New developments in artificial intelligence are revolutionizing the delivery of personalized nutrition solutions, which are becoming increasingly important in the sports and active nutrition scene. AI can learn and model linear and non-linear relationships between variables by building an input-output map that reveals information that would otherwise remain unknown.

“Generic ‘one size fits all’ guidelines for sports nutrition overlook significant individual differences in nutrient processing and will not allow an individual to optimize athletic performance. The ability of AI to develop personalized assessments of nutritional needs, and then analyze which ingredients have the greatest efficacy and the least risk for an individual, opens the doors to highly personalized nutrition products and services,”said Ali Mostashari, PhD, co-founder of LifeNome, a precision health AI company headquartered in New York.

At LifeNome, Mostashari helps nutrition companies leverage their ability to increasingly personalize their offerings and plan products that can cover different customer profile needs at the individual or cohort level.

Welcome the athlete

While “one size fits all” recommendations remain, the concept is slowly fading for the general population and quickly becoming a thing of the past for the sports nutrition community.

“Athletes want to optimize their current performance while ensuring long-term sustainable performance capacity and injury prevention. This requires an understanding of their unique muscle structure and power/endurance profile, as well as injury potentials for ligaments and tendons which are highly genetic in nature.Having this information combined with an understanding of their metabolism helps to optimize their training and diet for their unique needs,”explained Mostashari.

Indeed, the personalized nutrition of sports populations optimizes performance by focusing dietary recommendations on the genetic profile of the individual. These genetic differences can impact everything from absorption, metabolism, and uptake to excretion of nutrients and dietary bioactives, ultimately impacting metabolic pathways.

Stand out in a crowded space

“I believe that over the next decade, nutrition companies need to move beyond providing generic supplements and foods to more AI-customized functional foods that have individual efficacy and that is which will define the early players in this space versus the rest of the companies in this crowded space,”Mostashari said.

Looking ahead, Mostashari said he’s very excited to create a personalization profile for an individual’s nutrition, exercise, and preventative health using machine learning technologies fused with systems biology to combine data about a person’s unique genetics, gut microbiome, clothing, and lifestyle.

Sport and Active Nutrition Summit 2022

Mostashri will speak on personalized nutritional innovation at the upcoming Sports & Active Nutrition Summit.

“I will highlight how systems biology and AI are now enabling significant personalization capabilities that we could not dream of before and define different ways for companies to achieve biology-based, AI-enhanced personalization in the coming decade.”​

Following Mostashari’s presentation, he will be joined by Diana Morgan, MS, of Care/Of, and Joshua Schall, MBA, of J. Schall Consulting for a panel discussion on personalized nutrition. The panel will cover science, technology, the regulatory framework and how to apply it to your business.

The event is scheduled for February 14-16. The venue is the Hyatt Regency Resort located on San Diego’s beautiful Mission Bay. For more information and to secure your space, click on the links below.