The same meal plans do not even work for identical twins, a study reveals



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For anyone looking desperately for the slimming tips of Instagram's food influencers: do not worry.

There is no point trying to follow your family's advice on what they eat to stay slim, whether – even if you are an identical twin.

Even sticking to the usual dietary guidelines – reducing fats and carbohydrates, and meticulously counting calories – is a shot in the dark to understand what your body really needs.

According to new groundbreaking research, the nutrients in our plates have very little influence on our reactions to food and our genes determine only about 50% of our reactions.

In addition, while some of us would do well to reduce their fat consumption, others would do better to monitor their carbs, and some would not need to worry at all.

In fact, the most important environmental factors in determining whether we will gain weight, develop diabetes or suffer from indigestion are environmental factors, including stress, sleep patterns, exercise and bacteria who live in our guts.

This study, the most recent of a nearly 30-year-old company conducted by Tim Spector, an epidemiologist at Kings College London, is one of the most convincing to date according to which a personalized diet is essential if we really want to control the risks of obesity and other diet related diseases. .

Our intestinal bacteria are influenced by a multitude of factors, all of which have a significant impact on our health. This means that the diet of someone else may not work for you (image of the file)

Our intestinal bacteria are influenced by a multitude of factors, all of which have a significant impact on our health. This means that the diet of someone else may not work for you (image of the file)

Nicknamed "Predict", the project is the largest ever done to analyze what influences individual nutrient responses, involving 700 identical twins, 300 other Britons and 100 Americans.

The full results have not yet been released, but the team shared some details at a conference on Monday, breaking down many of our strong beliefs about genes and food.

Working with a team at Harvard Medical School, Spector, founder of the British Gut project and Twins UK (exploring the same issue), found that the diet needed to be highly personalized to affect our appearance and well-being. be.

For two weeks, they studied the reaction of each of the 1,100 participants after each meal. They compared this data with a record of each person's exercise habits, sleep patterns, body fat and sampled his gut microbiota.

A case study summed it up: a twin has very large spikes of fatty acids (triglycerides) in the blood each time he eats chips. These spikes were six times higher than their twin, whose body was largely unaffected by the snack.

This is not the first suggestion that our intestinal bacteria is influenced by a multitude of factors, all of which have a significant impact on our health.

The American Gut Project, a parallel to Spector's work, released data in 2016 showing that 800 people with popular diets had extremely varied responses to the same food.

And a study in Israel hit the headlines in 2015, concluding that some people prefer rice and ice cream over salad, and vice versa.

But Spector's focus on twins shows more clearly than ever that we need to take a closer look at every aspect of a person's lifestyle to understand their dietary needs.

Only then can we control the rising rates of obesity, diabetes, digestive disorders and colorectal cancer.

There are movements in this direction.

Dr. Rob Knight, co-founder of the American Gut Project, said his team was working on many "science fiction" ideas to revolutionize the understanding of our personal bowel health:

  • A "smart toilet" that examines your feces and provides a live account of "how you're doing"
  • A "smart mirror" that analyzes your breathing when you breathe on it, much like the cystic fibrosis breathing tests available
  • An application synchronized with your smart toilet that could scan grocery items during your shopping and tell you what you should buy to eat

And Emulate, Inc., a biotech start-up, has successfully developed an "on-chip digestive tract," which involves using a DNA sample to perfectly replicate a person's gut microbiota in a tiny piece of plastic.

Dr. Geraldine Hamilton, founder of Emulate, suggests that we can all take away our fleas one day – with one for our heart, one for our kidneys, one for our lungs, brains, intestines, and so on. or drugs on the chip and better understand how our body might react.

It's complicated by the fact that our gut microbiota changes every second of every day. The way you were born – whether natural birth or caesarean section – has a huge impact on your gut microbiota. What you ate this morning, how long you slept last night, and the number of emails you received late at night all affect how you metabolize this burrito.

For the time being, for lack of more specific tools, Spector warned that one should not discount carelessly dietary recommendations.

It's always a good idea to prioritize vegetables over red meat and water on a milkshake.

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