The Science of Personalized Nutrition: How Tailored Plans Can Transform Your Health
PERSONALIZED NUTRITION 101
When it comes to food, we’re all different. (Even identical twins, with the same DNA, have been found to react to the same foods differently!) And how different foods impact us can change based on a variety of factors.
The heart of personalized nutrition is understanding and implementing nutritional changes based on what’s best for your body, health, and health goals.
Personalized or precision nutrition is a new discipline of nutrition in which dietary recommendations are tailored to each unique individual rather than relying on general health recommendations.
Once the realm of movie stars, individualized dietary suggestions and plans are now available to everyone.
WHAT MAKES PERSONALIZED NUTRITION PERSONAL?
Instead of using just the general population dietary requirements, personalized nutrition takes into account a variety of factors unique to you, such as your previous medical history, past reactions to food, and current health status to help you decipher what would be best for you to eat to meet your health goals. When you work with the team at Bala, we also prioritize any current symptoms you might be experiencing along with your quality of life goals to see what will plan will be best for your body.
According to a recent study, people are often more likely to improve their food choices when they receive personalized nutritional advice rather than general advice. We love to take that learning and use personalized recommendations to help everyone access better, tailored health.
HOW DOES PERSONALIZED NUTRITION WORK?
If you know about Bala, you know that a healthy gut microbiome can make a big impact on your health.
(If you’re new to Bala, a “healthy” microbiome is defined by your gut’s stability, diversity, and ability to fulfill metabolic functions.)
Given that we can alter our macrobiotic profile by adjusting our nutritional intake, personalized nutrition works by altering what you eat to impact your health and how you feel. By adjusting what you take in based on precise and unique nutritional suggestions, you can support your gut and overall health to meet your health goals and address ongoing symptoms.
ARE THERE ANY DOWNSIDES?
The largest limitations to personalized nutrition are knowledge gaps, both in the medical industry and among the individuals participating.
On the medical side, we’re still constantly discovering what we know about how different bodies react and how they are restored by different foods. Our knowledge around this interplay is continually developing, and so is our basis of knowledge about personalized nutrition.
Similarly, personalized nutrition is based on accurate reporting from the individual regarding what they’re eating. (The second way that personalized nutrition is precise!) Turns out that tracking what you eat is really challenging. Despite best intentions, studies show that people tracking their food often underestimate what they eat by 20-50% and up to as much as 2,000 calories a day. While we try to make tracking what you eat as easy as possible, these accuracy variances also hamper the knowledge and results of personalized nutrition.
That said, advances in technology, AI, and tracking methods are definitely making the hardest part of precision nutrition easier every day.
We’re excited to bring you the latest nutritional research and technological advances to keep making the journey toward better health easier and more joyful.
