Use nutrition for personalised healthcare, say European scientists Can we use nutrition as a basis to personalise healthcare? European researchers believe we can and should. The FOOD4ME ('Personalised nutrition: an integrated analysis of opportunities and challenges') project, launched earlier this year, has set its sights on probing the pote... Can we use nutrition as a basis to personalise healthcare? European researchers believe we can and should. The FOOD4ME ('Personalised nutrition: an integrated analysis of opportunities and challenges') project, launched earlier this year, has set its sights on probing the potential of personalised nutrition. FOOD4ME is funded under the 'Food, agricultural and fisheries, and biotechnology' (Knowledge-based bio-economy, KBBE) Theme of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) to the tune of EUR 8.94 million. Offering individuals tailor-made diets will only help improve their health and well-being. The physical and genetic make-up of each individual would be assessed to ensure the right diet is going to work for the right person. A research study in 2010 found that people respond differently to various nutrients. Take omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, for instance. J. F. Ferguson et al. wrote in the journal Atherosclerosis that these 'healthy fats', which are found in oily fish and rank high on the list of foods that must be consumed to prevent cardiovascular disease, are actually more beneficial for those with a particular genetic make-up than for others. The bottom line is that people are unique, and this uniqueness calls for personalised diets because our bodies react to diets differently. The European Food Information Council (EUFIC) says such research suggests that 'blank public dietary advice' is probably not the best tool to use for giving public health the boost it needs. What personalised nutrition does is to help each person take into account their specific physical and genetic characteristics, the EUFIC says. Current measures focus more on providing 'overarching' dietary guidance to the entire population. A growing number of food and nutrition experts believe that personalised nutrition is the way to go. It should be noted, however, that efforts made by industry to take the approach across the board have found limited success. This is where the FOOD4ME consortium, which is led by University College Dublin in Ireland, comes in. Kick-starting the investigation into the possibility of designing better diets based on an individual's genetic make-up will prove fruitful in the end. The consortium, which comprises research and industry experts from Belgium, Germany, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, is assessing the application of nutrigenomics research (the study of the effect of food on gene expression) to personalised nutrition. In a nutshell, FOOD4ME will fuel our knowledge of food and our genes in order to create an improved, healthy and more unique diet. 'In employing this holistic approach we hope to draw together cutting-edge research and instigate a significant step forward in the field of personalised nutrition,' explains Professor Mike Gibney of the Institute of Food and Health at University College Dublin. Individuals participating in the study will be given various levels of dietary advice, individual genetic make-up advice and advice with no personalisation. The information will also include each person's physical characteristics. The FOOD4ME partners will recruit more than 1,000 people from 8 EU Member States for their study. The project partners will consolidate the findings in the design of business and value creation models for the development, production and distribution of personalised foods. They will then test these throughout the duration of the project so as to consider the feasibility of future personalised nutrition approaches. FOOD4ME is scheduled to end in 2015.For more information, please visit: European Food Information Council (EUFIC):http://www.eufic.org/Atherosclerosis:http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/522790/description#description Countries Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Greece, Spain, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States
