Metabolomics in the Opening Decade of the 21st Century: Building the Roads to Individualized Health

It is rapidly becoming possible to measure hundreds or thousands of metabolites in small samples of biological fluids or tissues. This makes it possible to assess the metabolic component of nutritional phenotypes and will allow individualized dietary recommendations. ASNS has to take action to ensure that appropriate technologies are developed and that metabolic databases are constructed with the right inputs and organization. The relations between diet and metabolomic profiles and between those profiles and health and disease must be established. ASNS also should consider the social implications of these advances and plan for their appropriate utilization. J. Nutr. 134: 2729 -2732, 2004. Individualizing diet and metabolism Foods are, ideally, a source of nourishment as well as de- light, comfort, fuel, and protection. However, in many people inappropriate choices in diets lead to metabolic imbalances, thereby enhancing the risk of diseases such as atherosclerosis, obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, food allergies and in- tolerances, gastrointestinal disorders, and inflammatory dis- eases. The solution would appear to be simply to choose a better diet. However, what is a better diet? The same diet is not ideal for everyone. The genetic and phenotypic variation among humans is so wide that a diet that might be optimal for one individual could predispose another to disease. Although this fact has become increasingly evident as public health agencies attempt to address diseases stemming from metabolic dysregulation, the scientific knowledge necessary to personal- ize diets in not yet in place. The nutrition scientific commu- nity must now build the basic knowledge required to link personal metabolism to optimal diets, one of the prerequisites