Diets work differently in different people

November 21, 2015  19:59

Scientists increasingly think that what we eat influences which bacteria thrive in our digestive tracks, and the bacteria in our bellies, in turn, influence our health. A new study indicates this is no less true in people with diabetes.

Scientists say the difference in people’s gut bugs may explain why the customary diet used to control or prevent diabetes — more complex carbohydrates, fewer simple carbohydrates — works so much better in some people than in others.

The glycemic index is one commonly used way to categorize foods as safe or unsafe for people with diabetics or prediabetes. Many would-be weight losers also use the rating system to differentiate “good” complex carbs from “bad” simple carbs. The system rates foods based on the average amount of glucose they cause the body to produce.

But, the study published today in the journal Cell argues, those averages are almost meaningless. Foods that rate as low-glycemic, such as lentils, may cause spikes in blood sugar in some people while foods we would expect to be sugar bombs, such as ice cream, can fit well into some people’s diets.

In other words, for some, bread may be a “good” carb, while for others it is a “bad” carb.

“This variability is something that can explain some or all of the general failure of the human race to apply a universal diet to address the obesity epidemic,” said Dr. Eran Elinav, Ph.D., a researcher at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, who is one of the study authors.

Elinav and his colleagues fitted 800 participants with continuous glucose monitors to keep tabs on all of the spikes and valleys in their blood sugar over the course of an entire week. The participants did not have prediabetes, but many were at risk. Most were overweight and many were obese.

Participants ate one of four standardized breakfasts each day and wrote down the rest of what they ate.

This produced a flood of data. Sorting through it with the help of a computer, the researchers concluded that gut bacteria were a major factor causing people to metabolize foods differently.

Follow NEWS.am Medicine on Facebook and Twitter


  • Related News
 
  • Video
 
 
  • Event calendar
 
 
  • Archive