Toward Personalized Nutrition: Comprehensive Phytoprofiling and Metabotyping

Nutrition research is increasingly concerned with the complex interactions between multicomponent dietary ingredients and the human metabolic regulatory system. The substantiation of nutritional health benefits is challenged by the intrinsic complexity of macro- and micronutrients and individualized human metabolic responses. Metabonomics, uniquely suited to assess metabolic responses to deficiencies or excesses of nutrients, is used to characterize the metabolic phenotype of individuals integrating genetic polymorphisms, metabolic interactions with commensal and symbiotic partners such as gut microbiota, as well as environmental and behavioral factors including dietary preferences. The two profiling strategies, metabolic phenotyping (metabotyping) and phytochemical profiling (phytoprofiling), greatly facilitate the measurement of these important health determinants and the discovery of new biomarkers associated with nutritional requirements and specific phytochemical interventions. This paper presents an overview of the applications of these two profiling approaches for personalized nutrition research, with a focus on recent advances in the study of the role of phytochemicals in regulating the human or animal metabolic regulatory system.