The rise of personalized nutrition and digital technology

Nowadays we heard more and more about personalized nutrition, we even see a growing number of startups raising a lot of money based on the expectations that this individualized way of getting nutrients is creating, but can we say there is a commonly accepted definition to that? The answer is not. In essence, we all understand that since everyone is different our nutritional needs are also different, that’s why we need personalized nutrition. But the discrepancies come when we talk about which parameters should be considered to define a customized diet.

If you talk to a nutritionist, maybe he just needs to know your physical activity and your Resting Energy Expenditure. Based on that you can have a personalized diet. But that is not exactly what we are currently hearing about and the direction that the rising number of startups are heading; what people talk about nowadays is much more sophisticated. They talk about things like conducting DNA tests, to check your microbiome or even to do an analysis of your blood biomarkers, just to mention some of the main trends, and based on the results to recommend you what are the best nutrients for you. Thanks to all these advances in research nowadays we know that if you are a slow metabolizer, for instance, then you are not supposed to drink more than two cups of coffee per day because it could increase your chances of having heart problems.

Even though there is an increasing number of companies, mainly startups, going in this direction and raising millions of dollars to scale up this trend, the reality shows that are still not commonly extended. The main reasons are price, availability, reduced number of experts that can give proper advice once you get your test done, lack of general knowledge,…

In my opinion, digital technology could help to overcome this situation, because technology allows eliminating the time and space barriers. Everyone has its own conditions: your DNA, your microbiome, …and a specific context. Based on that, thru machine learning, technology can interpret the results and provide advice about the most suitable diet for you. It doesn’t mean that you don’t need anymore the advice of nutrition experts, but with digital technology, you can standardize many of the processes and services related to personalized nutrition and reduce operation costs and reach more people.

In Monteloeder we believe that the future of nutraceutical business will be linked to digital technology, that’s why we have already created an App for our branded ingredient Nutroxsun. The App allows to interact with the consumers, give them relevant information and gather information about the Nutroxsun consumption journey. The result allows the companies making use of these services to understand better the consumers and provide them personalized solutions.

Ignacio Cartagena

Vice President & Sales

 

Related articles

https://www.monteloeder.com/blog/2018/10/mhealth-are-we-ready-for-it/

https://www.monteloeder.com/blog/2018/10/the-mconsumer-the-new-user-category-among-the-sport-nutrition-market/