Personalized nutrition: the end of the one-diet-fits-all era

Abstract

Personalized Nutrition emerged as a new trend for providing nutritional and food advice based on the individual's genetic composition, a field driven by the advancements in the multi-omic sciences throughout the last century. It intends not only to tailor the recommended daily allowances of nutrients and functional foods that a person may need but also to maintain the principles of sustainability and eco-friendliness. This principle implies the implementation of strategies within the healthcare system to advocate for the ending of the one-diet-fits-all paradigm by considering a personalized diet as an ally to prevent diet-related chronic diseases. In this Perspective, we highlight the potential benefits of such a paradigm within the region of Latin America, particularly Mexico, where the genetic admixture of the population, food biodiversity, and food culture provide unique opportunities to establish personalized nutrigenetic strategies. These strategies could play a crucial role in preventing chronic diseases and addressing the challenges confronted in the region.

Keywords: Genomex diet; Latin America; Mexico; ancestry; food culture; genes; hepatopathogenic diet; polymorphisms.

Figure 1

Genetic and alimentary evolution of the Mexican population. Mexico’s population genetics and food culture have undergone significant shifts with each economic/historical period (herein marked illustratively), shaping dietary preferences and influencing susceptibility to infectious and chronic diseases. This timeline highlights the shift from harmony with the environment to a growing mismatch between genes and the modern diet. The endemic Mesoamerican diet, rich in plant-based staples like maize, beans, and chili, was historically linked to lower metabolic risk factors. However, this has been replaced by a highly palatable, energy-dense diet dominated by processed and ultra-processed foods, poor nutritional quality, and promoting metabolic diseases. In this obesogenic environment, Mexico faces an obesity epidemic among its young and adult population, fueled by dietary patterns that result in metabolic disturbances like dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, diabetes, and metabolic-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). NAFTA, North American Free Trade.