In the world of glittering stars and swift-footed Olympians, Ryan Fernando is the voice of personalised nutrition. With a client list boasting names like Virat Kohli, India’s cricket titan, and record-shattering sprinters like Kenny Bednarek, Fernando has carved a niche in the realm of personalised nutrition. For over a decade, he has advocated the merger of two sciences — nutrition and genomics. Today, nutrigenomics is a fast-growing field, one that many find worth its high asking price.
Speaking at Happiest Health’s The Edge of Nutrition Summit on 11 July, Fernando discussed the immense potential of nutrigenomics that has changed how he views health and the application of nutritional advice.
“If you can learn the language of your genes and control the messages and instructions to give your body and your metabolism, you can radically alter how food interacts with your body,” he says.
Nutrigenomics and the personalised approach
By working with athletes looking to push past the edge of human fitness, Fernando saw what could be considered a stress test of nutritional advice.
“A lot of our technology in human performance comes from sports,” he says. It is athletes, after all, who can afford to invest in a genetic test, to spot strengths and weaknesses; a nutritionist to make sure every micronutrient is going to the right place; and time spent in constant betterment of the self.
The key, he says, is to go bio-individual. “If a person [enters] my clinic, I spend one-and-a-half hours with [him or her] asking questions.” Add the diagnostic tests, the sequencing of genes that could determine risk for everything from caffeine sensitivity, omega-3 consumption, and vitamin C requirements. Add then the rigours of evidence-based medicine — and you get a very complicated subject to have to explain to a person looking for simple nutritional advice.
“I see the process of diagnostics with blood tests, genetic testing, microbiome testing. You put it together and ask, ‘what could I put into this person’?” he says.
Six months later, he laughs, people ask him if he gave his clients steroids. The reality is that it was all the benefit of personalised nutrition.
Keeping it simple
But adherence is a major part of the puzzle of personal fitness. While many are likely to follow a diet only for a brief while before relapsing to old habits, those who have interfaced with nutrigenomics tend to stick with the plan, he says. The reason, he explains, may have to do with its scientific backing — this diet plan, made for you, was based on your genes. It adds a scientific basis that changes perspective.
This change in perspective also applies to nutritionists. For Fernando, it has meant a daily grapple with the incredible complexity of genes. A pair of siblings with the same gene may have different dietary requirements — some foods may affect gene expression in one but not the other, to state just one confounding factor. For him, this complex science boils down to one question he asks himself regularly, “Is this food thumbs up or thumbs down for my client? That is called bio-individuality and it can be detected via nutrigenomics,” he says.
For nutritionists, it is important to realise that the food is not the problem, Fernando emphasises. “Understanding your client’s ability to [handle] that food [is what counts]” he says.
Fernando acknowledges the immense scientific challenge. “We have not completely understood the human body. We’re also not an artificial supercomputer. [But] collaborate with the technology that you have. And use common sense,” he says.
His advice for budding nutritionists today? Be nutrition architects and prioritise understanding and implementing personalised nutrition plans.
