The Personalized Diet Prescription: New science ends era of universal dietary guidelines

What is a healthy diet?

It’s hard to imagine a more basic question. For a sophisticated species that has been eating for a long time, we keep getting it wrong. A google search for “diets” yields over a billion hits. Usually the number of opinions on an issue is inversely proportional to the level of understanding. Recent research now promises an answer to this perennial question, specifically tailored to the individual asking.

The first thing one notices when studying traditional approaches to eating is how humans thrived on wildly different diets. East African pastoralists ate milk, meat and blood. Quechua living in the High Andes favored tubers. The !Kung in southern Africa used mongongo nuts as their staple. Seal provided the central ingredient for the Inuit of northern Alaska.

These diets are anything but balanced. Their success proves that there are no essential foods, only essential nutrients. However, the focus on macronutrients has also failed to solve the healthy diet riddle. Vigorous debate continues between the proponents of high/low carb, fat and protein regimens.

Groundbreaking experiments now suggest that the era of universal dietary recommendations will soon be a thing of the past. The key to a healthy…