Recently, an interesting study from Stanford University was presented at an American Hearth Association conference in San Francisco last week.

A simple DNA test could predict what kind of weight-loss diet — either low-carb or low-fat — would work best for the person to lose weight, according to a study by Stanford Univ. The women who followed a weight-loss diet that best fit their genes for a year lost two to three times more than those on the “wrong” diet, the study showed. Based on genetic makeup, the researchers divided people into three genotypes: low-carb-diet responsive, low-fat-diet responsive and balanced-diet responsive.

The diets were modeled after three popular diets (Atkins, Zone, and Ornish) and the U.S.D.A Food Pyramid. In this way, the researchers apparently attempted to include diets which were very low in carbohydrates, very low in fats, moderately low in carbs, and “standard diet recommendations”.

As Jennifer Thomas of HealthDay reports:

“Women assigned to the correct diet based on their genotype lost two to three times more weight at 12 months than those who were assigned to a diet that was inappropriate. When the researchers looked at only the most extreme diets (Atkins versus Ornish), the results were even more stark. Women assigned to their correct diet for their genotype lost five times as much weight as those on the incorrect diet, the study found.”

Before we get too excited about it, the researchers are quick to emphasize that this is a very initial study and more works have to be done before you can draw any conclusion.

Here are some conclusions drawn:

- A small 2005 study has showed that people who were insulin resistant tend to lose more weight on a low-carb diet while people who were normal in terms of insulin did better on a low-fat diet.

- People who are going to benefit the most from cutting carbs have underlying issues with insulin and glucose. They don’t process sugar well and it is to have less of it, and all carbs are sugar. So I would guess that some of these genes are involved with carbohydrate/sugar metabolism.

- Some of the genes in the study are apparently involved with fat metabolism, which also makes sense in terms of what kind of diet would be best for an individual.

- One of the frustrating things about large diet studies is that while we are told the differences in the outcomes between the diet groups (which is often small), we are usually not even given hints of how much difference in outcome there was between the people within each diet group.

If some people did great and some did terrible, the fact that there was a mediocre average simply does not tell the tale. We need to know why some people did great and some did terrible. This has usually been chocked up to compliance (the people who did terrible didn’t “follow the rules”).

But what if it was because of factors which had nothing to do with compliance and everything to do with a person’s genetics and metabolism and physiology?

[Source: HealthNews]

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 5:02 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.