What Do You Think?

Should Everyone Get Their Own Personalized Nutrition Plan?

There can be a wide variation in how people’s bodies respond to different foods, which is why there is increasing interest in the field of personalized nutrition formulated specifically for an individual’s unique biology, lifestyle and health history. A 2024 study published in Nature Medicine evaluated the impact of a personalized nutrition plan—those specifically designed for participants based on measurements such as post-meal glucose responses and microbiome compositions—on several health measures. Investigators found that personalized nutrition plans had a more positive impact on a few health metrics, including waist circumference, triglyceride levels and HbA1C—a measure of the average amount of glucose (sugar) in one’s blood over the past three months—than did generic nutrition advice from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The research involved 347 adults who were followed over 18 weeks and randomly assigned to one of two intervention groups: personalized dietary advice, or general nutrition advice; wherein the same recommendations (such as eating more whole grains) were given to all. Participants following the personalized diet plan were also twice as likely to report improved mood, twice as likely to feel less hungry, and more than four times more likely to report better sleep quality and energy levels, compared with the control group. But some health measures like blood pressure, LDL cholesterol and apoB (a measure of cardiovascular disease risk) were not significantly different between the groups after the intervention period.

Do you feel that current population nutrition advice isn’t working as well as it could, and there is a need for personalized dietary programs? Is it feasible to implement such programs on a population level? Can umbrella nutrition advice still be effective at improving eating habits for better health outcomes? Share your thoughts in the Comments below.