What is Precision Nutrition and how can you bring it into your daily life?

Let's see what Precision Nutrition is and what possibilities it offers to improve our health.

There is a proven relationship between the intake of certain foods and their impact on our health.. For example, the intake of whole grains has been linked to a reduced risk of Cardiovascular disease. But it is not only important what we eat but also how it is prepared or processed.

Grinding grains to obtain refined cereals removes the germ and bran from the endosperm and this protective effect is lost. It has been suggested that the fiber content of whole grains helps to reduce the glucose/insulin response after meals, also lowers the concentration of total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL, the so-called 'bad cholesterol') and improves the functional properties of the digestive tract.

Likewise, although meat consumption provides proteins and amino acids, necessary for correct growth and maintenance of the organism, high consumption of processed meat, regardless of the type (beef, pork or chicken), has been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and type II diabetes. In this case, it seems that the presence of sodium (table salt), nitrates and nitrites, as well as advanced glycation end products (AGEs) found in this type of product, could explain this increased risk on cardiovascular health.

Of course, the balance between health and disease does not depend exclusively on diet, but is influenced by numerous factors. Although diet plays an important role and many chronic diseases could be prevented to a large extent by taking care could be prevented to a large extent by taking care of diet and promoting healthy habits.. In fact, most of the common diseases in our environment are due to following inappropriate diets and this results in a significant loss of years of healthy life in westernized societies such as ours.

Omics technologies and nutrigenomics

The effect of foods and their ingredients on health is due to their specific action on cell function.. Nutrients, directly or indirectly, are substrates of metabolic pathways and their supply by the diet can modulate cellular metabolism, activate some metabolic pathways and slow down others. For example, a diet rich in carbohydrates and poor in fats stimulates de novo synthesis of fatty acids in the liver. The body tries to compensate, as far as it can, for the deficits or excesses we commit in our diet. The disease arises when their efforts have not been sufficiently effective.

In the last 20 years, there have been important advances in the techniques for the study of metabolism, associated with the development of what are called high-throughput post-genomic technologies.associated with the development of what are called high-throughput post-genomic technologies. These new tools are able to characterize in great detail the molecules of our cells, their interrelationship and their regulation. These technologies have specific names depending on the molecule under study.

For example, mass genotyping, together with functional genomics, has made it possible to know the sequence of the human genome and to begin to understand its function; it is complemented by transcriptomics, which is the first of its kind in the world.This is complemented by transcriptomics, which studies the expression and functioning of genes, proteomics, which studies the various proteins, and metabolomics, which studies the metabolites, substrates and products of metabolic pathways. Together, these -omics technologies help us to understand the functioning of the metabolism and its regulation to a level of detail that was not possible before.

In this context, Nutrigenomics emerges as the discipline that deals with the study of the effect of nutrients on metabolism using -omics technologies. In particular, Nutrigenomics studies changes in gene expression in response to diet. When we can understand the interaction that occurs, we are closer to designing more effective nutritional strategies to combat or prevent diet-related diseases.

We know that not not all people respond in the same way to a particular diet.. Obesity is difficult to treat and, in part, this is because not all individuals have the same metabolic response to following a particular diet. There are molecular differences between individuals, some of which are encoded in the DNA, in our genome, and which are responsible for the interindividual variability that occurs in response to certain stimuli, such as a diet. This specific part of Nutrigenomics is studied by the discipline we call Nutrigenetics.

SNPs and Nutrigenetics

Although the genome is almost identical in all individuals of the human species, there are small differences, interindividual variations in the DNA sequence of different people. These different sequences are called polymorphisms, and they can affect our appearance, our genetic make-up and our genetic makeup.and they can affect our appearance, our metabolism and health and also the way we respond to a diet or strategy to counteract obesity.

There are several types of genetic differences, and the simplest ones consist of point variations of one nucleotide for another at specific positions in the DNA; these are called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs, pronounced Snips).This is what we call single nucleotide polymorphisms (or SNPs, pronounced Snips).

SNPs are the simplest and most common form of genetic variation, accounting for about 90% of all polymorphisms in human DNA, and it has been estimated that there are approximately 10 million SNPs in total. Other genetic variations consist of deletions or insertions of fragments of hundreds of nucleotides. The impact of SNPs and the different variations that we may encounter depends on their position, on the function of this DNA sequence and can range from remarkable to almost negligible.

Let us see the relevance that SNPs can have in the genetic predisposition to obesity with the example of the FTO gene.. The presence of polymorphisms in this gene favors intake, even without hunger, since it affects the sensation of appetite and satiety. The risk variant predisposes to a higher intake of refined flours, sugar and sweets; it also favors an increased intake of calories and fat and there is more susceptibility to obesity than in individuals who do not have the risk variant.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that SNPs of the FTO gene show interaction with the composition of the diet, so that they can modulate the response to the FTO gene.Thus, they can modulate the response to weight loss according to the type of diet followed, achieving better weight loss when a diet adapted to the variant possessed is proposed. Genetic information, based on the characterization of SNPs we have, together with nutrigenetic information, i.e. the interaction between these SNPs and nutrients, is one of the tools of personalized nutrition.

Personalized nutrition

Advances in the knowledge of metabolism and its relationship with diet, as well as the complex interactions between genotype and the complex interactions that are generated between genotype and nutrients, but also their relationship and adaptationbut also their relationship and adaptation according to the lifestyle we follow and the environment that surrounds us, are crucial aspects to produce personalized nutritional recommendations that promote health and contribute to the well-being of people.

True personalized nutrition aims to integrate scientific knowledge with the peculiarities of individuals (genetic and metabolic). (genetic and metabolic), adjusting to their preferences and lifestyle. Today this is feasible thanks to mathematical tools, defined by experts in the field, which codify these specifications and help prioritize the best options. This will help in making decisions (type of diet, dietary pattern, preferred foods,...), choosing the most appropriate at a given time and adapting them as progress is made in the proposed objective (weight loss, increase in muscle mass, bone mass,...) according to the individual uniqueness that each person presents.

Oorenji: Precision Nutrition and Nutrigenetics

Oorenji is a personalized nutrition app designed so that, when using it, you can easily plan your personalized weekly menu knowing the recommended portions of each food.

Ooreji's artificial intelligence algorithm takes into account the user's general and biomedical variables (age, gender, physical activity or physical condition of the person) and genetic variables (this information is obtained through an analysis of a saliva sample). You can download Oorenji from the official Android and Apple stores.

Author: Dr. Francisca Serra Vich, University Professor of Nutrition and Bromatology, teaching at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) since 1990.