It's not much use trying to follow your family's advice on what they eat to stay slim, either - even if you're an identical twin. Our gut bacteria is influenced by a myriad of things, and those things all influence our health dramatically. They compared this data with a record of each person's exercise habits, sleeping patterns, body fat, and sampled their gut microbiota. One case study summed it up: one twin experience huge spikes of fatty acid (triglyceride) in their blood every time they ate chips. The American Gut Project, a parallel to Spector's work, published data in 2016 showing 800 people on popular diets had hugely varied responses to the same food.

Source: Daily Mail June 10, 2019 21:33 UTC