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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Davis, California » Western Human Nutrition Research Center » Immunity and Disease Prevention Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #343267
Title: 21st century toolkit for optimizing population health through precision nutrition

Author
item O'SULLIVAN, AIFRIC - University College Dublin
item HENRICK, BETHANY - University Of California
item DIXON, BONNIE - University Of California
item BARILE, DANIELA - University Of California
item ZIVKOVIC, ANGELA - University Of California
item SMILOWITZ, JENNIFER - University Of California
item Lemay, Danielle
item MARTIN, WILLIAM - University Of California
item GERMAN, BRUCE - University Of California
item ELIZABETH, SARA - University Of California

Submitted to: Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition
Publication Type: Trade Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/25/2017
Publication Date: 7/5/2017
Citation: O'Sullivan, A., Henrick, B., Dixon, B., Barile, D., Zivkovic, A., Smilowitz, L., Lemay, D.G., Martin, W., German, B.J., Elizabeth, S. 2017. 21st century toolkit for optimizing population health through precision nutrition. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition. 57/45.

Interpretive Summary: Over the past century, advances in nutrition and agriculture have virtually eliminated acute malnutrition in developed nations. These nations now struggle with chronic nutrition problems related to energy imbalance and metabolic disease, which require new approaches. Emerging methods and tools enable nutrition scientists to systematically study large quantities of detailed health data which can be used to more fully capture an individual’s state of health, enabling more personalized dietary guidance. This paper reviews these latest techniques that have the potential to transform how the public makes food choices and to improve population health.

Technical Abstract: Scientific, technological, and economic progress over the last 100 years all but eradicated problems of widespread food shortage and nutrient deficiency in developed nations. But now society is faced with a new set of nutrition problems related to energy imbalance and metabolic disease, which require new kinds of solutions. Recent developments in the area of new analytical tools enable us to systematically study large quantities of detailed and multidimensional metabolic and health data, providing the opportunity to address current nutrition problems through an approach called Precision Nutrition. This approach integrates different kinds of 'big data' to expand our understanding of the complexity and diversity of human metabolism in response to diet. With these tools, we can more fully elucidate each individual‘s unique phenotype, or the current state of health, as determined by the interactions among biology, environment and behavior. The tools of Precision Nutrition include genomics, metabolomics,microbiomics, phenotyping, high-throughput analytical chemistry techniques,longitudinal tracking with body sensors, informatics, data science, and sophisticated educational and behavioral interventions. These tools are enabling the development of more personalized and predictive dietary guidance and interventions that have the potential to transform how the public makes food choices and greatly improve population health.