Personalized Nutrition and The Best Diet for You

True Health Revealed

We know that nutrition, just like medicine, isn’t one-size-fits-all. Kathleen chats with Stanford’s Dr. Christopher Gardner to better understand the hot topic of personalized nutrition, also called precision nutrition which assumes that each person may have a different response to specific foods and nutrients. Precision nutrition asserts that the best diet for you may look very different than the best diet for another.

But is it premature, does the evidence exist to define individual optimal diets or should we focus on eating according to the Dietary Guidelines? Christopher shares results of many of his research studies that have searched for the best diets.

We also dive into the role of the relationship of diet and the microbiome (gut health). Our diets determine which types of bacteria live in our digestive tracts, and according to precision nutrition the reverse is also true: the types of bacteria we house might determine how we break down certain foods, what types of foods are most beneficial for our bodies and how the microbiome impacts health and wellness.

Key Messages

There are so many variables, including genetics, gut microbes, lifestyle, biological, environmental, and social factors that affect an individual’s precision eating plan to improve overall health.

The best diets start with healthy foods and weight loss can occur on a wide range of diet plans.

One of the downfalls of weight loss diets is cutting calories but when you focus on feeling satisfied, it is much more sustainable long term and results in weight loss.

Fiber rich diets feed the microbiome to produce healthy bacteria in the gut but it also depends on the existing bacteria.

Prebiotics from fermented foods (yogurt, kefir, kombucha, kimchi, sauerkraut..) have the greatest impact on the microbiome that can boost immunity and reduce inflammation.