The Evolution of Personalized Nutrition

I’ve experimented with many diets in my life from raw vegan to pagan (paleo + vegan), plant-based keto, intermittent fasting, low oxalate and low FODMAP (Fermentable Oligo- Di- and Monosaccharides, Polyols). After encountering numerous issues, I personally discovered there’s no one-size-fits-all. Understanding how each diet works for your body’s specific needs is daunting, but it’s important for health and longevity and fortunately now easier than ever before. As Dr. Mark Hyman said, “food is the code that programs your biology” and everyone’s “code” is different. It’s an exciting time to be a wellness consumer and investor, with the rise of the wellness industry, new scientific discoveries and technology creating new types of data collection, you can now more accurately understand and cater to your wellness needs. Nutrition companies are taking advantage of these advancements, and the mass customization of consumer products is being applied to help consumers achieve their goals and optimal health. Here’s my take on the evolution of personalized nutrition.

Personalized Nutrition 1.0

Experimenting with Diets: Diets have gone in and out of vogue for decades in a cyclical fashion… A diet’s cyclical popularity indicates their rise may be more from marketing dollars than actual science. After studying the success of several “popular diets”, Harvard Health found, “[the take away lesson is] its okay to experiment on yourself. If you give a diet your best shot and it doesn’t work, maybe it wasn’t the right one for you, your metabolism, or your situation.” And last year, the Mayo Clinic found “individualized diets are most effective for managing blood sugar levels.” I personally found out I needed to craft my own diet; by following some of these diets blindly, I ran into food allergies, kidney stones and SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) and had to turn to what I call “personalized nutrition 2.0”.

• Examples of experimenting and rotating diets: Keto and fasting tends to be the most effective when done cyclically, women’s dietary needs shift with their cycle and age (check out Alissa Vitti’s book In The Flo), fasting or raw food/juice cleansing can be recommended 4x a year as each season changes to help you adapt, etc…
• Powerplant Venture’s portfolio company Thrive Market makes it easy to shop for whatever diet works best for you and your goals:

Personalized Nutrition 2.0

If 1.0 is blind experimentation, 2.0 is working with a coach or nutritionist and/or validating an eating regimen’s success with biomarker improvements. Following my health issues experimenting with various diets, I started working with a nutritionist at Parsley Health about a year ago to solve them. We’ve taken aspects of each diet to find out what food, combining and eating practices worked for me at any given time. I’ve found, the more my meal plan effectively aligns with my unique situation, genetics, goals, current immune and microbiome make up, the better. Fortunately, we can now figure out what works for us more easily than ever before, with a variety of at home biomarker tests and wearables.

Here are the best ways I’ve found to collect my data:

1. Activity — Steps, heart rate, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, recovery etc. — I’ve found the best are the latest Apple Watch or Garmin (note: Garmin can be better for heart rate variability tracking or HRV).
2. Sleep — HRV, basal body temperature, deep and REM sleep analysis can make day-by-day lifestyle and diet recommendations. I’ve appreciated the accuracy, wearability and diversity of metric tracking from Oura Ring.
3. DNA — I’ve used 23&Me and have appreciated their continuous and evolving genome research. Their scale has also resulted in 23&Me data being widely accepted by many start ups (see a few that I list in “personalized nutrition 3.0”).
4. Blood — I work with Parsley Health to test my macro and micro nutrients every 3–4 months but there are some unique companies like Baze that offer at-home personal use blood marker nutrient testing as well.
5. Food Allergy Response — Check out Everlywell. I developed a slight allergy to coconuts while on plant-based keto and had to remove it from my diet for some time. Remember — diversity and moderation is key no matter what nutrition plan you’re following!
6. Brain — While I haven’t done this yet, I’ve heard great things about the Brain SPECT scan at Dr. Amen’s clinics in optimizing your brain to both reverse trauma and prevent cognitive decline as you age.
7. Microbiome — Applicable science on the microbiome is still early and ever evolving. While we may discover more uses for these tests in the future, I still think it makes sense to start to understand our “2nd brain” that holds 70% of your immune system. I’ve used Genova’s GI Effects but would be open to experimenting with Viome next.
8. Hormones — I’ve used the DUTCH test and cortisol saliva test but also regularly track my cycle with the MyFlo app which gives a great overview of how women’s hormone mix evolves with each phase.

• Another option… Tracking & Balancing Your Doshas and Chakras with Ayurveda — Biomarker testing is not always achievable, desired, or realistic for everyone. I’ve found Ayurveda to be a free, non-invasive way for people to better understand their ever-evolving nutrition and lifestyle needs through Dosha and Chakra imbalances. Ayurveda is one of the oldest forms of personalized medicine and plant-based Ayurveda may be the lowest investment to a DIY personalized nutrition plan. While I tend to consistently lean towards 2 of the 3 Doshas, it’s always changing based on my current circumstances. I’ve started to recognize and track these shifts through effective online Dosha quizzes, my favorite being Sahara Rose and her latest plant-based Ayurvedic cookbook Eat Feel Fresh. Her book has many diet and lifestyle recommendations to bring you back into balance. Consider simple Ayurvedic Dosha and Chakra check-ins and adjust from there.

Whether you’re using a coach or educating yourself constantly to understand which foods and supplements are optimized for your own biological code, it can be a full-time job. Fortunately, entrepreneurs entering this space are creating companies that are democratizing personalized wellness advice and we’ve now arrived at “personalized nutrition 3.0”…

Personalized Nutrition 3.0

The age of needing to DIY personal food, beverage and supplement regimens may be over. As noted in my data collection review above, there’s now an abundance of data that wellness companies can leverage (according to Accenture, the US consumer’s use of wearables jumped from 9% in 2014 to 33% in 2018!). Individual health coaching recommendations are being democratized as we enter the world of mass customization in CPG. Quizzes focused on demographics and goals have seen the most consumer adoption so far, but this is only the beginning as consumers become more educated on the sources and uses of their data to transform their health through precision medicine. While still in early innings, we now have a selection of innovative, customized wellness products (see those listed below) to enhance our overall health . The companies are translating our health data into personalized meals, beverages, grocery lists and supplements for us:

1. Food — DNAfit and GenoPalate offer dietary and lifestyle recommendations based on 23&me results, Viome provides food recommendations for your unique microbiome, Habit provides meal plans and nutrition advice linked to your goals and blood markers, DayTwo offers a personalized food as medicine solution
2. Beverage — Gainful offers unique protein shakes for your physical makeup, activity levels and wellness goals
3. Personal Care — Function of Beauty formulates individual hair care solutions, Proven offers personalized skincare and Atolla creates individually-made face serums
4. Vitamins & Supplements — Persona and Care/Of offer personalized supplements through quizzes while others like Vitl, Wellnicity, Vitagene, Rootine and Baze offer personalized supplements recommended by their at-home testing kits (blood markets, microbiome and DNA)

UBS forecasted the personalized nutrition market could be the next plant-based meat market and reach $64bn over the next two decades. However, 3.0 is still a new, relatively immature market today. Beware that it’s difficult to always clinically track the science given the personalized nature of these products. So, as with personalized nutrition 1.0 (diet experimentation), keenly focus on what works best for you: how you feel (energy, digestion, sleep, etc.) and how your biomarkers are moving.

Even with all of this, Michael Pollan sums up my nutrition foundation best: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” If you ever feel lost, confused or overwhelmed by navigating the copious amounts of ever-changing data, just turn back to this foundation.