Adaptive Personalized Nutrition Advice Systems (APNASs) for Effective PN

What is it about?

This article discusses the limitations of current personalized nutrition approaches and proposes a new framework that incorporates individual goal preferences, personalization processes of behavior change, and a participatory dialog between individuals and experts. The traditional approach focuses on biomedical targets and inter- and intra-individual differences in physiological responses to food and nutrients. However, these methods have shown small to negligible effects on the efficacy and effectiveness of personalized dietary recommendations. The proposed framework, known as adaptive personalized nutrition advice systems (APNASs), aims to address the limitations by incorporating individual goal preferences beyond current biomedical targets, providing real-time information and support in real-life environments, and fostering a participatory dialog between individuals and experts. This framework is based on the idea that personalized goals may be more effective in changing behavior compared to one-size-fits-all approaches. However, the article also highlights that personalized nutrition might not be enough to address public health issues, as it primarily targets socially privileged groups. The authors argue that a more comprehensive approach is needed to create healthier, fairer, and more sustainable food environments that benefit the general population, rather than just individual groups.

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Why is it important?

Personalized nutrition can help individuals respond better to food and improve their physical health by considering genetic and other individual factors. However, current approaches have shown limited success, with only small effects on the efficacy and effectiveness of personalized dietary recommendations. Critics argue that these approaches primarily target socially privileged groups, widening health inequality. It is crucial to extend current PN approaches by creating adaptive personalized nutrition advice systems (APNASs) that consider individual goal preferences, personalization processes of behavior change, and a participatory dialog between individuals and experts. Key Takeaways: 1. Personalized nutrition advice should consider individual goal preferences beyond biomedical targets. 2. Real-life food environments need to be taken into account when providing personalized nutrition advice. 3. Continuous, real-time monitoring, advice, and support in food environments can be achieved through emerging digital nutrition ecosystems. 4. A participatory dialog between individuals and experts is essential for setting goals and deriving measures of adaption. 5. Current PN approaches may widen health inequality and need to be extended to address individual and population needs effectively.