New framework for ethical and effective personalized nutrition

New framework for ethical and effective personalized nutrition

Personalized nutrition (PN) has gained popularity in recent years as a tailored approach to health outcomes. PN combines biomedical, genetic and lifestyle data to provide personalized recommendations, and a variety of companies offer various forms of nutritional health demonstrations, apps, programs, products and advice. The Personalized Nutrition Initiative at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, along with its external partners, hosted two workshops for PN practitioners and experts to set guidelines and establish best practices for the field. The workshop results were recently published in two journal articles.

One of the biggest challenges is that you need a lot of different types of data and the field is becoming increasingly complex. To achieve consistency and continuity, we need to understand all of these components and how they fit together. “

Sharon Donovan, professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at Illinois

Donovan is director of the Illinois Personalized Nutrition Initiative, which serves as a hub for research and education on the topic.

"We want the Personalized Nutrition Initiative to be seen as a trusted place where researchers and companies and potentially regulators can come together to synthesize current knowledge and identify future directions. We serve as a convener, bringing experts together to lead conversations and provide recommendations," she said.

In the first paper published inCritical reviews in food science and nutrition,The authors outlined a set of guiding principles for PN approaches, addressing users and beneficiaries, data collection and handling, methodology and purpose.

In the second paper, published inadvances in nutrition,They addressed the opportunities and challenges related to data and regulatory issues. PN encompasses a variety of areas, from medical devices to nutritional supplements, which are met by different regulatory requirements that are not always coordinated.

Workshop participants also discussed how to use artificial intelligence to analyze data and combine information into a holistic perspective.

"You have some types of data that are very sparse and others that are extremely rich. For example, consumers or research participants often wear a glucose monitor that records glucose levels and provides thousands of measures. We can do comprehensive data sets through genetic sequencing or microbiome analysis.

PN also contains social and behavioral data, usually collected through surveys and interviews. It is challenging to combine these different types of data to gather meaningful insights.

"We have established our vision for the different types of data that should be components of personalized nutrition and how they should be assembled to personalize an individual's nutritional advice. Now it is time to set guidelines to ensure that the data is ready for artificial intelligence to understand the information," noted Donovan.

Data collection also has ethical considerations, added Anna Keck, deputy director of the Personalized Nutrition Initiative.

"Many personalized nutrition products and services are data intensive, and people may not realize how much personal information they are giving out. How do we protect data and build trust with consumers? We discussed with the experts how to ethically create a better framework for collecting data and determining what should be shared," she said.

Consumers may purchase PN products and services directly from companies without the guidance of a doctor or nutritionist, and it may be difficult for people to interpret the information they receive. The Personalized Nutrition Initiative provides educational opportunities for anyone interested in learning more about PN, including a graduate certificate in food regulation, nutrition policy, and personalized nutrition for working professionals. Additionally, two PN courses are freely available on the Coursera Open Online platform: Personalized Personalized Nutrition and Bridging Data and Practice for Personalized Nutrition.

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