Nutrigenomics Precision Nutrition

Personalized nutrition is about creating eating plans tailored specifically to you based on your unique genetic profile, lifestyle, and health background. Unlike fad diets, personalized nutrition is grounded in scientific research and endorsed by reputable institutions like the National Institutes of Health. It recognizes that everyone's body responds differently to various foods, so the best diet for one person might not work for another.

How Does It Work?

Personalized nutrition focuses on individual differences rather than general guidelines. While traditional dietary guidance might suggest eating more vegetables and whole grains, customized nutrition delves deeper. It looks at how your body reacts explicitly to different foods, influenced by factors like your genetics and gut bacteria.

For example, two people might have different blood sugar responses after eating the same meal due to their unique gut microbiomes. Personalized nutrition uses this information to create specific recommendations for managing health conditions.

Precision Nutrition Applications

Personalized nutrition has already shown benefits for specific conditions. For instance:

• People with celiac disease follow a gluten-free diet.
• Those with lactose intolerance avoid dairy products.
• Individuals with phenylketonuria (PKU) limit foods with phenylalanine.

Research is expanding into how personalized nutrition can help support other conditions, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers. It looks at how your genes might affect how you process nutrients and how your diet could influence your health based on these genetic factors.

Personalized nutrition can also guide how specific foods affect you. For example, some people handle coffee well, while others feel jittery after a single cup. This response can be linked to genetic variations affecting caffeine metabolism.

Preferred Nutrigenomics Testing Companies

For a precise, personalized nutrition plan, high-quality genetic testing is essential. Some recommended companies for detailed genetic reports include:

• 3x4 Genetics
• Nutrition Genome

These tests help tailor your diet to manage health conditions more effectively by understanding your genetic and metabolic responses to different foods.

References:

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2. Rodgers GP, Collins FS. Precision nutrition—the answer to “what to eat to stay healthy”. JAMA. 2020 Aug 25;324(8):735-6.
3. Berry SE, Valdes AM, Drew DA, Asnicar F, Mazidi M, Wolf J, Capdevila J, Hadjigeorgiou G, Davies R, Al Khatib H, Bonnett C. Human postprandial responses to food and potential for precision nutrition. Nature Medicine. 2020 Jun 11:1-0. Disclosure: TDS, SEB, AMV, FA, PWF, LMD and NS are consultants to Zoe Global Ltd (‘Zoe’). JW, GH, RD, HA., JC, CB, SG, EB, PW and IL are or have been employees of Zoe.
4. Wang DD, Hu FB. Precision nutrition for prevention and management of type 2 diabetes. The lancet Diabetes & endocrinology. 2018 May 1;6(5):416-26. Disclosure: FBH reports personal fees from Metagenics and grants from California Walnut Commission, outside the submitted work.
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