Consultations with nutritionists have increased considerably in recent years. Thanks to scientific progress, diets have improved and are much more adapted to each individual’s profile, according to their needs and objectives. A project led by researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Götenborg, Sweden, aims to develop an algorithm designed for the field of nutrition capable of predicting serious health problems in relation to one’s diet.

A study on eating habits and health problems

The algorithm, called COmputing the DYnamics of Microbiota (CODY), was developed by a team of researchers with the aim of analysing different factors characterising the population and listing the foods that would be more appropriate for one category of people than another. An article explaining the study related to this algorithm was published last month by Jens Nielsen, Felipe López-Isunza, Boyang Ji, Gang Li and Jun Geng.

CODY was tested in Sweden and Finland, with different profiles than predictive models based on previously obtained medical records. To improve the algorithm’s results, the researchers added other indicators of physical health problems such as blood, stool or mucus.

An algorithm to favour certain types of diets

The focus was on bacteria and microbes (the microbiota) to better account for dietary differences between individuals. The system correctly predicts microbial variations in response to dietary intervention. Jens Nielsen, a researcher at Chalmers University of Technology and lead author of the paper, elaborated on the important role of gut bacteria:

“Gut bacteria play an important role in the development of health and disease, and our new mathematical model could be of great help in these areas.”

The CODY algorithm is designed to check the bacteria present in food and the gut and analyse their relationship with the body throughout the gastric process. The goal is to understand if diet changes affect this microbiota. In this way, people can adjust and improve their diet by anticipating the benefits and side effects of each choice. Thus, nutritionists who recommend a diet will be able to take into account these results to propose more precise guidelines to their patients.

Translated from Des chercheurs ont mis au point un algorithme de prédiction des maladies dues à des régimes spécifiques