Personalized Nutrition by Prediction of Glycemic Responses

David Zeevi,^1,2,8 Tal Korem,^1,2,8 Niv Zmora,^3,4,5,8 David Israeli,^6,8 Daphna Rothschild,^1,2 Adina Weinberger,^1,2 Orly Ben-Yacov,^1,2 Dar Lador,^1,2 Tali Avnit-Sagi,^1,2 Maya Lotan-Pompan,^1,2 Jotham Suez,³ Jemal Ali Mahdi,³ Elad Matot,^1,2 Gal Malka,^1,2 Noa Kosower,^1,2 Michal Rein,^1,2 Gili Zilberman-Schapira,³ Lenka Dohnalova `,³ Meirav Pevsner-Fischer,³ Rony Bikovsky,^1,2 Zamir Halpern,^5,7 Eran Elinav,^3,9,* and Eran Segal,^1,2,9,*

Elevated postprandial blood glucose levels constitute a global epidemic and a major risk factor for prediabetes and type II diabetes, but existing dietary methods for controlling them have limited efficacy. Here, we continuously monitored week-long glucose levels in an 800-person cohort, measured responses to 46,898 meals, and found high variability in the response to identical meals, suggesting that universal dietary recommendations may have limited utility. We devised a machine-learning algorithm that integrates blood parameters, dietary habits, anthropometrics, physical activity, and gut microbiota measured in this cohort and showed that it accurately predicts personalized postprandial glycemic response to real-life meals. We validated these predictions in an independent 100-person cohort. Finally, a blinded randomized controlled dietary intervention based on this algorithm resulted in significantly lower postprandial responses and consistent alterations to gut microbiota configuration. Together, our results suggest that personalized diets may successfully modify elevated postprandial blood glucose and its metabolic consequences.

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¹Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
²Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
³Immunology Department, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
⁴Internal Medicine Department, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv 6423906, Israel
⁵Research Center for Digestive Tract and Liver Diseases, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6423906, Israel
⁶Day Care Unit and the Laboratory of Imaging and Brain Stimulation, Kfar Shaul Hospital, Jerusalem Center for Mental Health, Jerusalem 9106000, Israel
⁷Digestive Center, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv 6423906, Israel
⁸Co-first author
⁹Co-senior author
^*Correspondence: eran.elinav@weizmann.ac.il (E.E.), eran.segal@weizmann.ac.il (E.S.).

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