Bring back the sausages! Not all healthy food is good for you, study reveals
SCIENTISTS claim tailoring meal plans to individuals’ biology may be the future of dieting.
Have you ever wondered why your best friend can get away with carb-loading, when just looking at a slice of bread can make your clothes feel tighter?
Perhaps you’ve attempted to follow the latest fad diet, only to find your waistline expanding?
Scientists may finally have an explanation.
Research has found why different people’s bodies respond to eating the exact same meal very differently.
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The research, published in the journal Cell, focused on the the key component used in diet plans such as Atkins or Zone - glycemic index (GI).
GI measures how certain foods impact blood sugar levels and has, until now, been assumed as a fixed number.
But according to the findings, GI varies widely depending on the individual which, in turn, impacts how individuals process the same foods.
Lead author of the study, Eran Segal, said: “These are profound differences between individuals - in some cases, individuals have opposite responses to one another.”
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The researchers said tailoring meal plans to individuals’ biology may be the future of dieting.
One case study is of a middle-aged woman who tried many diets but was unsuccessful.
The tests revealed her blood sugar spiked after eating tomatoes - but she had been eating them as part of her ‘healthy’ diet plans several times a week.
Co-author Eran Elinav of the Weizmann Institute of Science said: “(The study) really enlightened us on how inaccurate we all were about one of the most basic concepts of our existence…
“Which is how we eat and how we integrate nutrition into our daily life.”
Using the information from the study, the scientists devised an algorithm that takes hundreds of factors about a person and turns them into a tailor-made meal plan.
Speaking to The Atlantic, Dr Segal said: “It wasn’t just salad every day. Some people got alcohol, chocolate and ice-cream, in moderation.”
More than 4,000 people are now on the waiting list for their next study.
