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The Future of Nutrition - Interview with Sergei Vdovitchenko, M.A., Business Developer and Co-Lead for Innovation, My Healthy Food

1. Mr Vdovitchenko, personalised nutrition is a subject close to your heart. How did your career lead you to this field?

Through my work in the food industry, one almost inevitably has to deal with the topics of raw materials, nutrition and how they work. I have also noticed first-hand that certain foods "do me good" and others less - but I was unable to really understand the whole thing on the basis of the general nutritional recommendations. But progress in research and development continues and so I did a blood sugar and microbiome analysis at MillionFriends - one of our partners at MyHealthyFood by the way - and see, many things were now much more conclusive for me: from fatigue peaks to hunger attacks to weight fluctuations - derived from the combination of and reaction to carbohydrates, sugar, fibre, protein & co. From that moment on, I was also personally convinced that this would be the key, not only for me but also for many, many people, to lead a sustainably healthier life, at least in the context of food intake.

2. Why do you see personalised nutrition as the future?

Because the most modern scientific findings show us that "one-size-fits-all" diets and recommendations are simply outdated. Consumers themselves are also becoming more and more "empowered", listening more and more to their own perceptions and well-being, understanding more and more that - despite all the similarities - we are all individual somewhere. If the fingerprint of each individual is unique, why should the metabolism of all of us be the same? This insight also applies to nutritional recommendations. Of course, nutrition is only one part of a healthier or better lifestyle. Factors such as physical exercise, sufficient sleep, genetic predispositions and so on also play a role. In any case, I believe that the future lies in "personalised everything", and nutrition will only be one - though important - area.

3. What motivated you to found a start-up?

Together with my colleagues, we wanted to rethink the established food and generic recommendations. Our aim is not just to achieve incremental improvement, but to improve many times over. Of course, this motivates us immensely to tackle this complex, but for people very central topic around nutrition and the way it works, and to reach as many individuals as possible. In doing so, we ask ourselves: What is possible according to the current state of science? Which dogmas that have been drummed into us for years are outdated?

4. What added value do you want to offer with MyHealthyFood?

The richness of nature in all its biodiversity is enormous and so we have discovered that there are very exciting raw materials with outstanding functionalities and great vital substances that we want to make accessible to the general public through MyHealthyFood. We combine these special food products with the principles of personalised nutrition by means of scientific background information, recipe suggestions and so on. We are the first food lifestyle concept that combines these elements in one platform, while still taking our customers' goals into account and providing them with the necessary tools.

Would you like to learn more about MyHealthyFood and personalised nutrition, then visit our NEWTRITION X. Innovation Summit Personalised Nutrition on 12 October 2021 at Anuga in Cologne. Perfood GmbH, Garmin Health, Get Nourished and many more will be there. Secure your ticket now at foodregio.de/en/newtritionx

Click here to access the German version.