Aim For Better Health

One-Diet-Fits-All…Doesn’t

As a chiropractor I have observed over the years that there isn’t just one type of adjustment that benefits every patient, or solely one type of therapy that works for everyone, or just one type of diet that works for every overweight patient that needs to lose weight for their health.  Fad diets become “fads” because they actually do work for some people. But, each and every one of them eventually becomes “unfashionable” because the number of people that don’t lose weight far exceeds those who do.

A new genetic test may explain why “one diet fits all” is a myth. The study involved 140 overweight or obese women. The results indicated that those on “genetically appropriate,” i.e.,  diets that corresponded to their genetic makeup, lost more weight than those on less appropriate diets.

“The potential of using genetic information to achieve this magnitude of weight loss without pharmaceutical intervention would be important in helping to solve the pervasive problem of excessive weight in our society,” said Christopher Gardner who worked on the study at Stanford University in California.

Massachusetts-based Interleukin’s $149 test looks for mutations in three specific genes, known as FABP2, PPARG and ADRB2. The company says 39 percent of white Americans have the low-fat genotype, 45 percent have the type that responds best to a diet low in processed carbohydrates, and 16 percent have gene mutations that mean they have to watch both fat and processed carbohydrates.

The researchers randomly assigned around 140 women to one of four diets — the low-carb Atkins diet, the ultra low-fat Ornish diet, the very low-fat LEARN diet, or the more balanced Zone diet.

According to the Stanford researchers, who carried out the study for one year, results indicated that the women that were on diets appropriate to their genetic makeup, as determined by a saliva test, lost 5.3 percent of body weight. Plus, cholesterol levels improved in line with weight loss, they said.

“One of the gene variations affects absorption of fats from the intestine,” Ken Kornman, chief scientific officer at Interleukin, said in a telephone interview. He said people with that particular mutation absorb more fat from their food and thus should avoid fat if they want to lose weight.

he company planned broader studies to ask these questions.

Interleukin, who markets the test under the brand name Inherent Health, plans broader studies to determine if a genetically appropriate affects satiety or feeling full.

In my chiropractic clinic I always recommend some sort of routine exercise for my patients as part of a healthy lifestyle–from young adults to baby boomers and beyond–and not as a weight loss because exercise, though extremely beneficial for every body, doesn’t necessarily generate weight loss in some people. So, I’m hoping that the Interleukin test, which can also determine who might best lose weight in response to exercise, won’t discourage anyone from exercising nevertheless.