There is no perfect diet for humans

Many people are almost fanatical about their “perfect diet”, so much so that you’d think diets are new religions and we’ll one day see wars fought over disputes about carbs. Jabs at some of these diets aside, it turns out there is no perfect diet for humans.

Professor Eran Segal gave a talk at TEDxRuppin in July about research he and his team have been conducting at the Weizman Institute here in Israel into this notion of good diets and bad diets. As he pointed out, dieticians tend to work on the basis of standardised dietary information and recommendations to advise their patients.

It turns out that you can’t apply a standard model to everyone because our microbiomes are so different. What works for one person, puts another person at risk. So, perhaps, diets like Banting are good for some people because their bodies are compatible with the diet and terrible for others because they aren’t.

On a side note, when I think about Israeli hi-tech I’m proud of, this is a great example of how Israeli innovators are doing work that could change the world for the better.

As a diabetic, this kind of research is really interesting to me in a very personal way. I am still learning which foods tend to aggravate my diabetes and which help me manage it better. I can just imagine how beneficial a completely personalised dietary recommendation would be based on my unique biology.

The case against sugar: Science is not definitive and will likely never be. So read the evidence, judge for yourself https://t.co/66pe64JbB8

— Eran Segal (@segal_eran) December 17, 2016

For now, I’ll just stick with my current plan, though.

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