Personalized Nutrition: Individual Responses to Foods, Fiber, Fats & Maternal Health

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How individuals vary in responses to carbs, fibers, and fats.

TOPICS DISCUSSED:

• Personalized health profiling: Snyder’s lab sequences genomes and measures molecules from blood, urine, and microbiomes to detect diseases early, emphasizing data-driven discovery over assumptions.
• Fiber variations and effects: Responses to dietary fibers vary individually, with microbiome playing a key role.
• Glycemic responses to carbs: People spike differently to foods like rice, potatoes, or bread; tied to insulin resistance subtypes in muscles, liver, or pancreas.
• Type 2 diabetes heterogeneity: 90% of diabetes cases are type 2 with subtypes like muscle or hepatic resistance; triggers include genetics and infections, with prediabetes often undetected.
• Continuous glucose monitors (CGMs): Affordable tools measure glucose every five minutes, revealing personal food triggers; spikes link to risks like cardiovascular disease and cancer.
• Lipidomics: Lipids are diverse, serving as energy sources, structural components, and signaling molecules; understudied but key in metabolism and gene expression.
• Maternal health & pregnancy: Metabolomics shows thousands of changes, including hormone shifts; cord blood analysis reveals fetal nutrient use and drug transfers, with markers for preterm birth or healthy outcomes.
• Future research: Exploring epigenetic changes in diabetes, personalized nutrition mitigation, and digital markers from wearables for mental health tied to diet and gut-brain axis.

ABOUT THE GUEST: Michael Snyder, PhD is the Stanford W. Ascherman Professor of Genetics and former chair of the Department of Genetics at Stanford University School of Medicine, where he directs the Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine.

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