Can Personalized Nutrition Improve People’s Diets?

Abstract

Each person differs in physical characteristics such as eye color, but also in likes and dislikes. These differences are due to our genes and our environments, including what we eat. What we eat affects our health, and each of us has individual nutritional needs. This is the basis for the idea of personalized nutrition. In our research study, called the Food4Me Study, we tested whether personalized nutrition advice helped over 1,600 people to eat healthier diets. We collected information about each person, including what they ate, and we collected samples of saliva to examine their genes. We gave each person either the usual advice about healthy eating (such as “eat more vegetables”) or advice that was personalized based on the individual’s characteristics. After 6 months, we discovered that people who received personalized nutrition advice improved their diets more than people who received the typical healthy eating advice.