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STATES CHRONICLE – Researchers found there’s a reason why you’re simply not losing any weight following the magic diet that worked so well for your best friend. According to a new study, one person’s diet food can be another person’s reason for gaining weight.
The one-size-fits-all approach to dieting may be a fundamental mistake people make when trying to lose weight. For example, tomatoes are generally considered a nutritious food, but a woman in the study experienced spikes in blood sugar each time she consumed them. Published in the journal Cell Press, the study is based on data collected from 800 people in Israel.
Leading researcher Eran Segal of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel said the most surprising finding was to see the wide range of responses participants’ had to the same foods. Data collection was performed by blood sugar monitors the volunteers wore for an entire week. The monitors took measurements every five minutes.
Participants were also asked to keep a detailed log of everything they consumed for the respective week, in addition to stool samples used to analyze their gut microbiome. None of the 800 participants had diabetes, but some had pre-diabetes, a condition known to affect the obese.
People’s metabolic responses to identical meals were wildly different; for example, eating sushi spiked some people’s blood sugar higher than eating ice cream. Segal explained this kind of reactions is not covered in the existing literature, leaving a hole that doesn’t explain the extreme differences between individuals.
Keeping blood sugar in normal limits is the aim of many diets – and they are right to do so, given that it can lead to obesity, diabetes, heart problems and many other complications. That’s why most diets try to replace food products made with white flour and refined sugars with fruits, vegetables and complex carbohydrates.
But according to co-author Eran Elinav, these general recommendations won’t work for all; instead of urging people to follow low-fat diets, nutritionists should focus on a more personalized approach. Putting the individual at the center of the dieting plan would be more useful in improving people’s health and helping them control high blood sugar.
It turns out that one of the reasons why one-diet-fits-all doesn’t work can be found in our gut microbes which are different from one person to another. The reaction to certain foods is also influenced by a host of personal characteristics. Researchers also found specific microbes correlated with blood sugar levels after eating.
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