This new diet study tells us we’re basically all eating wrong

Serious question: Are there any healthy foods out there? Sometimes all these new studies about what diets are and aren’t working make me relieved that I mostly eat pizza. But it is important to get yourself the right nutrition, so if you have ever participated in those popular diets (like Atkins or South Beach), there’s something you should know.

These diet programs operate on something called the glycemic index, which measures how certain foods impact your blood sugar. For the longest time, it was believed that number was fixed, which is why these programs advised one diet for pretty much everyone. That’s also why, when the diets didn’t work for some people, they were so confused.

According to a new study, the glycemic index that everyone thought was fixed, well, isn’t. It actually can vary super wildly depending on the person, which is bad news for these programs that didn’t take that into account.

Eran Segal and Eran Elinav of the Weizmann Institute of Science were the lead authors of the study, and they took a close look at 800 healthy and pre-diabetic volunteers ages 18 to 70 through questionnaires, tests, and samples while they all ate a standardized breakfast each morning. Unsurprisingly, age and BMI impacted individuals blood glucose levels after meals, but there was also something crazy. Different people showed hugely different responses to the same food even if their day to day responses were the same.

What this means is that the future of dieting needs to focus on individual biology rather than searching for a quick and universal answer.

But honestly? What’s most important isn’t necessarily dieting to lose weight, but focusing on maintaining a balanced diet filled with foods that are good for you and make you feel good after you eat them, as well as complimenting your eating habits with regular exercise.  There might never be one single answer to what we should be eating, so it’s important to just listen to your own body and what it needs from you, instead of getting caught up in the latest fad.

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