Personalized nutrition is more effective than general dietary advice, research shows

Personalized nutrition approaches can improve several important health metrics, including lower weight, lower cholesterol, better mood, better gut health, lower risk of cardiovascular disease and better metabolic health.

The improvements for those who followed personal guidance were also greater in some areas than for those who followed the current general government advice.

Numerous chronic diseases and health problems can be linked to our diet, including the risk of stroke, heart disease and some cancers. New research is constantly emerging, giving us more insight into how diet affects our health. Changing our diet can make us healthier and reduce the risk of chronic disease, but it has been found that people often don’t follow general health advice.

There is also great variation in the way people’s bodies respond to food, even between identical twins. Despite this, little research has been conducted on the effectiveness of personalized nutrition approaches.

In this study, researchers from the School of Life Course & Population Sciences wanted to see whether a personalized diet plan, tailored to an individual’s biology, lifestyle and health history, would have a greater impact than generic dietary advice such as avoiding red meat. The personalized diet programs were created by ZOE, a science and nutrition company co-founded by King’s Professor Tim Spector that aims to help members improve their health with personalized advice.

347 Americans took part in the study, in which researchers compared the effects of following an 18-week personalized program with generic dietary recommendations from the US government. While both groups improved their overall health, participants in the personalized diet plan lost more weight than the control group and lowered their triglyceride levels more, reducing their risk of heart disease.

Participants who followed the personalized diet plan were also twice as likely to report improved mood, twice as likely to report less hunger, and more than four times more likely to report better sleep quality and energy levels compared to the control group.

“It is clear that some current population advice is not working as well as it could be, and many people are struggling to adhere to it. ZOE advice shows that people think about food in a completely different way, with an emphasis on quality, personalization and intuition. health can have enormous benefits if applied on a larger scale,” says Professor Spector.

“ZOE’s METHOD study builds on growing evidence that a personalized nutrition approach can be an effective tool to improve health. Personalized approaches can improve both the way people follow advice and the effectiveness of the advice. Targeting multiple attributes of personalization is key to success, including people’s biology, lifestyle, barriers and preferences,” said ZOE Chief Scientist Dr. Sarah Berry.

The paper is published in the news Naturopathy.