How does personalized nutrition work? Many people who start the journey to more informed eating with GenoPalate have the same exact question.

Personalized nutrition is dietary advice and support that is based on your unique DNA, rather than conventional or generic recommendations. Your DNA can tell you about your metabolism, as well as any unknown allergies, sensitivities, and intolerances you may have that you’re not already aware of. Getting all this knowledge is exciting but putting it into practice and making meaningful changes to your diet and eating habits can be intimidating.

If you started your journey into personalized nutrition today, what would that look like? In this article, we’ll answer that question for you, and introduce you to a road map that will help you navigate your personalized nutrition journey, starting from the DNA test and ending in your kitchen.

The first step in the personalized nutrition journey is the discovery of your personal DNA signature, and what makes you unique. To do this, we analyze your DNA using either our DNA test or data gathered from another testing entity like 23andMe or AncestryDNA.

If you’ve never taken a DNA test, there’s nothing to worry about. We use a simple saliva swab test that’s both easy and painless.

From there, your swab goes to our secure laboratory, where it’s spun in a centrifuge until the DNA releases from the rest of the cellular debris. Separating the DNA allows our scientists to break it apart into smaller pieces, making it much easier to highlight individual genetic variants.  

Once the DNA has been isolated and your genetic variants have been identified, a full account is generated and sent to our scientists. From there, they match your genetic information to our growing database and create a personalized report that examines how each genetic variant contributes to your metabolism as well as your nutritional needs.

The goal is to use this complex genetic information to create detailed, actionable recommendations on how your genes affect your eating habits and diet.

Using the information generated from our database, our experts create a report just for you that details your genetic variants and offers food and nutrition recommendations and tips to help you eat in a way that better supports your overall health.

Even though the scientific process of generating the recommendations is complex, our goal is to provide you with simple, straightforward information that you can use to change your eating habits in a positive way. 

We’ll talk about what vitamins and minerals your body needs, but we’ll also make suggestions for foods that are particularly rich in each of these nutrients. The goal is for you to be able to take this information and run with it!

Once you’ve received your report with all our recommendations, the next step is to put them into practice. Don’t get overwhelmed trying to make tons of changes all at once. It’s ok to start small! 

Here are a few tips for using our food and nutrition recommendations well.

1. Explore your favorite recipe books, food blogs, and other sources to find recipes that use the foods mentioned in your GenoPalate report.

2. If you’re a picky eater, try to remember that you should try something up to 10 times before you decide whether you like it. To help your taste buds along, try preparing the food differently. Vegetables like cauliflower, broccoli, and even kale taste entirely different when they’re roasted or sauteed.

3. Make changes slowly. If your report suggests eating more vegetables, start by adding in a small side salad with your dinner, then gradually increase the number of vegetables you eat daily.

4. Try our personalized recipes, which can be added on to any of our reports. These recipes are crafted just for you by a GenoPalate dietitian, and make it easy to incorporate new-to-you foods into your diet.

Trying to adopt healthier eating habits can be an intimidating prospect, but with personalized nutrition information, it doesn’t need to be. Try out our DNA nutrition test today to see for yourself.