Is Your Diet Personalized Enough?
Though they’re not without critics, the U.S. federal dietary guidelines have for years aimed to give all Americans a blueprint for good nutrition.
But new research says this kind of one-size-fits-all approach may not cut it. Different people, even identical twins (who have nearly the exact same DNA), may respond to the same foods very differently, the researchers found—complicating decades of weight-loss and health advice, and potentially leaving consumers with more questions than answers.
“Our recommendations, medically and public-health wise, have just been assuming that if people follow the standard plan, they’ll lose weight” and develop fewer chronic diseases, says study co-investigator Tim Spector, a professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London. “Really, that thinking has now been exposed as completely flawed.”
Excerpted from Time
