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What to Eat?

Mike Elgan at Fast Company writes that companies are already beginning to combine advances in DNA sequencing and consumer information to tailor diet and lifestyle advice. Such nutrigenomic guidance aims to provide people with what foods best suit their particular genetic makeup.

In particular, one company, called Habit, which is backed by the Campbell Soup Company, plans to offer kits that test users' blood and DNA to provide nutrition advice in early 2017, Elgan reports, adding that other companies like LifeNome, Nutrigenomix, PlainSmart, and DNAFit offer similar services. Meanwhile, he notes that other companies explore customers' gut microbes.

By combining this with the 'Internet of Food' — which Elgan describes as project to amass data on every food ingredient or product so that it is accessible to all — diets and advice could be made even more precise, according to Elgan. However, he notes that this 'Internet of Food' is still in the works and that some companies are, in the mean time, conducting DNA and other testing on food items themselves to determine, for instance, if they are counterfeit, contain gluten, or allergens.

"In the future, dietary strategies will be based on a combination of an individual's genetics, microbiome, biomarkers, and environmental factors to create completely bespoke advice," DNAFit CEO Avi Lasarow tells Fast Company.