Personalized Nutrition Update issue nr. 9/19

Sep 02, 2019 5:00pm

Summer has come to an end and we’re feeling revived, re-energized and super charged for the next few months. We’re back with a revamped weekly newsletter, new projects and new partners who we have joined forces with to super charge our impact and sharing our message. I hope you’ll enjoy the new look and content, please do share your feedback on what other changes you would like to see.

The personalized nutrition industry has certainly had a busy summer with so much news, so much media coverage and certainly a lot of movement.
In this week’s newsletter; Our partnership with Mixfit. Latest research, Industry news, food trends, our latest free trend paper and upcoming events.

Enjoy!

Stay Happy stay healthy!

Mariette

New partnership

Boston-based Mixfit is a wellness company that has developed an intelligence engine (MINA) that powers the dispensation of the personalised nutrition solution in the form of a nutritional supplement beverage. We have been working together for just over 1 year. Our role within Mixfit is as the nutrition lead to work with the data-science, marketing and nutrition science teams to provide nutrition expertise, build the scientific advisory board as well as build the data strategy.

Mixfit is currently available in the US, but watch this space for further developments and news!

In the Headlines

Exclusive interview: Why personalised nutrition is ‘a big opportunity and a big complexity’ — DSM nutrition boss

DSM´s Nutritional Product´s President and CEO Chris Goppelsroeder, in an exclusive interview, says that the Personalised Nutrition is the future, however still needs more testing, product formulation and consumer feedback before it can become a mainstream solution. Personalised Nutrition is expanding in specific areas, such as development product and artificial intelligence, but the major question is what speed the sector would develop and succeed to be useful for the population.

For the full interview click here.

Research Update

Beneficial effect of personalized lifestyle advice compared to generic advice on wellbeing among Dutch seniors – An explorative study

This new explorative study compares the impact of generic lifestyle advice (GA) versus personalised advice (PA) in 59 participants (age 67.7 ± 4.8 years) from Wageningen (Netherlands) over 9 weeks. Three times over the intervention period, the groups of participants received either personalized advice (PA), or generic advice (GA) to improve their lifestyle and behavior.

The results suggest that there is no significant difference in terms of the metabolic impact between generic lifestyle (GA) and personalised advice (PA), but in the short term, personalised nutrition (PA) may evoke health benefits in areas such as resilience and motivation, short physical performance battery (SPPB), reduction in body fat percentage and hip circumference.

Personalised Nutrition: Updates, Gaps and Next Steps

In this special edition of “Nutrients” recent hand-picked clinical trials and review articles present new data and update critical thinking in Personalised Nutrition. I am honoured to be co-author on one of the articles on Food allergy and personalized nutrition.

From nutrigenomics to personalizing diets: are we ready for precision medicine?

Understanding the patient´s genome can be very important to predict risk of future diseases and to prescribe the personalised treatment that take into consideration an individual’s unique characteristics. Although the environment and lifestyle were both considered when personalized care, the individual’s genome plays a big factor in precision medicine.

Dissecting the role of the gut microbiota and diet on visceral fat mass accumulation.

The gut microbiota and diet have an impact in visceral fat mass (VFM). This study considered the effect of gut microbiota composition and nutrient intake in female twins. The results suggest that while the role of certain nutrients on VFM appears to depend on gut microbiota composition, specific gut microbes may affect host adiposity regardless of dietary intake. In essence, the microbial-based therapy can be a strategy for treatment to reduce weight in overweight and obese individuals.

Omega-3 supplements have little or no effect on risk of Type 2 diabetes, say researchers

Researchers of University of East Anglia in a systematic review suggests that omega-3 supplements do not have impact in Diabetes Type 2.

Models Integrating Genetic and Lifestyle Interactions on Two Adiposity Phenotypes for Personalized Prescription of Energy-Restricted Diets With Different Macronutrient Distribution.

