Eat more avocado! What I learned from the study that will change how we eat

[helvella]

Curious how I, and I suspect many others, have been hearing "personalised" in relation to medicine quite a bit recently. Which in the context of thyroid seems to result in TSH-only, levothyroxine-only and withdrawal or dismissal of anything else.

Nonetheless, there are some interesting things going on.

Can't help hoping that among the other tests done, this study included at least Free T4 and Free T3. (Though I have not yet searched to find out any more than is in the article.)

Eat more avocado! What I learned from the study that will change how we eat

The Predict study measured thousands of people’s reactions to different foods in an effort to develop truly individualised, preventive medicine. Is this the start of a dietary revolution?

I am on a small ward at St Thomas’ hospital in London. There are six beds with a view of the Thames, which is lit by November sunshine. I’m in good health, but scanning my timetable – I’m here taking part in a two-week scientific study – is making me feel anaemic. “8.35am: 1st blood draw. 10.05am: 2nd blood draw. 10.20am: 3rd blood draw. 10.50am: 4th blood draw…” on it goes. There will be 10 blood draws in total today, each filling three vials, to be tested for levels of glucose, fat, insulin and other clues as to how efficiently my body metabolises different foods. But these are not just any foods; they are lab-baked muffins with precisely varying amounts of fat, protein, carbohydrate and fibre.

The aim of this study – Predict, a collaboration between King’s College London and Harvard and Stanford medical schools in the US – is to measure thousands of people’s responses to different foods and discover why, when it comes to health, different diets suit different people. The hope is that when enough data has been gathered researchers (using AI), and eventually an app called Zoe, will be able to predict individual healthy and unhealthy food choices for each of us.

Personalised nutrition is a public-health holy grail. Geneticists have strived for decades to develop diets based on genotype as a sophisticated form of preventive medicine. The idea is that eating what is optimal for your unique physiology could shield you from the particular diseases to which you may be susceptible, from certain cancers to diabetes. Such is the complexity of genetics, however, that our understanding is still too fragmented. Not to mention disproving any one-size-fits-all diet advice.

Rest of article available here: theguardian.com/lifeandstyl...

[BadHare]

Eating avocados is a clinical trial I'd like to take part in!

[ThyroidObsessed]

Vile things them avocado 😝😝

[jgelliss]

Thank You helvella for this interesting study you are involved with . You are your own *Lab Rat* . A Smart One Too . Enjoy yourself and let us know how it goes .

[helvella Administrator in reply to jgelliss]

Not me! Sorry if it gave that impression- a quoted piece from the Guardian newspaper.

[jgelliss in reply to helvella]

I apologize for misunderstanding .

[radd]

helvella,

I think if we are mindful enough we are naturally drawn to the nutrient dense foods that agree with our makeups and maintain our wellbeing.

I assume mushrooms is a nutritious favourite of yours. 😉

[helvella Administrator in reply to radd]

Bad assumption.

I like looking at them, photographing them, but not eating them.

The flavours aren't too bad, but the texture is so often unbearable.

[radd in reply to helvella]

I don’t think I would enjoy eating the texture of myself either. 😂

[Hidden]

I only eat this at the weekends on toast, delicious.

[Rapunzel in reply to Hidden]

Yeah I used to take shroooms at the weekend, too 🍄

[vocalEK]

Price of avocados in my part of the USA recently jumped to $2.50 each. Ouch.

[Hidden]

Thanks for this helvella, it's fascinating. There are a few published papers looking at the gut microbiome of people with hashimotos

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/293...

plus a fantastic book by Pro Tim Spector (the lead scientist b on the study in the guardian article) all about the evidence on diet and nutrition called "the diet myth' He's not a big fan of diets that exclude too many things and, just like the article points out, says we all respond uniquely to food and that prescriptive books that advise us all to follow the same path are too general. So for things like gluten or dairy it really does vary how we respond and we need to try for ourselves rather than accept blanket advice. His bottom line advice was eat mostly plants and try to get a big variety (10 to 20 types per week) avoid processed stuff and sugar and limit red meat.

He also says try not to eat anything your grandmother's microbiome wouldn't recognise as food.

Michael

[ Edited to add a colon after https - which tells HealthUnlocked's systems it is a link! Makes it blue and clickable. ]

[clubby29]

Hi there’s a guy in the USA called Peter j d’adamo. He done a big thing on diets for blood groups and I’m sure I saw it had now expanded to genome type diet and lifestyles. Think the original book was 20 years ago, so not a new idea, he was probably looked on as a crackpot back then.😁

[Babette in reply to clubby29]

A friend recommended the blood type diet so I've been looking into it. It was interesting to see that many of the foods I knew made me feel a bit ill were on the list to avoid, and cutting out some more has made a difference. I need more will power to stick to it completely, especially as it's taken weeks to get over a recent slip up .