A new era of personalised nutrition will involve genetic testing for more targeted advice on diet and medication, University of Newcastle Professor Clare Collins says.
Professor Collins will give a public lecture in Newcastle on the subject on Friday night, titled "Are you what you eat? Discovering the science of personalised nutrition".
The event, run by The Royal Society of NSW and the university, will "bust common nutrition and diet myths about what to eat" to help people "feel and get better".
Professor Collins, a global leader in nutrition and dietetics, said the lecture would cover what genomics and precision nutrition mean for "what to eat every day".
"We're only at the beginning of being able to apply this, but we're on a pathway to better treatments for people," she said.
As the science advances, it will help people make more informed choices about "what to eat and what to avoid".
She said precision medicine would "create efficiencies in the healthcare system and help people get the right treatment at the right time".
"When you look at the rapid developments in technology, one day you won't just go to the doctor and get your cholesterol checked," Professor Collins said.
"They'll give you risk scores that will say you're a responder to diets, so they'll send you to a dietitian.
"Or it might say you're not a responder to diets, your high cholesterol levels are due to aspects of your genetics, so you need to start on medication straight away."
While weight gain is affected by the environment - saturation junk food marketing in a time-poor world for example - there are genetic variations that affect metabolism.
"People get very frustrated about why they gain weight so easily, but there are more than 300 genes that affect body weight," Professor Collins said.
"For things like heart disease, there's a genetic component that makes some people more sensitive to food components and that puts their cholesterol up high."
Another research target will be "genes related to insulin sensitivity and whether that affects diabetes control".
She and colleagues at the university had examined "pathways for digestion and metabolism for salt - sodium and potassium," she said.
"We found if you inherited a poor ability to handle sodium and potassium, then your blood pressure was 40 per cent higher than expected from eating too much salt.
"It's not just a little bit bad, it's a lot worse."
She said this was a prime example of people needing to know their genetics to get important medical advice.
The genetic analysis used is called a polygenic risk score. It's an estimate of an individual's genetic liability to a trait or disease.
The lecture will be held at the university's Conservatorium in Cooks Hill at 6pm on Friday.
After the speech, Professor Collins and Professor Tracy Burrows will take nutrition questions from the crowd.
Register for the lecture through royalsoc.org.au. Entry is $5 for seniors, students and "students of life".
Nutrition Podcast
Professor Collins launched a podcast this week called Nutrition Science Bites.
The first interview, released on Tuesday, was with Dr Karl.
"I interview people about cutting-edge science. Then I get them to tell me their favourite recipe and we put that on our No Money No Time website," she said.
