Precision Nutrition Research at UC Davis
Targeted Nutrition Interventions
Precision nutrition research projects at UC Davis Health use dietary interventions and nutrition education to target chronic diseases in diverse patient populations. Tailoring dietary and nutritional interventions to the need of each person allows us to take a precision medicine based approach to our patient’s health.
Medically tailored meals that are approved by a registered dietitian support dietary therapies and address individual medical diagnoses, symptoms, allergies, medication management, side effects and cultural preferences while ensuring the best possible outcomes for each patient. In the future, these meals could be provided to patients during their stay in the hospital or by home delivery of patient meal kits or produce boxes.
How a personalized diet can affect health outcomes
Traditionally, hospital food has been bland and uncreative. If hospital patients could receive personalized diet plans, would they respond better to standard treatment? Precision nutrition may be a compliment to the future of medical care. For example, a patient being treated for diabetes would be prescribed a diet with low sugar and receive tailored meals while in the hospital receiving care. A patient recovering from cardiac care could be prescribed a diet of whole grains, vegetables and lean poultry.
Improving heart failure outcomes with tailored diet interventions
What role can diet play in improving quality of care for heart failure patients? In a study of patients receiving care for heart failure in our hospital, patients will be offered extensive nutrition education curricula alongside tailored coaching with a registered dietician. This study will also look at metabolic markers to determine efficacy of the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet.
The DASH diet consists of plenty of vegetables, fruits and low-fat dairy products as well as whole grains, fish, poultry and nuts. Registered dieticians in the heart failure clinic will provide individualized dietary recommendations and behavioral counseling to patients, giving this study a precision medicine, or precision nutrition, approach to care.
This study will be completed in partnership between the Center for Precision Medicine and Data Sciences, the UC Davis Health Cardiology department and the UC Davis Department of Nutrition.
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in veteran and active duty military population
There is growing evidence that NAFLD is more common in sedentary individuals and may be related to diet quality and exercise. Obesity is a major issue for the military and prevalent health issues are a barrier to recruitment. We will work with military and community partners to develop nutrition interventions for military populations as a prevention method for liver disease.
