Nutrition professionals have been aware that each individual responds differently to the same diet. This is one of the reasons that one particular weight management diet will reduce a person's weight significantly and the same diet will have little or no effect on another individual. Most of the "popular" weight loss diets and plans have found major problems with the "one diet fits all" concept. Each individual in a weight management class has different nutritional requirements. The success rate of weight loss has been increased significantly with individualized counseling. We have found there are many different variables that lead to an overweight problem, but there has always been a missing variable. Enter the science of genetic dietetics, which will become central to the practice of dietetics. The knowledge of the complex interactions between our genes and diet is just beginning to show promise for personalized nutrition counseling.

Nutritional genomics is the umbrella term for the sciences that will look at the influence of diet on genetic variations and the influence on an individual's health. As the science progresses, diet counseling will be tailored to each individual's genotype in order to prevent, treat and maybe even cure disease. Nutritional counseling will become much more complex as dietitians strive to design diets that provide optimal nutrition while at the same time avoid all possible conditions for which the client may be genetically susceptible.

Many research centers around the world are focusing on nutritional genomics. The USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston has emerged as one the leaders in nutritional genomic research. Their particular emphasis concerns lipid metabolism in relation to cardiovascular disease. Researchers in New Zealand have concentrated on the effects of certain foods on inflammation, which is connected to many diseases such as Crohn's disease. They have found anti-inflammatory potential from several food extracts when combined with a particular gene variation. Another source of useful information is the European Nutrigenomics Organisation. This organization specializes in the collection of information from world sources concerning nutritional genomics.

The current state of the art is perhaps best explained by Ruth DeBusk, PhD, RD, a pioneer in the nutritional genomics field. "The technology exists for testing which gene variants we have and, for some diet-related genes, that information can be translated into smart food choices. Considerable research is needed, though, before all of the diet-related genes are identified and matched to appropiate food choices and diets tailored to each individual's particular gene variants can be developed."

As it stands, nutritional genomics is in its early developmental stages, and any personalized dietary advice may be premature. There is not yet consensus among the experts that genetically-based dietary advice is ready for everyday nutritional counseling. Testing is available, but is still of questionable accuracy.

For more information contact the dietitians at Hill Nutrition Associates, 772-220-8058 or www.eatrighthna.com