{"id":599220,"date":"2026-08-20T14:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T14:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/599220\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T14:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T14:00:15","slug":"personalised-nutrition-why-your-unique-blood-chemistry-is-a-better-indicator-of-health-than-diet-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/599220\/","title":{"rendered":"Personalised nutrition: Why your unique blood chemistry is a better indicator of health than diet records"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sarah<\/p>\n

August 20, 2026 \u2014 7:00pm<\/p>\n

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AAA<\/p>\n

Everything we eat \u2013 the apple, cucumber, overnight oats with chia, yoghurt and peanut butter, raw chocolate, homemade pizza and salad I had yesterday \u2013 leaves a metabolic imprint in our bodies.<\/p>\n

The lipids from fish are different to those found in dairy, meat, fruit and so on. And the combination of these different imprints, from the different foods that make up our overall diet, creates a pattern.<\/p>\n

But that pattern might show up a little differently in my body than yours, depending on our levels of physically activity, lifestyle, genetics, age, microbiome and health status. Perhaps, also the quality and quantities of those same foods and even our social connections and stress levels, too.<\/p>\n

This mix of individual lipids in our blood and our individual response leaves a unique metabolic signature \u2013 like a molecular \u201cfingerprint\u201d \u2013 that can predict our disease risk and lifespan.<\/p>\n

\"DrDr Habtamu Beyene led a new study that found each person has a unique metabolic signature. Luis Enrique Ascui<\/p>\n

This is the finding of new Australian research, published in the journal, Nature Communications<\/a>, which measured the unique \u201cfingerprints\u201d of 13,335 participants against their risk of cardiovascular disease and premature death 12 years later.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we eat isn\u2019t just reflected in our waistline. It\u2019s written in the chemistry of our blood,\u201d says lead researcher Dr Habtamu Beyene, from the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Elle<\/a><\/p>\n

Broadly, signatures reflecting Mediterranean-style diets, rich in nuts, vegetables and fibre were associated with around a 20 to 25 per cent lower risk of cardiovascular death.<\/p>\n

Two servings of fish a week, with its distinctive lipid signature rich in omega-3 fatty acids, was also associated with lower cardiovascular risk.<\/p>\n

The signatures of low-carb diets and those high in dairy or ultraprocessed meats, however, had a higher association with developing cardiovascular disease.<\/p>\n

Meat and dairy contain lipids that are both beneficial and problematic. But, if someone\u2019s diet is too heavily reliant on meat, the problematic lipids outweigh the beneficial ones.<\/p>\n

The type of meat or dairy matters, too. For instance, the effects of dairy can vary based on factors such as probiotics, fermentation, intake amount and fat content.<\/p>\n

\"WhatWhat you eat is written in your blood. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The associations between a Mediterranean-style diet and good heart health and longevity are already known, as is the converse association between a low-carb, high-protein diet and poor heart health and lifespan. But, of course, given we have a unique response to the same foods, not everyone has the same risk profile.<\/p>\n

This means that a person\u2019s signature is better at predicting health outcomes than the current method of asking about their diet.<\/p>\n

Editor’s pick\"Miranda<\/a><\/p>\n

People also rarely recall accurately what they have eaten, making it an unreliable measure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reliance on diet records for assessment really is a problem,\u201d says Professor Leonie Heilbronn of Adelaide University. \u201cLipidomic signatures may therefore provide a more objective measure of diet quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

And herein lies the potential of mapping people\u2019s signatures, says Professor Peter Meikle, the head of the Metabolomics laboratory at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute.<\/p>\n

We know diet plays a key role in health and the development of many diseases, yet the underlying metabolic pathways remain unclear. Understanding those pathways, and the individual differences, lays the groundwork for tailored recommendations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf two people come in, and they\u2019ve had the same diet, a dietitian will probably give them the same advice,\u201d says Meikle.<\/p>\n

By assessing how a person\u2019s unique signature affects their risk of developing cardiovascular disease, they can personalise the dietary tweaks to reduce that risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can nudge people in the right direction, and [understand] what are the best nudges that will give them the biggest benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ProfessorProfessor Peter Meikle<\/p>\n

It is another step in the evolving field of personalised nutrition, which emerged about a decade ago, and helps to explain why some people can \u201cget away\u201d with certain foods<\/a>, while others cannot.<\/p>\n

While there are plans to test metabolically guided interventions in a clinical trial next year, the study\u2019s findings reinforce the need to promote evidence-based, plant-rich dietary patterns like the Mediterranean diet and DASH, says Deakin University\u2019s Dr Elena George.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese tools show promise,\u201d George says, \u201cand, in the future, may be able to support risk stratification, dietary assessment and precision nutrition, but they don\u2019t replace traditional dietary assessment in clinical practice \u2013 not yet, anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually, Meikle says, people will be able to ask their doctors for the test that captures their unique metabolic signature.<\/p>\n

Editor’s pick\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are now moving into a national primary-care implementation study to establish how it can be delivered routinely and used to support clinical decisions,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first step towards making this technology available to the public. Subsequent tests could build more directly on an individual\u2019s dietary and lifestyle-related metabolic signature, helping tailor preventive advice and monitor response to interventions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Make the most of your health, relationships, fitness and nutrition with our Live Well newsletter. Get it in your inbox<\/a> every Monday.<\/p>\n

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\"SarahSarah Berry<\/a> is a lifestyle and health writer at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"August 20, 2026 \u2014 7:00pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[103,61,60,446],"class_list":["post-599220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-nutrition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}