Personalized Nutrition: Translating the Science of NutriGenomics Into Practice: Proceedings From the 2018 American College of Nutrition Meeting

Abstract

Adverse reactions to foods and adverse drug reactions are inherent in product defects, medication errors, and differences in individual drug exposure. Pharmacogenetics is the study of genetic causes of individual variations in drug response and pharmacogenomics more broadly involves genome-wide analysis of the genetic determinants of drug efficacy and toxicity. The similarity of nutritional genomics and pharmacogenomics stems from the innate goal to identify genetic variants associated with metabolism and disease. Thus, nutrigenomics can be thought of as encompassing gene-diet interactions involving diverse compounds that are present in even the simplest foods. The advances in the knowledge base of the complex interactions among genotype, diet, lifestyle, and environment is the cornerstone that continues to elicit changes in current medical practice to ultimately yield personalized nutrition recommendations for health and risk assessment. This information could be used to understand how foods and dietary supplements uniquely affect the health of individuals and, hence, wellness. The individual's gut microbiota is not only paramount but pivotal in embracing the multiple-functional relationships with complex metabolic mechanisms involved in maintaining cellular homeostasis. The genetic revolution has ushered in an exciting era, one in which many new opportunities are expected for nutrition professionals with expertise in nutritional genomics. The American College of Nutrition's conference focused on "Personalized Nutrition: Translating the Science of NutriGenomics Into Practice" was designed to help to provide the education needed for the professional engagement of providers in the personalized medicine era.

Science and Healthy Meals in the World: Nutritional Epigenomics and Nutrigenetics of the Mediterranean Diet

“…Similarly to the transition from pharmacology to pharmacogenetics, the genetics of food metabolism some years ago assumed the dignity of a specific science, nutrigenetics, also confirmed by the birth in 2005 of the International Society of nutrigenetics/nutrigenomics ( ) and by the holding of the conference “2018 American College of Nutrition Meeting” [ 109 ]. For both sciences, the value of genetic variability, which is not at all negligible today, has been finally recognized; for too long, this fundamental concept was not considered even in scientific environments much more inclined to rely on the average individual, who does not exist, than on the genetic diversity expressed in the single person with his single genome.…”

<p>Knowledge, Beliefs, and Attitudes Concerning Genetic Testing Among Young Jordanians</p>

“…Medical genetics involves the application of genetic knowledge and technology to specific clinical concerns 6,7. Therefore, genetic testing can be used to screen the presence of mutations or genetic variants that increase the risk of development of many diseases,8,9 or to predict the effectiveness/dose of therapeutics drugs,10 and to assess individual’s reaction to diet or allergen 11…”

Links between Nutrition, Infectious Diseases, and Microbiota: Emerging Technologies and Opportunities for Human-Focused Research

“…Nutrigenomics, which integrates different omics approaches to seek and explain the existing reciprocal interactions between genes and nutrients at the molecular level, has the potential to identify genetic predictors of disease-relevant responses to diet, which has wide appeal in the context of personalized nutrition [ 128 , 129 ]. Nutrigenomics has already been implemented to identify cellular and molecular targets to develop a novel hypothesis regarding the functional role of nutrition and microbiota in modulating intestinal inflammatory diseases [ 130 ].…”