The rise of personalised nutrition: how science is reshaping what we eat

When it comes to consumer products, there aren’t many that are more personal than the food we eat. Food is woven into our culture, identity, memory, and health in ways that almost nothing else is. And yet, for decades, nutritional guidance has been remarkably impersonal. Tools like the Food Pyramid offered a universal blueprint for how everyone should eat, regardless of who they were or how their bodies actually worked. The advice that followed was broad by design. Eat more plants. Cut back on sugar. Go easy on the salt. None of it is wrong, of course, but it takes something extraordinarily complex and compresses it into a set of rules that work well enough for some people, some of the time, and leave a lot of others wondering why the same diet produces such different results in different bodies.

Human metabolism is not a uniform process. Genetics, gut microbiome composition, activity levels, sleep patterns, stress – all of these shape how your body responds to food. The way one person responds to carbohydrates, processes fats, or absorbs certain micronutrients can differ substantially from the way the person sitting next to them does. As a result, a dietary recommendation that works beautifully for one person may do very little for someone else. Different people have different goals, too, whether it’s improving athletic performance, weight management, managing a chronic condition, or simply feeling better day to day. The existing tools and datasets haven’t always kept pace with that reality. Most still treat users as interchangeable, delivering the same output regardless of who’s asking.

But this is starting to change. Over the past several years, scientists have made meaningful progress in understanding how nutrition affects people individually through advances in genomics and microbiome research. At the same time, consumers have started to pay closer attention to what goes into their bodies, driven by a broader cultural turn toward health awareness that shows little sign of slowing down. Out of that combination, a new wave of startups has emerged with the goal of making personalised nutrition more practical and accessible. Their approaches vary widely, from DNA-based meal plans to AI-driven dietary coaching, but together they point to a future where food may no longer be a mass-produced commodity but something tailored specifically to you – your biology, your goals, your life.

“Consumers are ‘hacking’ the body to better understand and influence how it works.” 

Vaught DuBow, senior marketing director at ADM

Eating well, living well

Consumers are paying closer attention to their health than ever – and increasingly, that scrutiny is extending to what they put on their plates.

The growing focus on wellness has been one of the fastest-moving consumer trends of recent years. According to McKinsey’s latest Future of Wellness survey, 84% of US consumers now describe wellness as a “top” or “important” priority in their lives. That shift in mindset has come alongside a surge in health tech adoption. Lumina Intelligence’s Global Nutrition Consumer Research reveals that 57% of the population uses health or fitness apps or trackers, while 24% of consumers surveyed rely on digital platforms specifically to manage their nutritional intake. “The data shows that consumers aren’t just logging steps or calories, they’re becoming more informed and intentional about their health choices,” says Ewa Hudson, head of insights at Lumina Intelligence. “And with mobile apps and fitness trackers, users are naturally gravitating toward personalised health solutions.”

As health climbs higher on people’s list of priorities, it’s increasingly shaping what ends up on their plates. A 2025 Pew Research Center survey found that 52% of Americans say the healthiness of food is highly important when deciding what to eat. The figure is even higher in the UK, where 85% of consumers said diet was important to their health, according to the latest YouGov/AHDB Pulse survey. What’s more, 51% of global consumers are open to DNA testing if it means getting personalised nutrition recommendations, according to ADM’s proprietary insights. “Consumers are ‘hacking’ the body to better understand and influence how it works,” says Vaught DuBow, senior marketing director at ADM. “It’s seen as a worthwhile investment to proactively monitor health and potentially avoid costly medical expenses further down the line.”

So what do people actually gain from personalised nutrition? The most obvious benefit is health itself. When food choices are aligned with genetic insights, personal preferences, and lifestyle goals, individuals can make sharper, more informed decisions about what they eat and better understand how their bodies respond. Clinical studies published in Nature Medicine and Cell Metabolism have shown that personalised nutrition approaches can meaningfully improve blood sugar control, lipid levels, and satiety, all key markers of cardiovascular and metabolic health. Then there’s convenience. Customised meal kits, tailored recipes, and nutrition-tracking apps are removing much of the guesswork from healthy eating. They also cut down on time spent meal planning and grocery shopping – a real draw for people trying to maintain better habits within the constraints of a busy life.

