What tricks does humanity go to to get rid of extra pounds and centimeters at the waist! In pursuit of ideal forms, the fair sex rush from one extreme to another and are ready to exhaust themselves with any diets that promise the opportunity to turn into Miss slimness.
At the same time, the craze for a particular diet is most often not a scientifically based medical prescription, but an ordinary tribute to fashion. Kefir, egg, grapefruit, salt-free, cereal, cabbage – this is just a small fraction of the weight loss systems that have come to the fore recently. One of the latest innovations is the so-called DNA diet – a method that is based on the developments of geneticists. At the heart of this method of getting rid of extra pounds is the theory that most of our individual characteristics are due to the DNA model – a unique set of genes. They are responsible for our taste preferences and for how our body perceives certain foods. In addition, it is in the DNA that the propensity to gain extra pounds due to the use of specific foods is “laid”.
There was even a special science – nutrigenetics. It studies the features of the influence of food on health depending on genetic characteristics. Numerous companies offer consumers an analysis to help determine a baseline of foods that are recommended for a particular patient, as well as to identify those that should be excluded from the diet due to their negative impact on health. This waybill is the basis of the DNA diet, which supposedly will help to resist the tendency to obesity and maintain the ideal appearance and good health. At the same time, some patients are recommended a diet with a limited amount of fats, others are recommended to “cut back” carbohydrates as much as possible, and others are advised to exclude certain vegetables or types of meat from the menu.
Adherents of the theory of DNA weight loss argued that such a diet is on average two to three times more effective than usual, helps restore health and maintain strength and vigor until old age. At the same time, they emphasize that such a diet is “cost-effective”, since a DNA test only needs to be taken once in a lifetime, because the set of genes in each person remains unchanged from birth to death.
However, one recent study showed that in fact, diets based on DNA analysis cannot boast of high efficiency. This conclusion was made by experts from Stanford University. The results of the experiment are discussed in the material published in the scientific journal Journal of the American Medical Association.
The study involved 609 overweight volunteers, whose age ranged from eighteen to fifty years. All of them underwent genetic analysis and a test that was designed to determine the so-called “insulin resistance” – in other words, to find out how the patient’s body reacts to insulin, which is responsible for the absorption of glucose from food. After that, the participants were put on one of the diets: low-fat or low-carbohydrate. The scientists set out to determine how each of the diets would help patients build weight.
The result showed that over the course of the year, participants in each group did manage to lose weight: those who limited their fat intake lost an average of about 5,3 kg, and those who stopped eating carbohydrates lost about 5,9 kg. However, the difference in these indicators is estimated by researchers as negligible. Moreover, it turned out that those people who adhered to the diet “prescribed” by the DNA test lost no more weight than the rest of the study participants.
Thus, summed up Dr. Christopher Gardner, who led the research team, it turned out that the appointment of a diet that corresponds to the so-called “genetic code” cannot guarantee success in losing weight. In other words, there is no need to talk about any genetic predisposition to the use of certain products.
However, as it turned out, the appointment of dietary restrictions according to insulin resistance is also not a guarantee that a person will be able to get rid of extra pounds.
According to Gardner, this indicates that, adhering to any dietary restrictions, people lose weight not because it is “inherent” in their genes, but simply due to the diet itself. In the human DNA, the secret to the success of a certain weight loss diet is not “written” or “encrypted”. However, Dr. Gardner admits, perhaps the researchers simply have not yet been able to decipher the DNA code to such an extent that it is possible to claim the benefits of a particular diet for a particular person. The scientist does not exclude the possibility that in the future it may really be possible to talk about the individualization of the choice of the nutrition system, but so far this day has not yet come.
In the meantime, experts recommend simply introducing as many fruits and vegetables into the diet as possible – this will really have a positive effect on metabolism. It is a balanced diet, according to nutritionists, that can be considered as the very “golden mean” in nutrition, which can help people get rid of extra pounds.