Anyone can follow any type of diet, at any time and for any reason. However, just because a person starts following the rules of a particular diet, limits food intake to only the foods that have been specified, and takes care not to make any mistakes that might hamper any of their progress, it’s still possible to not get the exact same results that are expected.

There are a lot of supposed reasons for this phenomenon, but now a study offers new evidence as to why one person can sometimes not get the exact same results as another when both of them are on the exact same diet. According to the study, which was conducted by researchers at the University of Kent, patients with high blood pressure benefit from changing their diets — but not to the same extent for everyone. This is because their natural gut bacteria play a part in just how effective a specific diet is.

In the words of the researchers themselves, “Inter-individual variation in the response to diet is common, but the underlying mechanism for such variations is unclear.” So they’ve conducted a few experiments to try and make things a little more clear in this regard.

According to a report on the study, the researchers used what is called “urinary fingerprinting” in order to gather the data that they needed. They primarily tried to find out the effects of three different “healthy” diets on a number of volunteers that had high blood pressure. The method used by the researchers allowed them to monitor how closely the individuals followed their diets, as well as to evaluate their individual responses to their respective diets.

The research team, which was led by Dr. Ruey Leng Loo from Kent’s Medway School of Pharmacy, and worked closely with researchers from Imperial College London and Johns Hopkins University, studied a total of 158 urine samples from study volunteers. What they found was a clear indication that there should be various types of treatment plans that are designed specifically for high blood pressure individuals, based on their individual metabolic and microbiological background.

In short, their natural gut bacteria should determine the type of diet they are put on if their aim is to treat their high blood pressure.

The findings of the researchers is of utmost importance mainly because of the fact that there are many healthy foods that are known to be recommended often when it comes to the treatment of high blood pressure. Indeed, there’s an entire list of foods that you should eat more if you have high blood pressure, and they have been proven to work in most cases.

Armed with the knowledge that this study has brought forward, perhaps new and improved meal plans for individuals with high blood pressure can be created. That way, not only can people eat more healthy foods, but they will also be able to eat the exact same foods that they really need after the state of their natural gut bacteria as been taken into account.

Sources include:
ScienceDaily.com
Academic.OUP.com