Abstract/Summary

Advances in the field of precision nutrition have generated better understanding of how genetic and non-genetic determinants of health can be used to personalise nutritional therapeutic strategies. Even though the impact of dietary interventions on the risk factors of chronic diseases has been extensively investigated through population-based approaches, considerable inter-individual variation in response to dietary interventions has also been demonstrated, where the interventions have shown to benefit only certain individuals or population sub-groups. An individual's dietary pattern can influence their physical performance and an optimal diet can delay enervation and improve performance. Given that military personnel execute metabolically demanding activities under conditions of varying environmental extremes, there is a requirement of different needs for nutrients. Personalized nutrition aims to optimize health, body composition, and physical performance by targeting dietary recommendations to an individual’s genetic and non-genetic profile. This Editorial will focus on four recent advances in the field of precision nutrition namely nutrigenetics, metabolomics, nutriepigenetics, and gut microbiome that can lead to personalized dietary recommendations for improving military performance.