Food as medicine

A Los Angeles-based startup is using clinical-grade AI to deliver hyper-personalised nutrition advice for over 200 medical conditions.

A growing number of startups are now working to turn personalised nutrition from a promising concept into something people can actually use day to day. One of them is Heali, a Los Angeles-based company that uses AI to provide users with more tailored nutrition advice and meal planning. The platform lets users search for recipes and meals based on their health and wellness goals, dietary preferences, preferred tastes, or even specific medical conditions, drawing on a rich database of millions of food products and recipes analysed by its clinical-grade AI. Each user receives a personalised nutrition plan recommended by registered dietitians and built around a food map that reflects their individual profile. There’s also an in-app scanner that lets them check products in grocery stores or items on restaurant menus to flag ingredients that don’t align with their health goals. When something doesn’t fit, the app suggests healthier substitutes. Progress tracking is built in throughout, so the experience adjusts as users’ needs change over time.

The main thing that sets Heali apart from the competition is that it’s not just designed for people who want to cut down on carbs or count their macros; it can also help those with certain medical conditions make better dietary choices. Initially, the platform offered tailored nutrition protocols for 30 chronic conditions, including autoimmune diseases, allergies, neurological conditions, and variations of cancer, but the number has since grown to more than 200. The dietary engine powering all of this is what co-founder and CEO Kyle Dardashti describes as the “first clinical-grade hyper-personalised nutrition platform that can support medical nutrition therapy at scale.” And there’s clinical evidence to support the claim. A recent trial involving patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) on a low FODMAP diet found that those using Heali saw their quality of life improve 2.6 times, with their symptoms improving at twice the rate of patients who weren’t using the app.

No time to cook? No problem

For people who know what they should eat but struggle to find the time to cook, Hungryroot turns personalised nutrition into a weekly delivery of curated meals and groceries.

For many people, the bigger daily challenge isn’t figuring out what to eat – it’s finding the time to actually cook it. A number of meal and grocery delivery services have emerged in recent years that aim to simplify the process of getting food on the table, and one that’s been gaining traction lately is Hungryroot. It all starts with a short questionnaire that asks about your eating habits and preferences: what foods you enjoy, what you’d rather avoid, and any dietary restrictions you follow. You also need to select which meals you’re interested in receiving ingredients for, whether that’s breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, or all four. Once you’ve logged your preferences, chosen a delivery address and date, and entered a valid credit card, Hungryroot curates a list of suggested groceries and recipes tailored to your answers.

Before the order goes through, you can swap out anything that doesn’t appeal to you. Hungryroot will automatically suggest replacements, though there’s no obligation to pick any of them. Entire recipes can be swapped or removed, too. The variety is solid, all with a healthy angle: grain bowls, pasta dishes, sandwiches, soups, stews, burgers, and more. Based on what you noted in your questionnaire, meals are filtered around your time constraints and dietary needs, taking into account whether you’re gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, or need to steer clear of specific ingredients like shellfish or nuts. The recipes themselves lean towards semi-homemade, with built-in shortcuts designed to cut down your time in the kitchen, allowing you to spend more of your evening actually enjoying the meal than preparing it.

A diet tailored to your biology

ZOE digs into your blood, gut microbiome, and lifestyle to build a detailed picture of how your body responds to food.

Some companies go a step further by factoring in your actual biology to help guide your food choices. One of the more prominent examples is ZOE, an app that uses AI and machine learning to analyse data from a person’s blood, gut microbiome, and lifestyle and deliver personalised nutritional recommendations. When you first set up an account, the app asks you to fill out a detailed questionnaire covering your personal goals – increasing longevity, improving gut health, boosting sleep, losing weight, or some combination – alongside basic personal data like height, weight, and family health history. ZOE then analyses all of this information and uses it to offer you bespoke nutritional advice. You can also include data from your wearable fitness tracker, which will enable ZOE to map the relationships between diet, movement, and sleep over time, adding another layer of personalisation to its recommendations.

One of the app’s standout features is its AI photo function, which allows you to analyse a meal’s nutritional content just by snapping a photo of it. ZOE assigns each meal a score from 0 to 100, indicating how frequently it should feature in your diet, accompanied by a full macronutrient breakdown. The app also includes something called a Processed Food Risk Scale, a new classification system that evaluates the health impact of processed foods by weighing several important factors, including their energy density, energy intake rate, hyperpalatability, and the presence of non-culinary additives like artificial colours, sweeteners, and preservatives. Each food is given a rating between 1 and 5, ranging from Unprocessed to High Risk.

