Each person has 'completely unique' reaction to high-fat meals, study suggests

People have very different reactions to eating high-fat meals, a new study has shown.

One of the scientists involved in the University of California-Davis research said that, “like snowflakes,” no two participants in the experiment had the same response.

The reactions of over 13,000 genes differed among those tested.

"We looked at the inflammatory reactions of 20 volunteers at 0, 3 and 6 hours after eating a standardized meal containing 38% fat and their responses were completely unique,” explained molecular biologist Danielle G. Lemay at the ARS Western Human Nutrition Research Center in Davis, California.

The test meal was equivalent to a small hamburger, small fries and a small ice cream shake with fruit.

But each participant in the study had a different inflammatory response to the food.

Inflammation – a group of responses by the body telling white blood cells how to react – is a normal response to eating a meal, particularly one high in fat.

"Eating a meal with this amount of fat is OK one or two days a week even considering the effect on inflammation,” said Lemay.

“But in a lifetime of meal choices, eating like this every day could do some damage to a person's body.”

Inflammation is associated with the likes of asthma, diabetes, peptic ulcers and rheumatoid arthritis

The results are considered particularly interesting because of growing interest in personalized nutrition.

"We need to understand what the variability is between people before we can consider starting to set different requirements in diets," Lemay said.