Research
He conducted a study with Georgetown University in 2000 regarding the role of diet in menstrual disorders, and in 2005 another on the effects of a low-fat vegan diet on weight loss and insulin sensitivity. In 2002, he published an exposé of the common medical practice of using oral estrogens to suppress growth in adolescent girls.
In 2003, he was awarded a US$350,000 research grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the effect of a low-fat vegan diet on diabetes. The study results, published in Diabetes Care, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, and the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, found that "both a low-fat vegan diet and a diet based on American Diabetes Association guidelines improved glycemic and lipid control in type 2 diabetic patients," but "these improvements were greater with a low-fat, vegan diet." These studies are now cited by the American Diabetes Association Clinical Practice Recommendations. With colleagues at PCRM, he developed an insulin ELISA assay that utilizes monoclonal antibodies from hybridomas maintained in media free of animal products. The test proved as effective as methods that use animal products, and is now produced commercially by Millipore.
Barnard headed two clinical trials testing the effects of plant-based diets in the workplace, working with GEICO. Results published in 2010 showed reductions in body weight, blood sugar, and absenteeism.
In 2004, he formed The Washington Center For Clinical Research, a nonprofit subsidiary of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine that aims to conduct research into the role of nutrition in health. He is now an adjunct associate professor of medicine at GWU and is also a life member of the American Medical Association.
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