Effects of a personalized nutrition program on cardiometabolic health: a randomized controlled trial

Bermingham, Kate M.; Linenberg, Inbar; Polidori, Lorenzo; Asnicar, Francesco; Arrè, Alberto; Wolf, Jonathan; Badri, Fatema; Bernard, Hannah; Capdevila, Joan; Bulsiewicz, William J.; Gardner, Christopher D.; Ordovas, Jose M.; Davies, Richard; Hadjigeorgiou, George; Hall, Wendy L.; Delahanty, Linda M.; Valdes, Ana M.; Segata, Nicola; Spector, Tim D.; Berry, Sarah E.

Abstract

Large variability exists in people’s responses to foods. However, the efficacy of personalized dietary advice for health remains understudied. We compared a personalized dietary program (PDP) versus general advice (control) on cardiometabolic health using a randomized clinical trial. The PDP used food characteristics, individual postprandial glucose and triglyceride (TG) responses to foods, microbiomes and health history, to produce personalized food scores in an 18-week app-based program. The control group received standard care dietary advice (US Department of Agriculture Guidelines for Americans, 2020–2025) using online resources, check-ins, video lessons and a leaflet. Primary outcomes were serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and TG concentrations at baseline and at 18 weeks. Participants (n = 347), aged 41–70 years and generally representative of the average US population, were randomized to the PDP (n = 177) or control (n = 170). Intention-to-treat analysis (n = 347) between groups showed significant reduction in TGs (mean difference = −0.13 mmol l−1; log-transformed 95% confidence interval = −0.07 to −0.01, P = 0.016). Changes in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol were not significant. There were improvements in secondary outcomes, including body weight, waist circumference, HbA1c, diet quality and microbiome (beta-diversity) (P < 0.05), particularly in highly adherent PDP participants. However, blood pressure, insulin, glucose, C-peptide, apolipoprotein A1 and B, and postprandial TGs did not differ between groups. No serious intervention-related adverse events were reported. Following a personalized diet led to some improvements in cardiometabolic health compared to standard dietary advice.

Citation

Bermingham, K. M., Linenberg, I., Polidori, L., Asnicar, F., Arrè, A., Wolf, J., Badri, F., Bernard, H., Capdevila, J., Bulsiewicz, W. J., Gardner, C. D., Ordovas, J. M., Davies, R., Hadjigeorgiou, G., Hall, W. L., Delahanty, L. M., Valdes, A. M., Segata, N., Spector, T. D., & Berry, S. E. (2024). Effects of a personalized nutrition program on cardiometabolic health: a randomized controlled trial. Nature Medicine, 30, 1888-1897. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-024-02951-6

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 26, 2024
• Online Publication Date: May 8, 2024
• Publication Date: 2024-07
• Deposit Date: May 13, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: May 14, 2024
• Journal: Nature Medicine
• Print ISSN: 1078-8956
• Electronic ISSN: 1546-170X
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 30
• Pages: 1888-1897
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-024-02951-6
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/34633582
• Publisher URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-02951-6
• Additional Information: Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.