Researchers at the National Institutes of Health are working on a precision nutrition study in an effort to solve the public health problem of poor nutrition in the United States and other countries. The main focus of their research is to develop personalized dietary recommendations for individuals, taking into consideration genetic, metabolic, and lifestyle factors.
According to the NIH, poor diet is the main cause of diseases, killing over half a million people each year in the United States alone. The financial burden of obesity-related health care spending is estimated at over $170 billion annually, impacting not only public health but also the budgets of the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
In an effort to combat these issues, researchers are using advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Bigdata, DNA sequencing, and genetic testing to analyze individual responses to different diets and develop algorithms to predict these responses.
The Precision Nutrition for Health study, which is part of the federal research program All of Us, is investing $189 million over 5 years to analyze the eating habits and responses of 10,000 adults. The study aims to develop a more complete picture of how people respond to foods or eating routines and is open to diverse participants. Participants are asked to wear activity and glucose monitors, document their meals, and may be asked to consume three different diets for two weeks in order to compare metabolic responses.
The study, which is taking place at 14 research centers in six states, is also open to anyone over the age of 18 in the United States who is interested in contributing to research and receiving free health analyses.
In addition, the NPH Consortium has launched a funding opportunity for research projects that develop and use AI and other computer-assisted approaches to facilitate precision nutrition. This is seen as a great opportunity for researchers to receive funding for their projects and connect with a community of researchers working on AI for precision nutrition.
The goal of this research is to customize dietary recommendations for individuals in order to improve their quality of life and prevent or treat diet-related diseases. Precision nutrition offers the potential to revolutionize public health and individual well-being by providing personalized tools and technologies to improve eating behavior and health outcomes.