Personalized nutrition more effective than general diet advice, study finds

Personalized nutrition approaches can improve several key health metrics, including lower weight, lower cholesterol, better mood, improved gut health, lower heart disease risk, and better metabolic health.

Improvements for those following personalized guidance were also greater in some areas than for those following current, generalized government advice.

Numerous chronic diseases and health issues can be linked back to our diets, including stroke risk, heart disease, and some cancers. New research emerges all the time, deepening our understanding of how nutrition 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 generalized health advice.

There is also wide variation in how people’s bodies respond to food, even between identical twins. Despite this, little research has been done into the effectiveness of personalized dietary approaches.

In this study, researchers from the School of Life Course & Population Sciences wanted to see if a personalized diet plan, tailored to an individual’s biology, lifestyle, and health history, would have a greater impact than generic nutrition 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 which aims to help members improve their health with personalized advice.

347 Americans took part in the study, with researchers comparing the effects of following an 18-week personalized program to generic US government-issued nutrition advice. While both groups improved their health overall, participants on the personalized diet plan lost more weight than the control group and lowered their triglyceride levels more—decreasing their risk of heart disease.

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

“It is clear that some current population advice isn’t working as well as it could, with many people struggling to stick to it. ZOE advice shows that thinking about foods in a totally different way with the emphasis on quality, personalization, and gut health can have massive benefits if adopted more widely,” says Professor Spector.

“ZOE’s METHOD trial builds on growing evidence that a personalized dietary approach can be an effective tool for improving health. Personalized approaches can improve both how well people follow the advice as well as the efficacy of the advice. Targeting multiple features of personalization is key to success, including people’s biology, lifestyles, barriers, and preferences,” says Dr. Sarah Berry, Chief Scientist of ZOE.

The paper is published in the journal Nature Medicine.