WASHINGTON — Two people can go on the same diet and have vastly different results. Researchers at Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science think they may have found the answer.
It lies deep within a person’s own individual body chemistry, and the way we burn food as fuel.
The Israeli researchers followed 800 people — both healthy weight and pre-diabetic individuals — between the ages of 18 and 70. They monitored what the study participants ate for a week and how their blood sugar levels responded.
The researchers focused on the glycemic index, which measures the impact specific foods have on blood sugar in the body.
A food’s glycemic index was thought to be a fixed number. But the researchers found that was not the case: Two people could eat the same food and come up with two difference responses.
One glaring example involved a woman in the study who had severe problems losing weight. Over the course of the study, the researchers discovered her blood sugar levels spiked after eating tomatoes, a healthy food that gives most people no problems at all.
The researchers say their study, published in the journal Cell, shows that creating eating plans tailored to an individual’s unique body chemistry may well be the future of weight control.
