While planning meals for your body, it is often stressed upon that one must understand their body better and customise their meals accordingly. This is why health experts insist that when it comes to nutrition, one size doesn't fit all and one needs a customised meal plan to see the results they want. A new study has confirmed this belief through a study that showed that the same meal plan will not show the same results for two people even as genetically similar to each other as twins. The study is reportedly the biggest ongoing scientific nutrition study of its kind and is being lead by a team of researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital, King's College in London and a nutritional company called ZOE.
The study indicated that responses to individual diets are unique, even for twins and indicate that the old-fashioned, one-size-fits-all dietary guidelines maybe too simplistic. The study also indicates a need to promote a personalised approach towards nutrition, which is likely to provide better long-term health benefits instead of following a pre-set rule book. The study was conducted among 1,100 participants in the US and the UK, among which, most were pairs of twins and the researchers measured the impact of individual meals on blood level markers like insulin, sugar and fats. They also collected data about levels of activity, sleep, hunger, and gut microbiome or bacteria of the gut. The study not only indicated that the same diet could affect two very similar bodies - like in the case of twins- differently, they also said that the same person was likely to react differently to the same food if it was consumed at different timings.
These results lead the researchers to conclude that nutrition facts on their own cannot predict how a particular food can affect the health and weight of a large group of people. The participants showed a wide variation in blood level marker responses to the same meal, which could only partly be explained by genetic factors. Even identical twins who share all their genes and lived in almost similar environments also showed different reactions to the same food. Some of the factors that played a role in impacting body's response to meals included gut microbiome, levels of physical activity and meal timings, which, the researchers concluded were as important as the nutritional compositions of the foods that were consumed.
The study's results were presented at the American Society of Nutrition Conference and the American Diabetes Association Conference. These haven't been published in a peer-reviewed journal yet.
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