In a recent op-ed piece in the New York Times by Eric Topol, a cardiologist, and a Forbes article by Shmuel Rausnitz — coming from two very different backgrounds and perspectives — talk about why decades of diet trends and government food pyramids have not led us to a greater understanding about science of nutrition.
The right diet is especially important when talking about the growing population of patients with type 2 and prediabetes. The U.S. is in the midst of a national health crisis with 14% of U.S. adults living with type 2 and 38% with prediabetes. That means over half the adult population in the U.S. alone is living with a metabolic disease today, and those numbers are growing.
Eric Topol, in the New York Times op-ed, titled, “The A.I. Diet” walks readers through the many reasons that it’s fundamentally flawed to believe there is one diet for all people, or one diet for all people living with diabetes. Topol explains that “it’s been with the ability to analyze large data sets using artificial intelligence that we’ve learned how simplistic and naïve the assumption of a universal diet is.”
So, what’s the solution?
Both Eric Topol and Shmuel Rausnitz lay out why personalized diets are superior in helping people living with type 2 and prediabetes. They go on to explain the cutting-edge new science, based on an individual’s gut microbiome, can inform healthy food choices that can help control and maintain blood glucose levels.
The New York Times article talks about how a study published in Cell that included 800 people without diabetes, that gathered Millions of data points, then using machine learning, a subtype of artificial intelligence, found that hundreds of factors were involved in a person’s glycemic response. However, surprisingly, food wasn’t the key determinant. Instead, it was the gut bacteria. Read the full article here.
The Forbes article titled “Ready or Not the Food of the Future is Coming,” discusses how scientists now understand that 99% of our genes are microbial, compared to only 1% that are human. Meaning, the main thrust of innovation in health and diet solutions should definitely be aimed at the microbiome. Read the full article here.
The good news! Finally, there’s a personalized diet that better controls blood glucose levels.
