Finding the perfect diet is nearly impossible. We tend to experiment with different diet regimen until we find the perfect match for us. This situation doesn't come as a surprise to scientists. According to a new study published in Cell Press last Thursday, a healthy food for one person may lead another to gain weight.
As reported by Today Online, the new study suggests that a universal diet that works for everyone is very wrong. This finding is based on a study of 800 people in Israel. Researchers tracked the blood sugar levels of the participants over a week period, feeding them 46,898 meals. Even if people eat exactly the same food, how their body takes it differ. The metabolism differs from person to person. Simply put, what might be healthy for you won't necessarily be healthy to others.
According to Science Alert, researchers boil down the issue to how most dietary systems measure results. Example given was the glycemic index (GI) which ranks food based on who they affect blood sugar. This may be a useful tool to gauge how food affects glucose levels however this is based on studies on how most people respond to food, not particularly how your own body actually responds to it.
"Most dietary recommendations that one can think of are based on one of these grading systems; however, what people didn't highlight, or maybe they didn't fully appreciate, is that there are profound differences between individuals - in some cases, individuals have opposite response to one another, and this is really a big hole in the literature," said Eran Segal of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.
According to the researchers, GI is not a set value for any given food. It still depends on how the individual's metabolism. The responses to identical meals highly differs which only suggests that universal dietary recommendations may have little impact in the real world.
"In contrast to our current practices, tailoring diets to the individual may allow us to utilise nutrition as means of controlling elevated blood sugar levels and its associated medical conditions," said Eran Elinav, a co-author of the study.
Take one of the participants for example. A middle-aged woman with obesity and diabetes had been struggling with her diet. After eating tomatoes, her blood sugar level increased much to the researchers' surprise. Most of us won't think tomatoes are not healthy.
The researchers hope that this study will prove the importance of personalized nutrition reports instead of a universal health diet. Do you agree with the study? If you like the article, don't forget to share the news on Facebook!
