Dr. Christopher Gardner

He got an Academy Award a decade ago for The Cove, which was a documentary about dolphin slaughter in Japan. Mercury-laden dolphins were being fed to schoolchildren. He also did Game Changers, which was elite athletes on plant-based diets. And he wanted to do another one to test out like the health of the diet, not in elite athletes but in the general population.

And he said, I have a donor who has the money and I have a contract with Netflix. They like my idea. And it would have to be identical twins for the science of it. And one diet has to be vegan. Can you design a study? What would it cost? How long would it take? Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And he said – Wow, that is fascinating. Identical twins is going to be a bitch.

And he said, I have a donor who has the money and I have a contract with Netflix. They like my idea. And it would have to be identical twins for the science of it. And one diet has to be vegan. Can you design a study? What would it cost? How long would it take? Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And he said – Wow, that is fascinating. Identical twins is going to be a bitch.

And he said, I have a donor who has the money and I have a contract with Netflix. They like my idea. And it would have to be identical twins for the science of it. And one diet has to be vegan. Can you design a study? What would it cost? How long would it take? Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And he said – Wow, that is fascinating. Identical twins is going to be a bitch.

And he said, oh, no, no, I'm totally going to help you. So I'm not going to hold you to the recruitment. We've already found a whole bunch of identical twins for you. I said, well, wow, recruiting is the hardest thing. Okay, so we're going to make a good vegan diet, and we're going to make a good omnivorous diet, and we're going to randomize each pair of twins one at a time to one versus the other.

And he said, oh, no, no, I'm totally going to help you. So I'm not going to hold you to the recruitment. We've already found a whole bunch of identical twins for you. I said, well, wow, recruiting is the hardest thing. Okay, so we're going to make a good vegan diet, and we're going to make a good omnivorous diet, and we're going to randomize each pair of twins one at a time to one versus the other.

And he said, oh, no, no, I'm totally going to help you. So I'm not going to hold you to the recruitment. We've already found a whole bunch of identical twins for you. I said, well, wow, recruiting is the hardest thing. Okay, so we're going to make a good vegan diet, and we're going to make a good omnivorous diet, and we're going to randomize each pair of twins one at a time to one versus the other.

And we don't have enough money to do this for a long time. We budget it out and you have enough for like eight weeks of doing this study. And it would be important that people catch on to the vegan part quickly, the omnivorous thing they already do. So what about the other group? Ah, we'll deliver food for the first four weeks.

And we don't have enough money to do this for a long time. We budget it out and you have enough for like eight weeks of doing this study. And it would be important that people catch on to the vegan part quickly, the omnivorous thing they already do. So what about the other group? Ah, we'll deliver food for the first four weeks.

And we don't have enough money to do this for a long time. We budget it out and you have enough for like eight weeks of doing this study. And it would be important that people catch on to the vegan part quickly, the omnivorous thing they already do. So what about the other group? Ah, we'll deliver food for the first four weeks.

And then for the last four weeks, we'll have them cook on their own now that they have enough ideas from having been fed for four weeks. And so that's how it started to be designed. And we got blood and poop in the microbiome. And we got epigenetic data and telomere length and things like this and adherence. And we have a whole new paper on adherence coming out. And so we randomize them.

And then for the last four weeks, we'll have them cook on their own now that they have enough ideas from having been fed for four weeks. And so that's how it started to be designed. And we got blood and poop in the microbiome. And we got epigenetic data and telomere length and things like this and adherence. And we have a whole new paper on adherence coming out. And so we randomize them.

And then for the last four weeks, we'll have them cook on their own now that they have enough ideas from having been fed for four weeks. And so that's how it started to be designed. And we got blood and poop in the microbiome. And we got epigenetic data and telomere length and things like this and adherence. And we have a whole new paper on adherence coming out. And so we randomize them.

And as part of this, the producer kept asking for more and more things. And eventually he said, okay, we're measuring a lot of stuff. We have blood and poop and genes, but we can't measure anything. He says, I want dexa. I want body composition. I said, I don't have enough money. And he said, well, we're going to go ahead.

And as part of this, the producer kept asking for more and more things. And eventually he said, okay, we're measuring a lot of stuff. We have blood and poop and genes, but we can't measure anything. He says, I want dexa. I want body composition. I said, I don't have enough money. And he said, well, we're going to go ahead.

And as part of this, the producer kept asking for more and more things. And eventually he said, okay, we're measuring a lot of stuff. We have blood and poop and genes, but we can't measure anything. He says, I want dexa. I want body composition. I said, I don't have enough money. And he said, well, we're going to go ahead.

There's four featured pairs that are going to be in the documentary that we selected ahead of time. And that means there's 18 pairs that aren't involved in the documentary. And we have this super studly Nimai Delgado, who is a medal-winning vegan bodybuilder, and he will train them. And so Nimai had access to the four pairs, the eight twins, and nobody else did it.

There's four featured pairs that are going to be in the documentary that we selected ahead of time. And that means there's 18 pairs that aren't involved in the documentary. And we have this super studly Nimai Delgado, who is a medal-winning vegan bodybuilder, and he will train them. And so Nimai had access to the four pairs, the eight twins, and nobody else did it.

There's four featured pairs that are going to be in the documentary that we selected ahead of time. And that means there's 18 pairs that aren't involved in the documentary. And we have this super studly Nimai Delgado, who is a medal-winning vegan bodybuilder, and he will train them. And so Nimai had access to the four pairs, the eight twins, and nobody else did it.

And I actually never got those decks of data. It's not even part of the study. So jumping to the end, when we finished this study, the vegans lost a little weight more than the other group, and they lowered their LDL cholesterol, and they lowered their fasting insulin in the main paper that got published in JAMA Network Open.