The DNA diet

With every new year comes a new fashionable diet; and 2015 is no exception. Last year’s hottest diet trends included the 5:2 – where you “fast” (consuming just 500 calories a day) for two days, and eat normally for five – and the Paleo, where you eat like our Stone Age ancestors used to: more meat, seafood and vegetables, and no processed food. But with every diet, what works for your friend or colleague might not work for you. And there’s no guarantee you’ll even be able to stick to it for long enough to reach your goal.

Now, what if you could go on a diet and fitness plan that was guaranteed to work, because it’s based on what is most unique to you: your DNA?

The good news is that you can and turning to science might be the most accurate way to ensure we undergo an eating and exercise regime that works specifically for us. The new DNAFit diet (available worldwide from www.dnafit.com) works by analysing your own DNA – the millions of individual genetic codes that make up your body – to work out how you respond to different types of training and nutrition. Then the results are used to recommend the best type of exercise for you (whether you want to tone up or just lose fat), and the best kinds of food you should eat so that you lose weight while staying healthy.

Personalised nutrition and gene-based advice should be the health trend for this year, according to recent research from the University of Toronto. Scientific gene testing can show you whether you need to cut down on things like salt, caffeine or saturated fat, or up your intake of certain vitamins. For example, if you feel bloated after eating too many carbs – such as bread, pizza or pasta – or if you put on weight too quickly after eating just a bit of food containing saturated fat, such as cheese, you could be genetically more sensitive to these foods. But the testing helps in other ways too: you can find out whether your body would respond better to endurance training – such as running, cycling or hiking – rather than power training, such as working out with weights.

The diet claims to help people lose a third more weight than in ordinary weight-loss programmes, all without calorie restriction, but with a bespoke eating and exercise plan.

DNAFit was launched in mid-2013 by a group of doctors and scientists who specialise in genetics. So, how does it work? After you fill in a few details on the DNAFit.com website, and pay around Dh670, your testing kit will be posted out to you (it ships worldwide, including to the UAE). It consists of a cotton wool swab, and a container to seal it in. The company recommends doing it either first thing in the morning before breakfast, or at least an hour after eating, drinking or cleaning your teeth. You rub the swab firmly around the inside of your cheek for at least a minute, taking care not to touch the cotton wool head before you do so. Next, you place it into the container, and send it off in the stamped addressed envelope included. The results will take around three weeks to come back from the company’s lab in England. They will tell you what the best type of diet is for you, for example, low carb, low fat or Mediterranean, and analyse how your body and muscles respond to different types of exercise.

The company’s head of fitness and training, Olympic athlete Andrew Steele, says, “We test 45 gene variants scientifically linked to a body’s capacity to respond to training and nutrition. Obviously lifestyle and personal preferences come into play too, but your genes are static… They can tell you if you have a raised need for certain nutrients, to make your body work better, or which kind of exercise will suit you better. This test helps you play to your genetic advantage; genes are just another layer of information to use so you can achieve your goal, whether it’s to lose weight, exercise more efficiently, or both.”

How I fared on the DNA Diet

Journalist Laura Millar tries out a low-carb diet after taking the DNA test

My weight has crept up over the years, and there are plenty of reasons for that. Firstly, I am addicted to carbs; pizza, pasta and bread are my downfall. Secondly, I hate ‘formal’ exercise; the idea of going to a gym to work out makes me shudder.

I’m not a total couch potato (mmm, potatoes…); I enjoy hiking and swimming occasionally, but I don’t do them as often as I should. So stepping on to the scales a few weeks ago, I got a horrid shock: I weighed in at a worrying 79kg, which, for my height of 176cm, gives me a BMI of 25.3, nudging me into the overweight category (a healthy weight BMI is between 18.5 and 25).

So I do the swab test, post it off, and three weeks later I receive an email with my results.

At first, the information looks fairly baffling, because one of the documents is a long list of the names of the genes that have been tested, and quite scientific explanations next to each of them. But there is a handy infographic that explains everything more clearly. Firstly, it identifies my optimal diet type as low carb. This is where you lower your intake of carbohydrates (found in high levels in foods such as pasta, bread and potatoes, for example) and increase your intake of protein (such as meat, poultry, fish, nuts and seeds). Other people might be recommended a low fat diet, where you lower your intake of fat and saturated fat (from foods such as butter, biscuits, crisps, doughnuts and fried food) or a Mediterranean plan, where you increase your intake of foods like fruit, vegetables, whole grains, olive oil and fish.

DNAFit head of fitness and training Andrew Steele tells me when I contact him to talk through my results afterwards, that I have been given my diet as my sensitivity to carbohydrates measures high. Sigh. I mentally start kissing goodbye to calzones. He explains that carbs impact negatively on my glucose and insulin levels, converting more easily to fat. However, he adds, “I’d never recommend someone cut out carbs totally; just cut down on refined carbs and starches, like rice, potatoes and pasta, and try to eat more complex and natural carbs, like brown rice.”

On the plus side, my sensitivity to saturated fat is low, so Andrew says I can still eat foods rich in saturated fats like butter, olive oil and avocados without affecting my weight. I also discover I have an ‘impaired ability’ of liver detoxification; “so you need to eat more calciferous vegetables, which contain a certain enzyme that you do not genetically create,” says Andrew. Time for four portions a week of broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and kale… I also have a raised need for vitamin B (found in foods such as eggs, poultry and fish) and need to watch my salt intake, as genetically I have a raised risk of hypertension and high blood pressure if I have too much. I should also avoid having more than 250mg of caffeine a day, as I don’t metabolise it very fast.

Fitness-wise, my ‘power response’ – how my body and muscles respond to power-based exercise, such as such as working out with weights – measures 63.2 per cent.

My ‘endurance response’ – how my body and muscles respond to endurance-based exercise, such as running, cycling or hiking – measures 36.8 per cent. The lower the figure, the less well your body responds to this kind of exercise.

So what does this mean for me? Andrew says, “As your power response percentage was fairly high, I would place a small emphasis on higher-intensity exercise, like using a crossfit trainer, or spinning, as you are more likely to respond better to this. However, your body will also respond fairly well to endurance training. So if you exercised three times a week, I would recommend you try two sessions of power/high intensity and short duration workouts, and one of a more traditional aerobic and lower intensity style, to get fit and lose weight.” Short duration workouts sound great to me; the less time I have to spend in a gym, the better!

With your results, you’re also sent a recommended diet plan, and my low-carb plan includes some delicious sounding recipes, which don’t smack of deprivation at all. Obviously, there’s no spaghetti carbonara on there, but there’s not a rice cake or bag of nuts in sight: my breakfast recipes include things like poached eggs with smoked salmon, while suggested lunches and dinners consist of dishes like spicy chicken and guacamole, or Asian beef rice noodle salad.

Everything is really tasty, and I surprise myself with how quicklyI adapt this into my everyday lifestyle by cooking it all from scratch.

Did it work?

Well, so far, it seems to. I have discovered one form of short-duration, high-intensity exercise that works for me: PowerPlate. A 20-minute session on the vibrating plate is equivalent to one hour’s normal exercise, and your muscles keep working for up to 48 hours afterwards. I go to two classes a week, and do a one to two kilometre walk every weekend for endurance. In the last eight weeks, I’ve dropped a very satisfying 4.2kg.

I don’t only look better, I feel better too; less bloated and sluggish. And I’m determined to stick with it.

Plus the fact that it’s personalised just for me makes me feel that little bit more like a celebrity… which is never a bad thing.