Developing Personalized Nutritional Medicine: Concepts and Challenges

Dr. Jim Kaput is Director of FDA’s Division of Personalized Nutrition and Medicine. Founder of several biotechnology firms, Dr. Kaput has held the positions of Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Department of Surgery; Senior Scientist in the NCMHD Center of Excellence in Nutritional Genomics at the University of California Davis; and Science Adviser for International Alliances and Best Practices for the European Nutrigenomics Organization NuGO. He is co-author of the book Nutritional Genomics: Discovering the Path to Personalized Nutrition, which explores how foods affect the expression of genetic information in individuals, and how an individuals’ genetic makeup metabolizes and responds to nutrients and molecules that can have a biological effect the body.

Summary

In 70% of the world’s populations this chemical causes intestinal bloating and diarrhea. Taken in excess, it can even cause death. The culprit? Lactose, the chemical found in milk and milk products—and consumed with no adverse reaction by 95% of people from European stock. Foods have different biological effects on different populations. Preventing many chronic diseases, including obesity, will require a greater understanding of the complex interaction between our genotype and our food environment. Listen to Dr. Kaput’s presentation on the challenges and possibilities of the emerging field of personalized nutritional medicine

Audio [31 MB MP3]
Transcript [PDF, 102KB]