Eating According to One’s Genes? Exploring the French Public’s Understanding of and Reactions to Personalized Nutrition

Abstract

In this article, we analyze qualitatively the understanding of and reactions to personalized nutrition (PN) among the French public. Focus groups were conducted to identify the opinions and discourses about two applications of knowledge from nutritional (epi)genomics: a biotechnology (nutrigenetic testing) and a public awareness campaign (the "first thousand days of life" initiative). Our objective was to understand to what extent PN could lead to changes in eating practices as well as in the representations of food-health relationships within France, a country characterized by a strong commitment to commensality and a certain "nutritional relativism." Although discourses on nutritional genomics testify to a resistance to food medicalization, nutritional epigenomics appears as more performative because it introduces the question of transgenerational transmission, thus parental responsibility.

Citizens' Attitudes, Knowledge, and Educational Needs in the Field of Omics Sciences: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Twenty percent (n = 11) of the studies endorsed the issue of citizens' education ( Table 2; Skirton et al, 2006;Morin, 2009;Hahn et al, 2010;Lemke et al, 2010;Dijkstra et al, 2012;East et al, 2012;Bombard et al, 2013;Etchegary et al, 2015;Kaphingst et al, 2015;Fournier and Poulain, 2018;Rebitschek et al, 2019). Most of them (82%, n = 9) highlighted a clear educational need to be fulfilled (Skirton et al, 2006;Morin, 2009;Hahn et al, 2010;Lemke et al, 2010;East et al, 2012;Bombard et al, 2013;Etchegary et al, 2015;Fournier and Poulain, 2018;Rebitschek et al, 2019), showing however a lack of proactivity in information seeking (Dijkstra et al, 2012).…”

“…The articles included in this systematic review were published between 2006 and 2020. Among the 54 included studies, 44% were conducted in USA (n = 24) (Fomous et al, 2006;Goddard et al, 2007Goddard et al, , 2009Gleason et al, 2010;Hahn et al, 2010;Lemke et al, 2010;East et al, 2012;Kaphingst et al, 2012Kaphingst et al, , 2015Kaphingst et al, , 2016Kolor et al, 2012;Haga et al, 2013;Almeling, 2014;Borzekowski et al, 2014;Waters et al, 2014Waters et al, , 2016Waters et al, , 2017Abrams et al, 2015;Dodson et al, 2015;Graves et al, 2015;Schmidlen et al, 2016;Ahmed et al, 2017;Krakow et al, 2017;Horrow et al, 2019), 22% (n = 12) in the European Union (EU27) (Henneman et al, 2006(Henneman et al, , 2013Calsbeek et al, 2007;Morren et al, 2007;Mai et al, 2011;Smerecnik et al, 2011;Dijkstra et al, 2012;Vermeulen et al, 2014;Mavroidopoulou et al, 2015;McCormack et al, 2016;Fournier and Poulain, 2018;Rebitschek et al, 2019), 9% (n = 5) in Canada (Morin, 2009;Nielsen and El-Sohemy, 2012;Bombard et al, 2013;…”

“…Regarding the target population, most of studies (76%) addressed samples representative of the general population (Fomous et al, 2006;Henneman et al, 2006Henneman et al, , 2013Goddard et al, 2007Goddard et al, , 2009Ishiyama et al, 2008;Makeeva et al, 2009;Molster et al, 2009;Morin, 2009;Stewart-Knox et al, 2009;Hahn et al, 2010;Lemke et al, 2010;Sturgis et al, 2010;Mai et al, 2011;Smerecnik et al, 2011;Dijkstra et al, 2012;East et al, 2012;Kolor et al, 2012;Nielsen and El-Sohemy, 2012;Bombard et al, 2013;Haga et al, 2013;Nicholls et al, 2013;Almeling, 2014;Borzekowski et al, 2014;Vermeulen et al, 2014;Waters et al, 2014Waters et al, , 2016Abrams et al, 2015;Dodson et al, 2015;Etchegary et al, 2015;Graves et al, 2015;Miyamoto et al, 2016;Schmidlen et al, 2016;Simonstein and Mashiach-Eizenberg, 2016;Ahmed et al, 2017;Krakow et al, 2017;Fournier and Poulain, 2018;Metcalfe et al, 2018;Jones et al, 2019;Rebitschek et al, 2019;…”

“…In most cases (59%) the initiatives described were promoted by universities (Fomous et al, 2006;Henneman et al, 2006;Skirton et al, 2006;Morren et al, 2007;Morin, 2009;Stewart-Knox et al, 2009;Hahn et al, 2010;Mai et al, 2011;Smerecnik et al, 2011;Nielsen and El-Sohemy, 2012;Bombard et al, 2013;Haga et al, 2013;Nicholls et al, 2013;Almeling, 2014;Borzekowski et al, 2014;Vermeulen et al, 2014;Waters et al, 2014Waters et al, , 2016Waters et al, , 2017Dodson et al, 2015;Etchegary et al, 2015;Graves et al, 2015;Kaphingst et al, 2015Kaphingst et al, , 2016Mavroidopoulou et al, 2015;Mählmann et al, 2016;Miyamoto et al, 2016;Schmidlen et al, 2016;Simonstein and Mashiach-Eizenberg, 2016;Fournier and Poulain, 2018;Metcalfe et al, 2018).…”

“…The topic of citizens' perceptions about benefits and risks related to the use of genomics or omics sciences in medicine was investigated by 56% (n = 30) of the studies included (Henneman et al, 2006(Henneman et al, , 2013Skirton et al, 2006;Calsbeek et al, 2007;Morren et al, 2007;Ishiyama et al, 2008;Makeeva et al, 2009;Morin, 2009;Stewart-Knox et al, 2009;Hahn et al, 2010;Lemke et al, 2010;Nielsen and El-Sohemy, 2012;Bombard et al, 2013;Haga et al, 2013;Nicholls et al, 2013;Almeling, 2014;Vermeulen et al, 2014;Etchegary et al, 2015;Kaphingst et al, 2015Kaphingst et al, , 2016Mavroidopoulou et al, 2015;Mählmann et al, 2016;McCormack et al, 2016;Miyamoto et al, 2016;Simonstein and Mashiach-Eizenberg, 2016;Fournier and Poulain, 2018;Metcalfe et al, 2018;Horrow et al, 2019;Jones et al, 2019;Middleton et al, 2020; Table 3). Most of them (59%, n = 16) showed that participants perceived benefits and usefulness from the use of genomics and omics science in medicine (Skirton et al, 2006;Morren et al, 2007;Makeeva et al, 2009;Morin, 2009;Stewart-Knox et al, 2009;Hahn et al, 2010;…”