Which is more likely to raise blood sugar levels: sushi or ice cream?
According to a recent study from the Weizmann Institute of Science, the answer varies from one person to another.
In the study, researchers continuously monitored blood sugar levels in 800 people for a week, revealing that the bodily response to all foods was highly individual.
The team chose to focus on blood sugar because elevated levels are a major risk factor for diabetes, obesity, and metabolic syndrome.
The huge differences that we found in the rise of blood sugar levels among different people who consumed identical meals highlight why personalized eating choices are more likely to help people stay healthy than universal dietary advice.
Indeed, the scientists found that different people responded very differently to both simple and complex meals.
For example, a large number of the participant’s blood sugar levels rose sharply after they consumed a standardized glucose meal, but in many others, blood glucose levels rose sharply after they ate white bread, but not after glucose.
The study was unique in its scale and in the inclusion of the analysis of gut microbes, collectively known as the microbiome, which had recently been shown to play an important role in human health and disease.
Study participants were outfitted with small monitors that continuously measured their blood sugar levels and were asked to record everything they ate, as well as such lifestyle factors as sleep and physical activity.
Overall, the researchers assessed the responses of different people to more than 46,000 meals.
Taking these multiple factors into account, the scientists generated an algorithm for predicting individualized responses to food based on the person’s lifestyle, medical background, and the composition and function of his or her microbiome.
In a follow-up study of another 100 volunteers, the team found their algorithm successfully predicted the rise in blood sugar in response to different foods, demonstrating that it could be applied to new participants.
The scientists were able to show that lifestyle also mattered: The same food affected blood sugar levels differently in the same person, depending, for example, on whether its consumption had been preceded by exercise or sleep.
In the final stage of the study, the scientists designed a dietary intervention based on their algorithm; this was a test of their ability to prescribe personal dietary recommendations for lowering blood-glucose-level responses to food.
Volunteers were assigned a personalized “good” diet for one week, and a “bad” diet — also personalized — for another.
Both good and bad diets were designed to have the same number of calories, but the diets differed between participants.
Thus, certain foods in one person’s “good” diet were part of another’s “bad” diet.
The “good” diets indeed helped to keep blood sugar at steadily healthy levels, whereas the “bad” diets often induced spikes in glucose levels — all within just one week of intervention.
Moreover, as a result of the “good” diets, the volunteers experienced consistent changes in the composition of their gut microbes.
This suggests that the microbiome may be influenced by personalized diets while also playing a role in participants’ blood sugar responses.
If you care about blood sugar, please read studies about why blood sugar is high in the morning, and how to cook sweet potatoes without increasing blood sugar.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about 9 unhealthy habits that damage your brain, and results showing this stuff in cannabis may protect aging brain and treat Alzheimer’s.
The study was published in the journal Cell and conducted by Prof. Eran Segal et al.
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