Dieting goes from general to personal
Diets have long focused on calories and various nutrients – ketogenic, Mediterranean, gluten-free diets – but with precision nutrition, the approach is tailored to the individual.
Susan Rinke is a registered dietitian with a private practice in the Dallas area. She also works for Oxford Biomedical, a company that developed a blood test for food sensitivities. The big picture here, she says, is that food and nutrition are very much connected to our immune response.
“We know that about 70 percent of our immune system is in the gut,” Linke says, “so using food to suppress inflammation is one of the most benign, least invasive ways we can do it, yet it’s very effective and powerful.”
Because so many big health issues, including autoimmune diseases and heart disease, are linked to inflammation, it makes sense to find out if there are certain foods that a person reacts to, she says. “In reality, you could react to almost anything — some people react to turmeric, some to ginger, some to salmon — so tailoring it to the individual is much more effective.”
Linke creates a personalized diet plan based on people’s test results.
“We put a lot of emphasis on which foods were non-reactive,” she said, “and the patient then eats only the non-reactive foods. That’s another advantage, because usually there’s a ton of non-reactive foods that we can choose from. They’re not on a restricted diet. It’s a pretty rich diet. There’s a lot of fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, legumes, meat, fish, spices. It’s pretty close to a 100% anti-inflammatory diet for that patient.”
The result is often a significant reduction in overall symptoms, she says, and she’d like to see the method become more mainstream.
A major breakthrough in precision nutrition
Large research centers are currently investigating the potential of precision nutrition, and a national study is underway called “Nutrition for Precision Health.”
Sai Krupa Das, professor of nutrition and senior scientist at the Center for Human Nutrition Research on Aging at Tufts University, is one of the researchers on the study.
The study will comprehensively examine the social environment, diet and genetics of around 10,000 people and closely monitor their responses to different dietary patterns.
“We look at blood glucose levels. We put continuous glucose monitors on individuals and look at how blood glucose levels change with sleep and other variables that can affect human health,” Das said. “We look at activity. We look at stool samples, which is basically where the gut microbiome lives and that’s what gets measured. We collect detailed information about health conditions, diseases and medication use.”
The hope is that this will lead to more personalised dietary advice that goes well beyond the typical “eat the rainbow” or “eat a mix of fresh foods” advice.
“The reason we’re collecting all this data is so that we can eventually say, ‘If you’re a woman over 45 and you’re at high risk for diabetes, this is how you might respond and here’s how we can help you,'” Das says. “We’ll be able to reach smaller groups of individuals who can give us more precise recommendations and help inform them at an individual level.”
The “Nutrition for Precision Medicine” study is still recruiting participants.
