Vitamins and other dietary supplements are a $30 billion industry in the US. In addition to the bottles lining drugstore shelves, those products include a niche that promises to meet customers’ unique needs based on their specific data.
Those data come in a few different forms. Like Nourish3d, some other companies, including care/of and Persona, use an online questionnaire that covers questions such as goals and current diet. Persona and care/of then recommend personalized vitamin packs for customers to order.
Other companies use DNA testing to make their recommendations. PureGenomics, available only through healthcare providers, uses the results of 23andMe’s direct-to-consumer SNP test to sell its supplements. For example, the company states on its website, people with certain alleles of the gene BCMO1 may require a vitamin A supplement, if they aren’t eating foods high in the vitamin. TeloYears, by contrast, zeros in on telomere length, testing customers and delivering supplements it claims result in “measurably younger cells.”
….
Related on the SLP
[Food researcher Marion] Nestle’s advice to people looking to optimize their nutritional intake right now isn’t complicated. “How about food?” she suggests. “That would be my starting position, is eat a healthy diet for heaven’s sakes.”
Read full, original post: Personalized Nutrition Companies’ Claims Overhyped: Scientists
