There is an urgent need for smart strategies to promote healthier and more sustainable dietary choices for
improved human and planetary health. Emerging evidence indicates that tailoring diets more to the individual is
required for optimal health benefits. Importantly, personalisation of dietary advice has been shown to induce
greater dietary changes than more generalised advice, and may therefore promote long-lasting behaviour
change.
In this project, we will investigate what environmentally sustainable diet best suits an individual for improving
personal health and well-being both short and long-term. The identification of what diet best suits an individual
requires a short-term health effect marker. Novel technologies such as Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM)
sensors have enabled the assessment of short-term health effects of foods and meals based on post-meal glucose
responses. Improving glucose responses via dietary modification may not only benefit (cardiometabolic) health
and well-being, it may also support long-term behaviour change via increased vitality and well-being. Various
landmark studies have shown that post-meal glucose responses to identical foods are meals are highly variable
between individuals, indicating the need for more personalisation of dietary advice. Interestingly, the variability
in individual post-meal glucose responses also seems to be highly different between foods. Some foods elicit
relatively consistent responses linked to the inherent qualities of the foods themselves (food-specific), while
other foods lead to highly differential responses between individuals, suggesting that the individual's response
to these foods depends on the person (person-specific). In this project, we aim to 1) identify which foods and
meals elicit either food- or person-specific post-meal glucose responses, 2) identify person-specific determinants
of glucose responses and use these factors to develop an algorithm for the prediction of individual glucose
responses, 3) identify more sustainable alternatives for foods and meals with beneficial (individual) glucose
responses, 4) develop personalised, environmentally sustainable food recommendations based on these findings
for personalised dietary advice, and 5) examine the effectiveness of the developed personalised dietary advice
based on these findings on cardiometabolic health, vitality and well-being, and diet-related environmental
impact.
The scientific knowledge generated by this project can be used to develop smart tools for personalised dietary
advice to promote healthier and more sustainable diets among Dutch consumers.