Exploring Large Language Models for Personalized Recipe Generation and Weight-Loss Management
Grace Ataguba, Rita Orji
Abstract
The emergence of large language models (LLMs) is transforming various health-related domains, including approaches to obesity management. Obesity remains one of the world’s leading health issues, prompting the research community to develop various weight-loss applications focused on physical activity, dietary planning, and related interventions. In this study, we explore the capability of the LLM ChatGPT for personalized dietary planning. We conducted two case studies: Case Study 1 examined self-supervised recipe generation using ChatGPT alone, while Case Study 2 investigated a self-supervised approach combining National Institute of Health standards with ChatGPT recipe recommendations. We also performed a user study to evaluate recipe recommendations from ChatGPT. Our results show that ChatGPT recommends appropriate recipes based on comparisons with the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) recipe calculator. We found no significant difference between ChatGPT-generated recipe recommendation calories and USDA standards for either Case Study 1 (p = 0.8530) or Case Study 2 (p = 0.0687). In addition, we found significant weight loss in participants following these recipes in both Case Study 1 (p < 0.00001) and Case Study 2 (p = 0.0014). Furthermore, the user study with potential weight-loss participants revealed varying levels of satisfaction (p = 0.001) and identified themes related to meal preferences, effective prompt generation, and mixed concerns regarding privacy, trust, user consent, and data storage. We conclude by discussing additional findings from our case and user studies, and present opportunities, challenges, and design and ethical considerations for the research community.