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knowledge to choose the right foods
that optimise their personal metabolism,
control weight and maintain good health.
As part of this next phase and to develop
the app, over a thousand US participants
are being recruited to take part from home
at www.joinzoe.com.
Predict comes after the 25-year-long
Twins UK Study, which examined health
and lifestyle in 14,000 twins, led by
Predict's lead researcher, Tim Spector,
Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at
King's College London and author of The
Diet Myth.
After findings showed that genetically
identical twins had very different food
responses, Spector concluded that genes
contributed 70% of an individual's risk for
obesity, on average. He then went on
to create ZOE along with technologists
Jonathan Wolf and George Hadjigeorgiou.
Spector says: "I believe that diversity,
both in the food we eat and the microbes
we feed is the key. The trillions of
microbes in our gut play an important role
in digesting food and producing a number
of chemicals vital for a strong immune
References
1. www.nhs.uk/obesity
2. www.joinzoe.com
3. www.irishtimes.com/ditch-the-onesize-fits-all-diet
4 www.theconversation.com/future-ofnutrition-is-personal
5 www.sky.com/story/michael-buerk-letobese-people-die-early
system. We know that the greater the
number of different types of microbe,
the healthier we can be. This microbial
diversity is achieved by eating a wide
array of real and fermented foods, not
excluding them."
Healthy eating messages
Weight loss, dieting and healthy eating
are here to stay, as well as all the varying
approaches to it. Whatever way people
choose to lose weight, it needs to be
sustainable and work for the individual;
the diet that's right for you could well be
right pretty much only for you.
Writing for The Conversation, Spector
explained, "Of course, there are healthy
eating messages that apply to everyone,
such as eating more fibre and increasing
diverse plant-based foods and cutting
down on ultra-processed products. But
the take-home message is that there is
no one right way to eat that works for
everyone, despite what government
guidelines and glamorous Instagram
gurus tell you."
www.tim-spector.co.uk
The take-home
message is that there
is no one right way
to eat that works for
everyone, despite
what government
guidelines and
glamorous Instagram
gurus tell you."
- Tim Spector, author
of The Diet Myth
"