DNA Nutrition Testing Apps

If you have ever wondered why a diet that works well for someone else does little for you, part of the answer may be in your DNA. Small inherited differences affect how your body responds to different foods and nutrients. DNA nutrition apps can help you understand those differences so you can make food choices that fit your own biology rather than follow generic advice.

What is a DNA app?

A DNA app is a web or mobile application that analyzes your raw DNA to tell you something about your genetics. The Sequencing Partner Marketplace offers a wide range of apps across categories including health, ancestry, and nutrition. The nutrition category alone includes more than a dozen apps focused on how your body responds to food.

With that many options, it can be hard to know where to begin. Below are a few nutrition apps to start with.

Popular DNA nutrition apps

DNA Diet

DNA Diet, by GeneInformed, offers nutrition guidance tailored to your genes. It looks at how inherited variations affect the way you respond to different foods, which can help explain why a given approach works for one person and not another. It covers areas such as:

• Satiety in relation to daily protein intake
• Response to higher carb versus lower carb diets
• Fat storage
• Sensitivity to fast food
• Emotional eating
• Food cravings
• Fat breakdown in relation to specific exercise
• Metabolic energy expenditure
• Taste perception and food choice

Healthy Nutrition

Healthy Nutrition, also by GeneInformed, uses your genetics to describe how your body responds to specific nutrients and foods, drawing on published research. It provides personalized guidance on areas including:

• Caffeine, including how your body processes it
• Salt sensitivity and blood pressure response to sodium
• Lactose intolerance and how well you digest dairy
• Gluten sensitivity
• Alcohol and its effect on HDL cholesterol
• Homocysteine and folate, including the MTHFR gene
• Vitamins C, D, B12, B6, and B3
• Calcium, iron, and omega 3

Nourish

Nourish, by Toolbox Genomics, is designed to take the guesswork out of what to eat. It analyzes a set of traits, genes, and genetic markers to provide research backed recommendations. It includes:

• Key insights into your taste preferences and how they relate to your health goals
• An evaluation of predispositions to nutrient deficiencies
• A customized report on how your body processes certain foods, including specific sensitivities
• Science backed dietary recommendations
• A digital experience with the option to print full and summary reports

Empower

Empower, also by Toolbox Genomics, produces a health enrichment plan covering a set of traits, genes, and genetic markers. The plan includes a custom evaluation with nutrition, exercise, and sleep recommendations that may work best for your body. Its RunDNA component also assesses your endurance performance potential and highlights where you are strong and where there is room to improve.

These are just a few starting points. You can browse the full nutrition category, along with the rest of the apps, in the Partner Marketplace. If you do not yet have DNA data to analyze, you can learn about whole genome sequencing, which reads 100% of your DNA and gives these apps the most complete data to work from.