You try to eat your fruits and vegetables, limit processed food, and keep your alcohol consumption in check, but sometimes, it’s still hard to get all the nutrients you need to look and feel your best. Taking vitamins can be a great way to ensure your body has what it needs for optimal health and disease prevention, especially if you have dietary restrictions, food allergies, or, like most of us, just don’t always hit a perfect score when it comes to what you’re eating.
A high-quality multivitamin can be a wise insurance policy, covering your bases, so to speak, when it comes to safeguarding against any general nutrient deficiencies. But this isn’t always the best option, as your needs may be different than what a basic multivitamin can correct. Enter smart nutrition: Personalized vitamins and supplements. Personalized vitamins may sound like a luxury, but they can also be more practical than you might think. Keep reading to learn more.
What is smart nutrition?
Smart nutrition is a new category of nutrition products that blends your personal health biomarkers with the known findings from research into personalized supplements that provide precisely what your specific body needs. Smart nutrition analyzes various health data, such as lab results, medical history, wearable data from sleep trackers and fitness monitors, and your wellness goals to find your specific needs. A custom formulation is then prepared, with a precise formulation, bioavailability, and dosage needed to fulfill your particular nutrition gaps and requirements.
Is smart nutrition expensive?
Yes, smart nutrition can be expensive compared to traditional approaches to healthy eating. Here’s a breakdown of the costs:
- Program fees: Companies offering smart nutrition plans often charge monthly or yearly subscription fees. These fees can vary depending on the level of personalization, data analysis involved, and additional features offered.
- Vitamins and supplements: Personalized plans may recommend specific supplements and vitamins based on your needs. High-quality supplements can be expensive, especially if you require multiple ones.
- Testing: Some plans might require blood tests, DNA analysis, or other assessments to gather data. These tests can incur additional costs.
Benefits of smart nutrition and personalized vitamins and supplements
Smart nutrition or customized vitamins offer the following benefits over generic supplements:
Personalized vitamins are precise
Instead of just guessing what your body needs or taking a multivitamin to cover your bases, smart nutrition uses your actual biomarkers to determine nutrient deficiencies and create your custom formulation.
Most smart nutrition companies analyze the following before making your personalized supplements:
- Total cholesterol
- HDL
- LDL
- Triglycerides
- Cholesterol/HDL ratio
- LDL/HDL ratio
- VLDL
- Homocysteine
- Vitamin B12
- Vitamin D
- Ferritin
By doing so, the supplement you end up taking has the exact nutrients and dosages your body needs, not some average value. For example, if you’re a vegan, your vitamin B12 level may be much lower than the typical omnivore, so your custom vitamin would have a much higher dosage than someone who has normal levels.
Personalized vitamins are more effective
Because smart nutrition uses your health data to create your personalized formulation, the supplements are more effective — they have what you actually need to correct deficiencies and help you reach the specific health goals you’ve identified.
Personalized vitamins are safer
We often focus on nutrient deficiencies when we talk about taking vitamins, but it’s equally dangerous — if not more so — to take supplements you don’t need or to take them in excess. For example, if you take more iron than your body needs, you can get iron toxicity. By looking at your biomarkers and discussing your diet, the personalized supplement can have the proper dosage you need, minimizing the risk of toxicity and overdosages.
Personalized vitamins absorb better
Smart nutrition companies usually consider your entire diet and give personalized recommendations as to when to take your vitamins in your routine for enhanced absorption and increased bioavailability.
Personalized vitamins change as your needs change
If personalized vitamins are working, your health and biomarkers should improve. More so, our health status and goals change, so smart nutrition companies re-evaluate and modify your formulations on a regular basis to keep up with your changing health picture, ensuring your body is always getting what it needs.
Top personalized supplements
Elo
Elo is a revolutionary company that makes custom supplements based on your biomarkers from at-home blood testing and data from wearables. Its plan involves biomarker testing every 90 days to assess how the supplements are working and how your needs are changing. Each month, your personalized daily supplements arrive by mail, and you have 24/7 access to their app for monitoring, data logging, and support. There’s a quarterly nutrition evaluation with a registered dietitian and a private session with a health coach every 90 days to review your goals, discuss your concerns, and strategize ways to improve your health.
Nourished
Nourished takes a slightly less scientific approach to personalized vitamins, as it doesn’t analyze your biomarkers, but it does have a full quiz and “lab” online where you can answer questions and make your own custom gummy vitamins. The personalized vitamins are 3D printed and shipped monthly. You can also pick flavors and layers you want based on your preferences.
