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Nutrigenetic diet does not increase weight loss compared with standard balanced diet
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Overweight and obese patients did not achieve higher weight loss with a nutrigenetic-based diet compared with a standard balanced diet in a recent study.
“In a small feasibility randomized control trial, we wondered whether using a commercial direct-to-consumer genetic test to make personalized dietary recommendations to obese veterans would help them be more successful in their weight loss goals,” Amir Zarrinpar, MD, PhD, from the Veterans Affairs San Diego Health System, and assistant professor, division of gastroenterology, University of California, San Diego, told Healio Gastroenterology. “We recruited 51 veterans who were participating in the MOVE! Weight Loss Program, which is a national program with lots of historical data, into the study, where some received standard therapy (behavioral classes and a balanced diet) and others received genetic-based therapy (behavioral classes and one of four genetic based diets).”
Amir Zarrinpar
Participants were randomly assigned to be placed on a personalized diet based on their genetic profile determined by the Pathway FIT test (balanced, low-carbohydrate, low-fat or Mediterranean diet) or a standard balanced diet, and were followed to 24 weeks from November 2012 to March 2014. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients with at least 5% weight loss in the nutrigenetic diet group vs. standard balanced diet group after 8 weeks.
Eighteen and 14 patients in the nutrigenetic vs. standard balanced diet groups completed the study, respectively. There was no significant difference between groups regarding the primary outcome; at least 5% weight loss was achieved at 8 weeks by 26.9% ± 17.1% of the nutrigenetic diet group compared with 35% ± 20.9% of the standard balanced diet group, corresponding to a “difference in proportion [of] 8.1% with confidence interval of –17.5% to 33.5%.” This difference remained insignificant at 24 weeks, and there was also no significant difference in relative percentage of weight loss between groups.
Adherence to the nutrigenetic diet was significantly correlated with weight loss at 24 weeks (r = 0.74; P = 4 x 10–5) but adherence to standard balanced diet was not. Participants from either group who were matched to the balanced diet based on their genetic profile lost more weight than other participants at 8 weeks (5% ± 0.6% vs. 2.9% ± 0.5%; P = .02) and had more significantly decreased BMI (6.4% ± 1.2% vs. 3.6% ± 1.1%; P = .02) and waist circumference (6.5% ± 0.6% vs. 2.6% ± 0.1%; P = .03) at 24 weeks.
“We found no difference in weight loss between the patients who received genetic-based dietary recommendations and those who received standard diet ones,” Zarrinpar said. “However, in a post-hoc analysis we noticed that the genetic testing could help predict which individuals would successfully lose weight from behavioral and dietary therapy. Hence, since there is still very little scientific data linking genetics to the correct diet, perhaps a better strategy would be to use genetic tests to identify who will succeed and fail with each type of treatment.” – by Adam Leitenberger
Disclosures: Zarrinpar reports this was an investigator-initiated industry-funded study. Industry funds were provided by Pathway Genomics. Please see the study for a full list of all other researchers’ relevant financial disclosures.
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