There is also a built-in nutrition coach called Ziggie, which helps users make sense of complex science, track their progress, and build healthier habits they can actually stick to. Ziggie guides users through lessons in nutrition science, enabling them to understand the reasoning behind the recommendations – the why behind the what. But the most interesting feature of the app is a gut microbiome test that maps the specific microbes present in your gut and how their balance might be affecting your health. Based on those results, the app identifies foods worth eating more of to encourage the growth of beneficial microbes you may be lacking, as well as foods worth pulling back on in order to reduce the ‘bad’ bacteria that may be working against you.

Eating for your genes

Your DNA already influences more about you than you might realise. GenoPalate makes the case that it should also influence what ends up on your plate.

Our DNA determines a remarkable number of things about us, from eye colour and the rhythm of our internal clock to how impulsive or thrill-seeking we tend to be and our likelihood of developing various diseases. A growing body of evidence also suggests it plays a meaningful role in determining what we should and shouldn’t eat. GenoPalate is built around that idea – it’s a platform that analyses an individual’s genetic data, demographics, and lifestyle information to deliver personalised insights for healthier eating. Customers can sign up in one of two ways: they can either order an at-home saliva kit from GenoPalate, which will then analyse their DNA to identify key nutritional markers, or they can upload raw DNA data they have previously acquired from services like 23andMe or Ancestry.com and pay for the nutritional analysis alone, in which case they will receive results within 24 hours (as opposed to 2-3 weeks with the first option).

The company takes the genetic information obtained through the analysis to build a comprehensive report, which includes dietary recommendations based on more than 400 known nutrition biomarkers – variants within genes that influence how the body interacts with different foods. The report opens with some background on DNA and how genes work, before moving into colourful, clearly laid-out graphics covering recommended intake levels for a wide range of nutrients, such as carbohydrates, protein, different types of fats, individual vitamins and minerals, and even substances like alcohol and gluten. It also includes examples of foods that are particularly well-suited to your genetic profile and an explanation of why. Finally, at the end of the report, you will find a broader list of foods your DNA suggests you should eat more of, organised into categories such as fruit, vegetables, meat, seafood, legumes, and starches.

It’s worth noting that this initial report is based exclusively on DNA, and it doesn’t take into account factors such as your height, weight, build, age, gender, health history, activity level, lifestyle, or dietary preferences. For those who want a more complete picture, GenoPalate also offers a higher-tier membership plan at an additional cost, which incorporates all of that information, along with one-on-one health coaching with a registered dietitian and personalised meal plans. Meal plans can be drawn up for individuals, but they can also be tailored to couples or whole families, with every household member’s nutritional profile taken into account.

Ethical and practical challenges

While personalised nutrition undoubtedly holds great promise, it also raises some concerns regarding privacy, accessibility, and scientific validity.

For all its promise, personalised nutrition does raise several concerns worth taking seriously. The most immediate is data privacy. Services that analyse genetic information are dealing with some of the most sensitive data a person can hand over, and once it’s been shared, the questions of who owns it, who can access it, and how securely it’s stored don’t always have satisfying answers. Regulatory frameworks around genetic data vary considerably by country, and the companies collecting it range from well-resourced platforms with robust security practices to much smaller startups that may not be able to offer similar guarantees. For users, the trade-off between insight and exposure is real, and worth thinking through carefully before submitting a saliva sample.

Then there’s the issue of affordability and accessibility. At the moment, personalised nutrition is more of a premium product than a public health tool. Genetic testing, microbiome analysis, registered dietitian coaching, and curated meal delivery all carry a hefty cost, which puts genuinely personalised nutrition out of reach for a significant portion of the population. The promise of food tailored to individual biology is considerably less meaningful if it remains accessible only to people who can already afford to eat well. Finally, the science itself is still developing. Early findings from studies on personalised nutrition are encouraging, but they are far from conclusive. Many of the studies conducted so far have been relatively small or short in duration, and the long-term evidence needed to confidently validate AI-driven dietary recommendations is still being gathered.