This study compared two hypocaloric diets (30% energy restriction) in overweight/obese subjects over 16 weeks, which had different targeted macronutrient distribution: a low-fat (LF) diet (22% energy from lipids) and a moderately high-protein (MHP) diet (30% energy from proteins) and the influence of genetics (95 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) previously associated with weight loss through next-generation sequencing from oral samples) and interactions with environmental factors on adiposity outcomes [waist circumference reduction (WCR) and total body fat loss (TFATL)] in 201 participants (diet LF = 105; diet MHP = 96). The results suggest that different genetic variants and interactions with environmental factors modulate the differential individual responses to MHP and LF dietary interventions. This can be a help to optimize personalized nutritional strategies to excessive adiposity taking in to account genetic information, lifestyle, clinical situation, age and gender.

Lifestyle medicine: a new medical specialty?

Lifestyle Medicine is a rapidly growing specialization owing to consumer demand as well its introduction to the curriculum at medical schools such as Cambridge University. This type of medicine should not be complementary or alternative … it’s mainstream and is defined as “an evidence-based medical specialty” that uses “lifestyle therapeutic approaches”, such as nutrition, physical activity, sleep, stress management, and avoidance of chemical substances, to prevent, treat, or modify non-communicable chronic disease. We are very excited about this approach and personalised nutrition fits perfectly with this specialty.

Perspective: Guiding Principles for the Implementation of Personalized Nutrition Approaches That Benefit Health and Function

This latest paper hot-off the press provides a comprehensive and pragmatic approach to the implementation of personalised nutrition. Authors include a mix of dietetic practitioners, industry leaders and professionals.

Technology News

Pizza to ward off Alzheimer’s? Nestlé uses DNA to create personalized diets

The title is a bit misleading, but this article discusses Nestle’s wellness ambassador programme in Japan. This programme has around 100,000 participants and is providing recommendations on lifestyle,specific supplements and vitamin-fortified snacks, via the Line app, based on a DNA and blood samples to identify susceptibility to the impact of food in certain diseases such as diabetes or cholesterol. The prediction is that the future will consist of nutrient enhanced pizza and functional foods to ward off diseases, do you agree?

Nestle buys Persona personalized nutritional supplements

Persona has been making waves in the industry for a while by developing personalized nutrition supplements packs. Persona provides personalised vitamins & mineral supplements on a subscription basis. The algorithm takes into account demographic data, individual consumer assessments, and medication data.

Microbiome tests too early?

Several startups companies on gut microbiome are emerging. However many founders and CEO´s of health companies say that gut health startups that collect poo by post are “absolutely not ready” to make healthy or nutrition recommendations, above the traditional recommendation “eat more fiber”. We believe that microbiome data certainly adds crucial piece of the puzzle in terms of what being “healthy” could look like. Whilst the research is emerging, there is indeed little we can say in terms of nutritional recommendations, however I think it’s a great time to start learning about the complex interaction between our lifestyle, environment and our genes.

Baze gets $6million investment

Nature’s Way is betting on a investment of $6 million in Baze, a personalized nutrition start-up. Baze offers their clients a home blood testing kit that measure individual micronutrient´s levels. This data is used to recommend a set of monthly supplements. Consumers are showing increased interested in personalized nutrition and Baze is certainly paving the way.

Food & Consumer Trends

Eggshell membrane a ‘high potential’ ingredient for healthy boost

Eggshell powder can be an effective ingredient to be used in calcium, protein or collagen supplements that can help in osteoporosis, joint health or postmenopausal. A single eggshell contains 2,07 +/- 0,18g of calcium and in 2018, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), approved the ingredient as a novel food.

NPD trend tracker: From watermelon crisps to plant-based gelato

Catch up on the latest European product launches.

Free mini-trend report

A new mini-trend report is available in preparation for the Personalised nutrition summit in London. Don’t miss the updated Personalized nutrition company landscape map!. Full report available later this year.

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