Evaluation of Food-Intake Behavior in a Healthy Population: Personalized vs. One-Size-Fits-All

Abstract

In public health initiatives, generic nutrition advice (GNA) from national guidelines has a limited effect on food-intake improvement. Personalized nutrition advice (PNA) may enable dietary behavior change. A monocentric, randomized, parallel, controlled clinical trial was performed in males (n = 55) and females (n = 100) aged 25 to 70 years. Participants were allocated to control, GNA or PNA groups. The PNA group consisted of automatically generated dietary advice based on personal metabolic health parameters, dietary intake, anthropometric and hemodynamic measures, gender and age. Participants who received PNA (n = 51) improved their nutritional intake status for fruits P (p < 0.0001), whole grains (p = 0.008), unsalted nuts (p < 0.0001), fish (p = 0.0003), sugar-sweetened beverages (p = 0.005), added salt (p = 0.003) and less unhealthy choices (p = 0.002), whereas no improvements were observed in the control and GNA group. PNA participants were encouraged to set a goal for one or multiple food categories. Goal-setting led to greater improvement of food categories within the PNA group including; unsalted nuts (p < 0.0001), fruits (p = 0.0001), whole grains (p = 0.005), fish (p = 0.0001), dairy (p = 0.007), vegetables (p = 0.01) and unhealthy choices (p = 0.02). In a healthy population, participants receiving PNA changed their food-intake behavior more favorably than participants receiving GNA or no advice. When personal goals were set, nutritional behavior was more prone to change.

Design Issues in Personalized Nutrition Advice Systems

“…Personalized nutrition has been defined as approaches that "use individual-specific information, founded in evidence-based science, to promote dietary behavior change that may result in measurable health benefits" [17]. Studies have shown that such personalized approaches are more effective in improving dietary behavior as compared with generic information [18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. These personalized nutrition approaches can use the knowledge that individuals may show a differential physiological response to nutrients, foods, or dietary patterns [25,26] but may also be primarily focused on individual (dietary) behavior, preferences, and goals [16,18].…”

Moving towards more sustainable diets: Is there potential for a personalised approach in practice?

“…Similarly, a Dutch trial also concluded that personalised nutrition led to greater and more favourable dietary change compared to those who only received generic guidance. 82 Personalised nutrition is relatively recent concept in nutrition research, but a personalised approach is not new. Personalising nutrition interventions is integral for registered dietitians to provide client-centred nutrition care, a competency or standard of dietetic practice and education according to many governing bodies.…”

Recent advances and current controversies in genetic testing for personalized nutrition

“…One of the controversies on genetic testing for personalized nutrition revolves around its utility for behavior modification [25]. Although some studies show that personalized advice of any kind is better than general advice at changing food intake habits [26], studies that have specifically examined the effects of genetic information on behavior change consistently show that DNA-based advice is more effective than general advice at modifying behavior, and also more effective than personalized advice that does not incorporate genetic information [27].…”