, his work has been
0:52.9	published in prestigious journals, such as
0:55.0	the Journal of the American Medical Association and the New England Journal of Medicine. Today, we
0:59.4	discuss several important nutritional controversies, and we examine what the science actually tells us.
1:04.9	First, we explore protein requirements, how much protein we actually need, and do those needs
1:10.0	change based on activity levels,
1:11.6	age and health status.
1:12.6	And I should say that even though we started out with rather discrepant stance on this, we converge
1:17.6	on an answer that I think will be satisfying at least to most people.
1:20.6	And then you can tailor that answer to your unique needs.
1:23.6	We then examine the ongoing debate between vegetarian, vegan, and omnivore diets
1:28.2	for optimal health, and we dive into whether plant proteins are truly inferior to animal proteins,
1:33.3	as is often claimed. We also discuss the role of fiber in the diet and the emerging science
	...

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